Feb. 18. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



155 



Again : 



" Purchase, perquisitio, taken in its largest and most 

 extensive sense, is thus denned by Littleton ; the pos- 

 session of lands and tenements which a man hath by 

 his own act or agreement, and not by descent from any 

 of his ancestors or kindred. In this sense it is contra- 

 distinguished from acquisition by right of blood, and 

 includes every other method of coming to an estate, 

 but merely that by inheritance : wherein the title is vested 

 in a person, not by his own act or agreement, but by 

 the single operation of law." — Vol. ii. p. 241. 



Thus it is clear the possession of an estate by 

 inheritance is created only by a person being heir 

 to it; and the mere purchase of it, though it vests 

 the fee simple in him, can but make him the assign 

 and not the heir. The nomination (as it would be 

 in the case of a purchase) of an heir to succeed to 

 the inheritance, has no place in the English law ; 

 the maxim being "Solus Deus haeredem facere 

 potest, non homo ; " and all other persons, whom a 

 tenant in fee simple may please to appoint as his 

 successors, are not his heirs but his assigns. (See 

 Williams on the Law of Real Property.) 



Russele Gole. 



Ma. Haeliwele is perfectly right in his opinion 

 as to the expression " heretofore the inheritance of 

 William Shakspeare." All that that expression in 

 a deed means is, that Shakspeare was the absolute 

 owner of the estate, so that he could sell, grant, or 

 devise it ; and in case he did not do so, it would 

 descend to his heir-at-law. The term has no re- 

 ference to the mode by which the estate came to 

 Shakspeare, but only to the nature of the estate 

 he had in the property. And as a man may be- 

 come possessed of such an estate in land by gift, 

 purchase, devise, adverse possession, &c, as well 

 as by descent from some one else, the mere fact 

 that a man has such an estate affords no inference 

 whatever as to the mode in which he became pos- 

 sessed of it. The authorities on the subject are 

 Littleton, section ix., and Co. Litt., p. 16. (a), &c. 

 A case is there mentioned so long ago as the 

 6 Edw. III., where, in an action of waste, the 

 plaintiff alleged that the defendant held " de hajre- 

 ditate sua," and it was ruled that, albeit the plain- 

 tiff had purchased the reversion, the allegation 

 was sufficient. 



In very ancient deeds the word is very com- 

 monly used where it cannot mean an estate that 

 has descended to an heir, but must mean an estate 

 that may descend to an heir. Thus, in a grant I 

 have (without date, and therefore probably before 

 a.d. 1300), Robert de Boltone grants land to 

 John, the son of Geoffrey, to be held by the said 

 John and his heirs " in feodo et hasredita'te in per- 

 petuum." This plainly shows that hcereditas is 

 here used as equivalent to " fee simple." I have 

 also sundry other equally ancient deeds, by which 

 lands were granted to be held "jure hsereditaris," 



or " libere, quiete, hareditarie, et in pace." Now 

 these expressions plainly indicate, not that the 

 land has descended to the party as heir, but that 

 it is granted to him so absolutely that it may de- 

 scend to his heir ; in other words, that an estate of 

 inheritance, and not merely for life or for years, is 

 granted by the deed. S. G. C. 



Mb. Haeliwele' s exposition of the term " in- 

 heritance," quoted from the Shakspeare deed, is 

 substantially correct, and there can be no question 

 but that the sentence " heretofore the inheritance 

 of William Shakspeare, Gent., deceased," was in- 

 troduced in such deed, simply to show that Shak- 

 speare was formerly the absolute owner in fee 

 simple of the premises comprised therein, and not 

 to indicate that he had acquired them by descent, 

 either as heir of his father or mother, although he 

 might have done so. As Mr. Halliwell appears 

 to attach some importance to the word "pur- 

 chase," as used by Cowell in his definition of the 

 term " inheritance," the following explanation of 

 the word " purchase " may not prove unacceptable 

 to him. 



Purchase — " Acquisitum, perquisitum, pur- 

 chasium " — signifies the buying or acquisition of 

 lands and tenements, with money, or by taking 

 them by deed or agreement, and not by descent or 

 hereditary right. (Lit. xii. ; Reg. Orig., 143.) In 

 Law a man is said to come in by purchase when he 

 acquires lands by legal conveyance, and he hath a 

 lawful estate ; and a purchase is always intended 

 by title, either from some consideration or by gift 

 (for a gift is in Law a purchase), whereas descent 

 from an ancestor cometh of course by act of law ; 

 also all contracts are comprehended under this 

 word purchase. (Coke on Littleton, xviii., " Doc- 

 tor and Student," c. 24.) Purchase, in opposition 

 to descent, is taken largely : if an estate comes to 

 a man from his ancestors without writing, that is 

 a descent ; but where a person takes an estate 

 from an ancestor or others, by deed, will, or gift, 

 and not as heir-at-law, that is a purchase. This 

 explanation might be extended, but it is not ne- 

 cessary to carry it farther for the purpose of Mb. 

 Halliwell's inquiry. Chaelecote. 



The word " inheritance " was used for heredita- 

 ment, the former being merely the French form, 

 the latter the Latin. Littleton (§ 9.) says : 



" Et est ascavoir que cest parol (enheritance) nest 

 pas tant solement entendus lou home ad terres ou tene- 

 mentes per discent de heritage, mes auxi chescun fee 

 simple ou taile que home ad per son purchase puit 

 estre dit enheritance, pur ceo que ses heires luy pur- 

 ront enheriter. Car en briefe de droit que home por- 

 tera de terre, que fuit de son purchase demesne, le 

 briefe dira : Quam clamat esse jus et hereditamentum 

 suum. Et issint serra dit en divers auters briefes, que 

 home on feme portera de son purchase demesne, come 

 il appiert per le Register." 



