profits at a ſettled price, than as having any property of their own. And therefore they were not allowed to have a freehold eſtate: but their intereſt (ſuch as it was) veſted after their deaths in their executors, who were to make up the accounts of their teſtator with the lord, and his other creditors, and were intitled to the ſtock upon the farm. The leſſee's eſtate might alſo, by the antient law, be at any time defeated, by a common recovery ſuffered by the tenant of the freehold[1]; which annihilated all leaſes for years then ſubſiſting, unleſs afterwards renewed by the recoveror, whoſe title was ſuppoſed ſuperior to his by whom thoſe leaſes were granted.
While eſtates for years were thus precarious, it is no wonder that they were uſually very ſhort, like our modern leaſes upon rack rent; and indeed we are told[2] that by the antient law no leaſes for more than forty years were allowable, becauſe any longer poſſeſſion (eſpecially when given without any livery declaring the nature and duration of the eſtate) might tend to defeat the inheritance. Yet this law, if ever it exiſted, was ſoon antiquated: for we may obſerve, in Madox's collection of antient inſtruments, ſome leaſes for years of a pretty early date, which conſiderably exceed that period[3]; and long terms, for three hundred years at leaſt, were certainty in uſe in the time of Edward III[4], and probably of Edward I[5]. But certainly, when by the ſtatute 21 Hen. VIII. c. 15. the termor (that is, he who is intitled to the term of years) was protected againſt theſe fictitious recoveries, and his intereſt rendered ſecure and permanent, long terms began to be more frequent than before; and were afterwards extenſively introduced, being found extremely convenient for family ſettlements and mortgages: continuing ſubject, however, to the ſame rules of ſucceſſion, and with the ſame inferiority to freeholds,
- ↑ Co. Litt. 46.
- ↑ Mirror. c. 2. §. 27. Co. Litt. 45, 46.
- ↑ Madox Formulare Anglican. №. 239. fol. 140. Demiſe for eighty years, 21 Ric. II. .... Ibid. №. 245. fol. 146. for the like term, A. D. 1429. ..... Ibid. №. 248. fol. 148. for fifty years, 7 Edw. IV.
- ↑ 32 Aff. pl. 6.
- ↑ Stat. of mortmain, 7 Edw. I.
