Chapter the twenty first.
Of ALIENATION by matter of RECORD.
ASSURANCES by matter of record are ſuch as do not entirely depend on the act or conſent of the parties themſelves: but the ſanction of a court of record is called in, to ſubſtantiate, preſerve, and be a perpetual teſtimony of, the transfer of property from one man to another; or of it's eſtabliſhment, when already transferred. Of this nature are, 1. Private acts of parliament. 2. The king's grants. 3. Fines. 4. Common recoveries.
I. Private acts of parliament are, eſpecially of late years, become a very common mode of aſſurance. For it may ſometimes happen, that, by the ingenuity of ſome, and the blunders of other practitioners, an eſtate is moſt grievouſly entangled by a multitude of contingent remainders, reſulting truſts, ſpringing uſes, executory deviſes, and the like artificial contrivances; (a confuſion unknown to the ſimple conveyances of the common law) ſo that it is out of the power of either the courts of law or equity to relieve the owner. Or it may ſometimes happen, that, by the ſtrictneſs or omiſſions of family ſettlements, the tenant of the eſtate is abridged of ſome reaſonable power, (as letting leaſes, making a jointure for a wife, or the like) which power cannot be given him by the ordinary judges either in common law or equity. Or it may be neceſſary, in ſettling an eſtate, to ſecure it againſt the claims of infants or other perſons
