HUGHLETT'S CASE.—3 BLAND. 467

rant of * resurvey, by which he included ninety acres of
vacancy, making in the whole four hundred and fifty acres; 475
which tract, in the certificate of resurvey, is called Aaron's Addi-
tion. Aaron Allford fully compounded for the vacancy; and after-
wards died leaving an only child Sarah, his heir; who married
Richard Cooper, and had issue, Ezekiel Cooper and Sarah Cooper.
After which Richard Cooper and wife died; aud these lands de-
scended to their two children. Sarah Cooper married Charles
Buckmaster. And on the 10th of January, 1824, Ezekiel Cooper
and wife, and Charles Buckmaster and wife conveyed the tract
called Allford's Fancy, by a special reference to the patent for its
boundaries, to Henry M. Goodwin, who, on the 25th of July, 1825,
conveyed the same tract, specially describing it, to William Hugh-
lett, the petitioner, who by this, his petition, prayed for a patent
on the certificate of Aaron's Addition.

BLAND, C., 5th January, 1828. (a)— It is clear, that the right to
take out a warrant of resurvey for the purpose of including con-
tiguous vacancy is incident to every legal title to land. But it is
an incidental right which belongs to the holder of the legal, not
of the equitable title to the estate. If Aaron Allford had bound
himself to convey Allford's Fancy to the petitioner; and had,
afterwards, taken advantage of his being the mere legal holder to
obtain the contiguous vacancy to the tract he had thus sold; but
for some peculiar circumstances, equity would compel him to con-
vey to the purchaser all the land he had thus obtained by virtue
of the right incident to the legal title. Hoffman v. Johnson, 1
Bland, 108; Cunningham v. Browning, 1 Bland, 325.

Here, however, the holder of the perfect legal title to Allford's
Fancy, by virtue of the certificate returned and compounded on,
has obtained a good, but imperfect title to ninety acres as an ad-
dition to that tract. In some respects the title under a mere cer-
tificate is considered as equal to a perfect legal title. The land,
thus held, descends as realty to the heirs of the deceased holder;
and the patent, when called for, issues to them accordingly. A
title by certificate is not a mere chattel interest. It is an imper-
fect legal title, not a mere equitable interest; for, when the patent
is obtained, the formal legal title conveyed by it relates back to
date of the certificate, and vests the legal title in the patentee,
by relation, from that time. A right to include contiguous va-
cancy is an incident * to a legal title only; but when a cer-
tificafe of survey on any kind of warrant has been returned 476
and compounded on, it then becomes, so far, immediately a legal
title, as to draw to itself a similar incidental right to include con-
(a) This case was, by an oversight, not inserted in its proper chronological
order.