196 CALENDAR OF THE FINES FOR THE COUNTY OF DERBY. 
of the charter itself, or from the difficulty of proving it after a 
lapse of years. ‘These circumstances probably induced men to 
look out for some other species of assurance which should be 
more solemn, more lasting, and more easy to be proved than a 
charter of feoffiment. 
“Experience must soon have discovered that no title could be 
so secure and notorious, as that which had been questioned by an 
adverse party, and ratified by the determination of a Court of 
Justice: and the ingenuity of mankind soon found out a method 
of deriving the same advantages from a fictitious process. 
‘*To effect this purpose the following plan was adopted: a 
suit was commenced concerning the lands intended to be con- 
veyed, and when the writ was sued out, and the parties appeared 
in Court, a composition of the suit was entered into with the 
consent of the Judges, whereby the lands in question were 
acknowledged to be the right of one of the contending parties. 
“This agreement, being reduced into writing, was inrolled 
among the Records of the Court, where it was preserved by the 
public officer ; by which means it was not so liable to be lost or 
defaced as a charter of feoffment, and being a record, would at 
all times prove itself. It had also another advantage, that, 
being substituted in the place of the sentence, which would 
have been given in case the suit had not been compounded, it 
was held to be of the same nature, and of equal force with the 
judgment of a Court of Justice.” 
Of fines there were four different kinds :— 
1st. Sur conuzance de droit come ceo, etc. 
2nd. Sur conuzance de droit tantum. 
3rd. Sur concessit. 
4th. Sur done grant et render. 
The first was the best and surest kind of fine ; for the Deforciant 
(viz., the grantor), in order to avoid the formality of an actual 
feoffment, with livery of seisin, acknowledges in court a former 
feoffment or gift in possession to have been made by him to the 
Plaintiff (viz., the grantee). This fine gave the plaintiff immediate 
possession of the land. 
