John Asgill

“ J. Hales had made a Purchase, he would say, Now I would give a Years purchase more to be sure of my Title: And if we should ask those who have lost their Estates, for want of a discovery of Deeds, they would set a higher Price upon it.
Men generally make their Purchases (with the acquisitions of all their former life) to settle them on their Posterity, for whom they are more sollicitous than for themselves; and therefore they are always more jealous of the Title than the Value, because a deficiency in Title goes to the whole, but a deficiency in Value goes but to part only ”

“ To make a Title, is to take the Property of a thing from one Man, and put it into another, of which it is necessary that other persons should have Notice, as well as the Parties, or else the Purchaser can have no Title because there is no Witness to give Evidence of it, in case the Seller should deny it. ”

“ God delivered out the first Forms of all things in the World, of Ships, of Regular Buildings, of Letters written with his own Hand, of Marches and Encampments, taught the first Workers in Brass and Bugle-work, Linnen and Silks, Plowing and Harrowing, Sowing and Reaping, Threshing and Winnowing; all which he owns to come originally from himself. ”

“ Two Qualifications are necessary to a compleat Conveyancer: First, That he be incapable of dispatching Business so fast as he should. Secondly, That he doth not dispatch it so fast as he can. Not to speak of bantering their Clients with their seeming Care and Caution in delaying their Business, shewing great Trunks of old Writings in their Chamber, calling to their Clerks (before them) for one Lord's Settlement, and another Ladies Jointure, to tell what great Clients they have; and when they come to be paid, they reckon their Fees by longitude and latitude. ”

“ And as some Notice is absolutely necessary to all Title, so the more Notice the better is the Title; it were better for every Man who is Owner of an Estate, that all Men knew his Title, and then whenever he had Occasion to dispose of his Estate, there would be no further Enquiry into the Title of his Lands, than to the Title of Money in his Possession. ”

“ Like some Tooth-drawers, who dragg their Patients by the Jaws about the room, to shew them how hardly they earn their Money. To cure Deficiency in Titles, would be as fatal to Conveyancers, as the Cure of a lame Legg to a Beggar.
It is pleasant enough to any one (but those who are to pay for it) to read a Conveyancers Bill of Fees, made out for Clients who don't pay well by the gret.
To Counsel for perusing several long Deeds of the Title, which from the beginning to the end was near six Months, and drawing several long Conveyances, in all thirty Skins of Parchment, 100 Guineas. ”

“ And this is the highest Precedent for Man to form his Titles by, as far as it is imitable by him; The things on Earth are but the Patterns of things in the Heavens, where the Originals are kept, to try the Truth of all things by. ”

“ By all which God himself is bound up from disposing Eternal Life in any other manner, than pursuant to this Settlement, without giving himself the Lye, which he cannot do; and Man hath such Notice of this Title, that he can't accept any other, without becoming an Imposter upon himself. ”

“ There's more trouble than all this in transferring Copy-hold Estates, and yet we don't hear much Complaint about them Men are seldom in such hast about laying out their Money, or at least their Lawyers are not so violent in dispatch of their Business, but they may dispense with the Ceremony of a Registry, to prevent the loss of their Estates.
Festina Lente is the Conveyancers Motto, and therefore they advise their Clients not to hurry them, nor put them out of their own pace; they must think nothing troublesome but the Entering the Deed in a Registry. ”

“ So that the Practice of the two latter doth arise from the Errors or Incertainties of the former. Were the Titles of Lands once made certain (which they may be by a Registry, and no otherwise) I know what I think of the future Gains of the Law: The profit of the Law arises from the Incertainty of Property, and therefore as Property is more reduced to a certainty, the profit of the Law must be reduced with it, the Fall of the one must be the Rising of the other. ”

“ Therefore the drift of this Essay, is to give a Sanction to one Place above all the rest, by annexing a Priviledge to it, and leaving it to every Man's pleasure whether he will purchase that Priviledge or not. ”

“ And because I find that I shall scarce be able to begin, much less to get through my Argument, without unfolding some Mysteries of Iniquity between Priests and Lawyers, relating to the Titles and Settlements of Lands, I hope that the Modern Pro­fessors of either of these Sciences will not be offended with me for speaking the whole Truth; but if they should, They will thereby be Witnesses against themselves, that they justifie the Deeds of their Fathers. ”

“ If a Man one hundred and fifty Miles from London, is to sue his Neighbour but for 10 l. he must employ an Attorney in the Country, who must send to another in London to make out a Writ, and this must be Entered in one Office, and Sealed in another, and then sent to the Sheriff, who must make out a Warrant, and deliver it to his Under officers ”

“ For, First, They make a Bargain and Sale for a Term only, (now generally called a Lease for a Year) and which is not within the Statute of Enrollments, and by this the Lessee gains a Use at Common-Law, and a Possession by the Statute of Uses ”

“ But this be­ing against the Law divine, prohibiting their purchasing of Lands, the Lawyers found this Stratagem, to purchase these Lands for a Burying-place only, in the Nature of a Church yard; which being a thing of Necessity, and made Sacred, would exempt, or at least excuse it from this Statute against Mortmain; and the Priests computing that this might turn to as much Profit as any thing else, (having double Duties for Lodging of Men, and Meat for Horses) they consented to lay out their Money in it, (any thing to get a Penny in an honest way.) ”

“ And be it Enacted, that no Devise by Will of any Lands or Tenements within the Kingdom of England, shall be allowed as good against any Purchasers or Mortgagees of the same Lands or Tenements, unless such Will, or so much thereof, whereby such Devise shall appear, shall be registred in one of the said Register-Books, within six Months next after the death of the Testator, provided that after such Registring of such Will or Devise, the same shall take the Effect from the Death of the Testator. ”

“ And why Houses of Religion are said to be more haunted with Ghosts than Lay-Tenements, I can't tell, unless some of their subsequent Augmentations were the Price of Blood, as well as their Original Purchase.
But now to begin at our Laws: It is strange to observe, how the Parliaments of England did hunt the Priests and Lawyers with Statutes against Mortmain, from the making of Magna Charta, 9. H. 3. to this Statute in 27. Hen. 8. ”

“ Now I am not a going to Calumniate the Law, for allowing of so many sorts of Incumbrances on Lands, but for permitting them to be done in diverse places, Which doth render the Titles to Lands incertain, and therefore is a Deficiency in the Law: And tho' the Law hath directed several of them to be recorded, yet this doth not remedy the Incertainty.
First, Because these Records do lye in several Places, which makes the Search thereof chargeable, and the Finding difficult.
Secondly, Because those that are upon Record, have no Preference above those that be not ”

“ Provided nevertheless that all such Conveyances, Grants or Assignments so omitted to be registred as aforesaid, shall notwithstanding such omission be good and effectual against the Grantors, or the Persons making the same, and all other Persons whatsoever, except the Persons claiming under the said Conveyances, Grants or Assignments, which shall be so Registred as aforesaid, as fully and effectually to all Intents and Purposes, as if this Act had never been made. ”

“ And whereas since the making the said Statutes, of late Years, there have been several inventions for Conveying of Estates of Inheritance of Freehold, by way of Lease and Release, and also for making of Bargains and Sales thereof for long Terms of Years, without Inrollment of such Conveyances ”