|
Affair before the King & Council can do any thing therein I
shall transmit to Mr Hamersley all such Extracts & Authentic
Copies from the Records as can be collected & may be urged
in support of the Point the Upper House have insisted on,
which they have no doubt will be determined in favour of con-
stant Usage, & are willing to take upon themselves the
Expence of prosecuting the Appeal if Your Ldp chooses they
should do so. The other Act of which I shall herewith trans-
mit a Copy is entituled "An Additional Supplementary Act to
the Act entituled an Act for Quieting Possessions enrolling
Conveyances & securing the Estates of Purchasers " by which
Act Your Ldp will observe that All Conveyances of Land of
what Nature soever must before they can operate or have any
Effect be recorded either in the Provincial or some County
Court Office by which means it will be known whenever an
Alienation Fine on Land conveyed from One to another
becomes due, & the Lists of such Alienations to be by the
Clerks annually returned to the Keepers of the Rent Rolls
from time to time so that every Possessor of Land may be
properly charged with the Rent, which hath not always here-
tofore & indeed could not be always the Case, for the usual
Method of Conveyance where the Grantor was a Forreigner
by Lease & Release to which an Enrollment was not neces-
sary deprived the Rent Roll Keepers of the Means of know-
ing when & to whom Lands were transferred so that the
Grantor still continued charged with the Quit Rent & in the
case of uncultivated Lands his Absence put it out of the power
of the Receiver to compel a Payment of the Rent nor could
any Alienation Fine be demanded the Conveyance remaining
a Secret. Lands in Mortgage have also it seems been usually
conveyed by Lease & Release & the Mortgagor continuing in
possession of the Mortgaged Premisses the becoming due of
the Alienation Fine has not been known & consequently
could not be demanded ; when the Principal & Interest due
on the Mortgage have been paid Nothing more has been
requisite to revest the legal Estate in the Mortgagor than to
destroy the Deeds so that in such Case no Alienation Fine
could be demanded tho in fact two became due & ought to
have been paid viz One upon the Mortgage Deed & another
upon the Reconveyance on a satisfaction of the Mortgage.
Now as I have already observed in Consequence of a general
Registry of Deeds the Person chargeable with the Quit Rent
as well as the Alienation Fine will in every Instance be pointed
out & so far the Act may be justly considered as very bene-
ficial to Your Ldp but then a question arises how a Pay-
ment of the Alienation Fine is to be compelled after a Con-
veyance of the Land is made by the Deeds being recorded, a
|
