twenty years be ſufficient evidence, on behalf of a purchaſor for valuable conſideration, that ſuch recovery was duly ſuffered. And this may ſuffice to give the ſtudent a general idea of common recoveries, the laſt ſpecies of aſſurances by matter of record.
Before I conclude this head, I muſt add a word concerning deeds to lead, or to declare, the uſes of fines, and of recoveries. For if they be levied or ſuffered without any good conſideration, and without any uſes declared, they, like other conveyances, enure only to the uſe of him who levies or ſuffers them[1]. And if a conſideration appears, yet as the moſt uſual fine, "ſur cognizance de droit come ceo, &c," conveys an abſolute eſtate, without any limitations, to the cognizee; and as common recoveries do the ſame to the recoveror; theſe aſſurances could not be made to anſwer the purpoſe of family ſettlements, (wherein a variety of uſes and deſignations is very often expedient) unleſs their force and effect were ſubjected to the direction of other more complicated deeds, wherein particular uſes can be more particularly expreſſed. The fine or recovery itſelf, like a power once gained in mechanics, may be applied and directed to give efficacy to an infinite variety of movements, in the vaſt and intricate machine of a voluminous family ſettlement. And, if theſe deeds are made previous to the fine or recovery, they are called deeds to lead the uſes; if ſubſequent, deeds to declare them. As, if A tenant in tail, with remainder to himſelf in fee, would ſettle his eſtate on B for life, remainder to C in tail, remainder to D in fee; this is what by law he has no power of doing effectually, while his own eſtate-tail is in being. He therefore uſually covenants to levy a fine (or, if there be any remainders over, to ſuffer a recovery) to E, and that the ſame ſhall enure to the uſes in ſuch ſettlement mentioned. This is now a deed to lead the uſes of the fine or recovery; and the fine when levied, or recovery when ſuffered, ſhall enure to the uſes ſo ſpecified and no other. For though E, the conuſee or recoveree, hath a fee-ſimple veſted in himſelf by the fine or recovery; yet, by the operation of this deed, he be-
- ↑ Dyer. 18.
