S78 C O V 
writings, and the circumftances of time, place, &c. and 
take notice what particular covenant in the deed it is 
bed to inti ft upon. To lay a breach right, the words of 
covenanting are, covenant, grant, promife, and agree, 
dire, but there needs no great exadtnefs in words to make 
a covenant. 
Covenant to Jland fifed to Uses, is when a man 
that hath a wife, children, brother, lifter, or kindred, 
doth by covenant in writing under hand and feal agree 
that for their or any of their' provifion or preferment, 
he and his heirs will ftand feifed of land to their ufe; 
either in fee-fimpie, fee-tail, or for life. The ufe being 
created by 27 Hen. VIII. c. 10. which coiiveyeth the 
eftate as the ufes are directed, this covenant to (land 
feifed is become a conveyance of the land fince the faid 
ftatute. The confideTations of tliefe deeds, are natural 
affeftion, marriage, &c. and the law allow.s in fuch cafes 
conlideration of blood and marriage, to raife ufes, as 
well as money and other valuable confideration when a 
ufe is to a ftranger. Plozvd. 302. There are no confide- 
rations now to raife ufes upon covenants to ftand feifed, 
but natural love and affection, which is for advancement 
of blood ; and confideration of marriage, which is the 
joining of the blood and marriage together : other con- 
fiderations, as money, &c. for land, though the words 
in the deed are ftand feifed, yet they are bargains and 
fales, and without inrolment they raife no ufe. Carter 
138. Lit. Abr. 353. The ufual covenant to ftand feifed 
to ufes need not be by deed indented and inrolled. And 
where a man limits his eftate to the ufe of his wife for 
life, this imports a fufficient confideration in itfelf: alfo 
if a perfon covenants to ftand feifed to the ufe of his 
wife, fon, or coufin, it will raife an ufe without any ex- 
prefs words of confideration ; for fufficient confideration 
appears. 7 Ref). 40. In cafe of a covenant to ftand feifed, 
fo much of the ufe as the owner doth not difpofe of, re¬ 
mains dill in him. 1 Vent. 374. And where an ufe is 
raifed by way of covenant, the covenantor continues in 
poffeffion ; and there the ufes limited, if they are ac¬ 
cording to law, fliall rife and draw the pofteffion out of 
him : but if they are not, the poffeffion fliall remain in 
him until a lawful ufe arifeth. 1 Leon. 197. 1 Mod. 159. 
If on a covenant to ftand feifed to ufes, no ufe doth 
arife, yet it may be good by way of covenant, and give 
remedy to the covenantee in an affion ; as if the cove¬ 
nant be future, that, in confideration of a marriage, 
lands fliall defeend or remain to a fon and the heirs of 
his body or the body of his wife ; in this cafe the co¬ 
venantee may have writ of covenant upon the covenant 
againft the covenantor. But if a covenant be that a man 
and his heirs ftiall from henceforth ftand and be feifed 
to fuch and fuch ufes, and the ufes will not arife by law : 
here no adbion of covenant lies on the covenant ; for this 
action will never lie upon any covenant but fuch as is 
either to do a thing hereafter, or where the thing is al¬ 
ready done, and not when it is for a thing prefent. 
Plozud. 307. Finch's Law. 49. 
CO'VENANT, in ecclefiaftical hiftory, denotes a con- 
trad! or convention agreed to by the Scotch in the year 
J638, for maintaining their religion free from innova¬ 
tion. In 1581, the general aflembly of Scotland drew 
up a confeffion of faith, or national covenant, condemn¬ 
ing epifcopal government, under the name of hierarchy , 
which was figned by James I. and which he enjoined on 
all his fubjetts. It was again fubferibed in 1590, and 
1596. The fubfeription was renewed in 1638, and the 
fubferibers engaged by oath to maintain religion in the 
fame ftate as it was in 1380, and to rejebt all innovations 
introduced fince that time. This oath annexed to the 
confeilion of faith received the name of the covenant : 
as tliofe who fubferibed it were called covenanters. 
The Jblemn League and Covenant, (as it is called), 
was eftablifhed in the year 1643, to form a bond of union 
between Scotland and England. It was approved by 
the parliament and allembly at Weftminfter, and ratified 
C O V 
by the general affcmbly in Scotland in 1643. Charles I. 
difapproved of it when he furrendered himfelf to the 
Scots army in 1646 : but in 1630 Charles II. declared 
his approbation both of this and the national covenant 
by a folemn oath ; and in Auguft of the fame year, he 
made a farther declaration at Dunfermline to the fame 
purpofe, which was alfo renewed on occafion of his co¬ 
ronation at Scone in 1631. The covenant was ratified 
by parliament in this year; and the fubfeription of it 
required by every member, without which the conftitu- 
tion of the parliament was declared null and void. It 
afterwards produced a feries of diffractions, and was 
finally voted illegal by parliament, and provifion made 
againft it by 14 Car. II. c. 4. 
To CO'VENANT, v.n. To bargain; to ftipulate.— 
By words men come to know one another’s minds ; bv 
thefe they covenant and confederate. South. —To agree 
with another on certain terms; with for before either 
the price or the thing purchafed.—They covenanted with 
him for thirty pieces of filver. St. Matthew. 
Pointing to a heap of fand, 
For ev’ry grain, to live a year demand ; 
But, ah ! unmindful of th’ eft’edt of time. 
Forgot to covenant for youth and prime. Garth. 
COVENANTE'E, f. A party to a covenant; a ftipiu 
lator; a bargainer.—Both of them were refpective rites 
of their admiffion into the feveral covenants, and the 
covenantees become thereby entitled to the refpedtive pri¬ 
vileges. Aylijfe. 
COV'EN ANTER, f. One who takes a covenant. A 
word introduced in the civil wars of Charles I.—The 
covenanters (hall have no more alfurance of mutual affift- 
ance each from other, after the taking of the covenant, 
than they had before. Oxford Reafons againf the Covenant. 
COV'ENOUS, adj. Fraudulent; collufive; trickilh. 
—I wifti fome means deviled for the reftraint of thelc 
inordinate and covenous leafes of lands, holden in chief, 
for hundreds or thoufands of years. Bacon. 
CO'VENTRY, [either from convent , a monaftery of 
monks anciently there; or covue, the name of a river.} 
An ancient city; the metropolis of the county of War¬ 
wick ; for feveral centuries efteemed a rich and flourifii- 
ing town on account of its manufactures. The number 
of inhabitants, taken at different periods in the laft two 
hundred years, is very different. Before 1349, they 
were found to have been fifteen thouland ; but on that 
violent convulfion, the diffolution, trade grew fo low, 
and occafioned fuch a defection of people from the city, 
as to reduce them to three thoufand. To remedy this 
evil, Edward VI. granted the city a charter for an ad¬ 
ditional fair. In 1644, when the inhabitants were num¬ 
bered, from the apprehenfion of a fiege, they were found 
to amount to nine thoufand five hundred. By Brad¬ 
ford’s Survey of Coventry, made in 1748 and 1749, 
there appears to have been two thoufand and lixty-five 
houfes, and twelve thoufand one hundred and feven- 
teen people. The accounts at prefent vary from twenty 
to thirty thoufand ; but, perhaps, the middle funr be¬ 
tween both may come the neareft the truth. It was 
furrounded with walls in the fourteenth century ; the 
expences of which were defrayed by money ariling from 
taxes on wine, malt, oxen, hogs, calves, and fheep, con- 
fumed in Coventry. Thefe walls were in great ftrength 
and grandeur, furniftied with thirty-two towers, and 
twelve gates; and continued till the twenty-fecond of 
July, 1661, when great part of the wall, moft of the 
towers, and many of the gates, were pulled down, by 
order of Charles II. in refentment, it is. faid, of the 
treatment his father had received from the citizens: for 
when Charles I. fet up his ftandard at Nottingham, he 
fent to this city to acquaint them that he meant to refide 
there for fome time, and defired quarters for his forces in 
and about the place. The mayor and aldermen offered 
to receive the king, but refufed admittance to any of the 
foldieryt 
