76 CONVEYANCING. [ART. 21

Conveyances In General.

1890, ch 210.

1. No estate of inheritance or freehold, or any declaration or
limitation of use, or any estate above seven years, shall pass or
take effect unless the deed conveying the same shall be executed,
acknowledged and recorded as herein provided; and all such
deeds shall be acknowledged before some one of the officers
named in sections two, three, four and five of this article, and
any unmarried woman between the age of eighteen years and
twenty-one years, shall have power to make a deed of trust of
her property, real, personal or mixed; provided the same shall
be approved and sanctioned by a court having equity jurisdiction
in the city or county where the grantor resides, upon the petition
of the said grantor, and such proof as the said court in its discre-
tion may require.
Nickel v. Brown, 75 Md. 185. Hoffman v. Gosnell, 75 Md. 589.

1890, ch. 232.

2. If acknowledged in the county or city within which the
real estate or any part of it lies, the acknowledgment may be
made before, first, a justice of the peace for such city or county;
second, a judge of the orphans' court of such county or city j
third, a judge of the circuit court for the county; fourth, a judge
of the Supreme Bench of Baltimore city; fifth, a notary public.

1890, ch. 232. 1892, ch. 4.

3. If acknowledged within the State, but out of the county or
city wherein the real estate or any part of it lies, the acknowledg-
ment may be made before, first, a notary public; second, any
judge of the circuit court for the circuit in which the grantor
may be, or any judge of the orphans' court of the county in
which the grantor may be; third, any judge of the Supreme
Bench of Baltimore city or any judge of the orphans' court of
said city; fourth, any justice of the peace for the county or city
where the grantor may be at the time of the acknowledgment,
the official character of the justice being certified to by the clerk
of the circuit or superior court under his official seal.