308 CUNNINGHAM v. BROWNING.

as to an alien, it has been held, that his title, which he has
acquired by purchase, is good against every body but the State,
and cannot be divested without office found ;(z) although it would
seem, that, as regards the interests of creditors, it may be consid-
ered as having devolved upon the State without any previous
inquest of office, (a) It is now unnecessary to say any thing of
forfeited lands, of which it was formerly made the duty of sur-
veyors to give notiee,(o) since it has been declared, that no con-
viction or attainder shall work corruption of blood or forfeiture of
estate.(c)

In the original conditions of plantation, it was declared, that a
legal title should be made to all purchasers from the proprietary by
a grant under the Great Seal of the Province ;(d) thus indicating
at once, and from the outset, to all purchasers, that there should be
a Chancellor, or keeper of the Great Seal of the Province; whose
duty it should be here, as was the duty of the similar officer in
England, to pass upon and authenticate all patent grants for
lands.(e) But although by a commission, dated on the 15th of
April, 1637, the first governor was constituted " chancellor, chief
justice, and chief magistrate within the province, until officers and
ministers of justice should be appointed ;"(f) yet grants for lands
to the first settlers were issued and authenticated under the hand
and seal of the governor alone; and it was not until about the
year 1644, that patent grants were authenticated by the Chancellor
under the Great Seal of the Province, according to the English
mode of making out such deeds, (g) From that time, however, to
the present, patent grants have been made out and authenticated
according to the form now in use.

The increase in population, and the spreading out of the settle-
ment of the country, so multiplied the demands for the proprietary's
lands, that in the year 1680, for the greater regularity and despatch
of business in that respect, a Land Office was established; in which
it was directed, that authentic records of all proceedings in relation
to the sale and granting of lands should be made'and kept,(h)
certified copies of whteh, as of any other records,* are held to be
legal evidence, (i) This office was appended to the common law

(z) McCreery v. Allender, 4 H, & McH. 409; McCreery v. Wilson, 4 H. & McH.
412; Fairfax v. Hunter, 7 Cran. 619.—(a) 1799, ch. 79, s. 7, (b) Land Ho. Ass.
439—(c) Decl. Rights, art. 24; 1800, ch. 138, s. 10.—(d) Land Ho. Ass. 30, 39.
(e) Land Ho. Ass. 64.-(f) 1 Boz. His. Mary. 292; Land Ho. Ass. 64.—(g) Land
Records, lib. No. 1, folio 195.—(&) Land Ho. Ass. 108, 232, 283.—(i) Thornton v.
Edwards, 1 H. & McH. 158.