anceſtor, ſufficient to a anſwer the charge[1]; whether he remains in poſſeſſion, or hath aliened it before action brought[2]: which ſufficient eſtate is in law called aſſets; from the French word, allez, enough[3]. Therefore if a man covenants, for himſelf and his heirs, to keep my houſe in repair, I can then (and then only) compel his heir to perform this covenant, when he has an eſtate ſufficient for this purpoſe, or aſſets, by deſcent from the covenantor: for though the covenant deſcends to the heir, whether he inherits any eſtate or no, it lies dormant, and is not compulſory, until he has aſſets by deſcent[4].
This is the legal ſignification of the word perquiſitio, or purchaſe; and in this ſenſe it includes the five following methods of acquiring a title to eſtates: 1. Eſcheat. 2. Occupancy. 3. Preſcription. 4. Forfeiture. 5. Alienation. Of all theſe in their order.
I. Escheat, we may remember[5], was one of the fruits and conſequences of feodal tenure. The word itſelf is originally French or Norman[6], in which language it ſignifies chance or accident; and with us denotes an obſtruction of the courſe of deſcent, and a conſequent determination of the tenure, by ſome unforeſeen contingency: in which caſe the land naturally reſults back, by a kind of reverſion, to the original, grantor or lord of the fee[7].
Escheat therefore being a title frequently veſted in the lord by inheritance, as being the fruit of a ſigniory to which he was intitled by deſcent, (for which reaſon the lands eſcheating ſhall attend the ſigniory, and be inheritable by ſuch only of his heirs as are capable of inheriting the other[8]) it may ſeem in ſuch caſes to fall more properly under the former general head of acquiring title to eſtates, viz. by deſcent, (being veſted in him by act of
