2 54 History of tJie English Landed Intej'est. 



of this monkish ruse their estates were not only secured against 

 forfeiture, but their children's livelihood provided for by will. 

 Then the Courts of Equity during the fourth Edward's reign 

 set to work to reduce Uses to a fine art, and though at first the 

 Common Law could take no cognisance of this practice, there 

 were up to Henry VIII. 's reign alwaj^s clergymen-chancellors 

 read}'' upon all occasions to decree the performance of the 

 trust and use.^ 



The Statute of Fines introduced by Henry VII. Avas probably 

 intended to make a fine a bar to entail, though some have 

 supposed that it was designed to give it the validity it had at 

 Common Law before the Statute of Nonclaim had been intro- 

 duced by Edward I. to bar the right unless contested within a 

 year and a day. 



By the ancient Common Law a charter of feoffment was 

 generally the only written (if written at aU) instrument whereby 

 lands were transferred or conveyed.- It would have been sup- 

 posed that the great number of witnesses, and the publicity and 

 solemnity attending a liver}'" of seisin would have afforded suffi- 

 cient and lasting authenticity of the transaction. But this was 

 not found a sufficient proof or title to possession in cases where 

 charters had been mislaid and destroyed, or when long years 

 had elapsed. It was seen that no title could be so secure as one 

 that had been unsuccessfully contested in a court of justice. 

 To obtain this, landowners resorted to a suit, when, as soon as 

 the writ was sued out and the parties were before the court, a 

 composition of the suit was entered into, with the consent of 

 the judges, whereby the lands in question were declared to 

 be the right of the contending parties. The agreement 

 having been reduced to writing, was preserved amongst the 

 other court records, by which means it was not so liable to loss 

 or defacement as a charter of feoffment. A writ was then 

 issued to the sheriff" of the county in which the lands lay, di- 

 recting him to deliver seisin and possession to the person in 

 whose favour judgment had been pronounced. This process, 



' Blackstone, Comm., ii. 271. 



* Charters of feoffment were not necessarily icritten instruments until 

 writing became a compulsory adjunct by 8 and 9 Vict. c. lOG. 



