the certificate is couched in corresponding terms, and must state the same particulars. 4. The Registry of the Writing in the Proper Court, along with the privy examination, (explanation), acknowledgment and declaration.

It will be remembered, that the statute declares that, "When the privy examination, acknowledgment and declaration of a married woman shall have been so taken and recorded, or when the same shall have been taken and certified as aforesaid, and the writing to which such certificate is annexed, or on which it is, shall have been delivered to the proper clerk and admitted to record as to the husband, as well as the wife, such writing shall operate to convey from the wife her right of dower in the real estate embraced therein, and pass from her and her representatives all right, title and interest of every nature, which, at the date of such writing, she may have in any estate conveyed thereby, as effectually as if she were, at the said date, an unmarried woman; and such writing shall not operate any further upon the wife, or her representatives, by means of any covenant or warranty contained therein." (V. C. 1873, c. 117, § 7; 2 Lom. Lig. 467 & seq; Elliotte v. Peirsol, 1 Pet. 338; Jackson v. Stevens, 16 Johns. 100.)

3. The Registry or Recordation of Conveyances, and of other Transactions affecting the title to Property.

The common law does not require any deed or writing, in order to pass the title to lands, and of course, therefore, knows nothing of the doctrine of registration. The only notoriety which it demands in such transactions, and the only one compatible with the illiteracy of ancient Anglo-Norman society, is livery of seisin for estates of freehold, and entry for estates for years.

The first essay towards the policy of registering conveyances, other than conveyances of record, such as fines and common recoveries, is to be found in the statute of enrolments, (27 Hen. VIII, c. 16), which is an appendage to the famous statute of uses (27 Hen. VIII, c. 10.) The framers of the statute of uses could not fail to perceive, that by means of its provisions, estates, even of inheritance, in lands, might be created and transferred by deed merely, without actual livery of seisin, and, therefore, with a secrecy

eminently promotive of fraud, and inconvenient to society; and it was, therefore, enacted by the statute of enrolments, at the same session of parliament which passed the statute of uses, that conveyances by bargain and sale, (which were the more likely to be prostituted to bad ends), should not enure to pass a freehold unless the same were by "writing indented, sealed and enrolled" in one of the courts at Westminster, or else with the custos rotulorum of the county, within six months after the date of the writing. Clandestine bargains and sales of terms for years were deemed not worth regarding, such interests indeed, having been perfectly precarious, and subject to the caprice or good faith of the lord, until about six years before, when, by statute 21 Henry VIII, c. 15, the termor was protected against those fictitious recoveries whereby previously he was liable to be at any moment divested of his estate. (2 Bl. Com. 338; Bac. Abr. Barg. & Sale, and Id. E.)

The policy thus hesitatingly and imperfectly inaugurated, was almost immediately frustrated by the ingenious adaptation of the lease and release to the purpose of conveying the title to lands, as explained Ante p. 734, whereby conveyances might be as secret as could be. desired. Nor does Parliament appear to have made any further effort to prevent so mischievous a result until the statute 2 & 3 Anne, c. 4, which, together with several subsequent statutes, provided for a general registry of conveyances in the counties of York and Middlesex; and with so little favor were these attempts regarded, that so philosophic an observer as Blackstone, after fifty years' experience, speaks more than doubtfully of the utility of their results. "However plausible," says he, "these provisions may appear in theory, it hath been doubted by very competent judges whether more disputes have not arisen in those counties by the inattention and omission of parties, than prevented by the use of registers." (2 Bl. Com. 343.)

The statute 2 & 3 Anne, c. 4, it may be well to transcribe, since although it is not the original model whence our present registry laws were taken, yet its analogies have been allowed, unfortunately, too much to influence its construction. The statute recites that by different and secret ways of conveying lands, &c., such as are ill-disposed have it in their power to commit frauds, and frequently do so, by means whereof some persons have been undone in their purchases

and mortgages by prior and secret conveyances, and fraudulent incumbrances, and enacts, "That a memorial of all deeds and conveyances which, after the 29th day of September 1704, shall be made and executed of or concerning, and whereby any manors, lands, tenements, or hereditaments in the West-riding of the county of York, may be any way affected in law or equity, may, at the election of the party or parties concerned, be registered. And that every such deed or conveyance that shall, at any time after the said day, be made and executed, shall be adjudged fraudulent and void against any subsequent purchaser or mortgagee, for valuable consideration, unless such memorial thereof shall be registered, as by this act is directed, before the registering of the deed or conveyance under which such subsequent purchaser or mortgagee shall claim." (2 Lom. Dig. 476.)

In Virginia, and generally in the United States, the Legislature has been far more alive to the advantages of a general registration of all conveyances of, liens on, and transactions affecting lands, and the system (which was begun with us so early as 1639–240,) has been gradually perfected, until it is believed there is nothing touching the title to lands which it concerns a purchaser or creditor to know (unless it be the liens for quotas of the Mutual Assurance Society against fire,) which is not required to be set down in the registry of the county or corporation where the land is, and that registry is made so convenient of access that for one to be deceived, argues in general a negligence so gross as to exclude sympathy for the sufferer. (1 Hen. Stats. 227, 248, 419, 472.)

Whilst discussing the system now prevailing with us, allusion will occasionally be made to the statute of Anne, as well as to the provisions and construction of our former acts in pari materia.

The divisions following will enable us to take a pretty satisfactory survey of the registration policy, as it exists amongst us, namely:

(1), What conveyances and other transactions are required to be registered;

(2), The effect of non-registry where, by law, registry is required;

(3), In what office, or offices, the registry is to be made.

(4), Within what time registration must take place; (5), Modes of authenticating transactions for registration;

(6), The duty of the clerk of the court of registry; and,

(7), The effect of registration, where registry is re'quired;

W. C.

1. What Conveyances and other Transactions are Required to be registered.

The conveyances and other transactions which are required to be registered (some of which relate to chattels only), may be enumerated as follows, namely:

(1), "Any contract in writing, made in respect to real estate, or goods and chattels, in consideration of marriage." (V. C. 1873, c. 114, § 4, 5.)

(2), "Any contract in writing, made for the conveyance or sale of real estate, or a term therein of more than five years." (V. C. 1873, c. 114, § 4, 5.)

(3), "Every deed conveying any such estate or term." (V. Č. 1873, c.114, § 5.)

(4), "Every deed of gift, conveying real estate, or goods and chattels." (V. C. 1873, c. 114, § 5.)

(5), "Every deed of trust or mortgage, conveying real estate, or goods and chattels." (V. C. 1873, c. 114, § 5.)

(6), "Any loan of goods or chattels," where the possession remains with the loanee as much as five years, without demand made and pursued by due process of law on the part of the lender. (V. C. 1873, c. 114, § 3.)

(7), "Any reservation or limitation of a use or property, by way of condition, reversion, remainder, or otherwise, in goods or chattels, the possession whereof shall have remained in another.' (V. C.

1873, c. 114, § 3.)

(8), Every writing creating a mechanic's lien. (V. C. 1873, c. 115, § 2 to 11.)

(9), Any agreement in writing creating a lien on crops to be made during the year, for advances of supplies to agriculturists. (V. C. 1873, c. 115, § 12, 13.)

(10), Partitions of land, assignments of dower therein, and judgments or decrees for land. (V. C. 1873, c. 159, § 15.)

(11), Every lis pendens touching real estate. (V. C. 1873, c. 182, § 5.)

(12), Every attachment against the real estate of a non-resident of the Commonwealth. (V. C. 1873, c. 182, § 5.)

(13), Every judgment, decree or order requiring the payment of money. (V. C. 1873, c. 182, § 4, 2, 8.)

Of these several transactions of which the memorials are required to be registered, the first, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and tenth have been the subjects of registration from an early period of our law; the eighth and thirteenth instances originated prior to the revisal of 1849; the eleventh, twelfth, and ninth, since that revisal; and the second was created, or at least perfected, by the revisal itself.

Prior to 1849, the statutes of Virginia allowed "every title bond, or other written contract in relation to land to be proved, certified or acknowledged and recorded, in the same manner as deeds for the conveyance of lands;" and enacted that "such proof, acknowledgment or certificate, and the delivery of such bond or contract to the clerk of the proper court, to be recorded, shall be taken and held as notice to all subsequent purchasers of the existence of such bond or contract" (1 R. C. 1819, 365, c. 99, § 13); but there was then no requirement as there is now, that contracts for the conveyance or sale of real estate, or a term therein of more than five years, should be registered. (Withers v. Carter, &c., 4 Grat. 413.)

2o. The Effect of Non-registry, where, by law, Registry is Required.

The statute declares that any transaction to which it relates "shall be void as to creditors and sub sequent purchasers for valuable consideration without notice, until and except from the time that it is duly admitted to record in the county or corporation wherein the property embraced" may be, (V. C. 1873, c. 114, § 5); a proposition literally and unqualifiedly true in respect of mortgages and deeds of trust, not in consideration of marriage; but in respect to contracts for, and conveyances of, lands for a term exceeding five years, deeds of marriage settlement, whether relating to real estate or chattels, and deeds of gift of chattels, it is subject to this qualification, namely, that any such writing, which is admitted to record within sixty days from the day of its being acknowledged before and certified by a justice, notary public or other person authorized to certify the same for record, shall be as valid as to creditors and subsequent purchasers, as if such admission to record had been on the day of such acknowledgment and certificate (V. C. 1873, c. 114, § 7.) And in respect