na Carta, and the statute of quia emptores*, a liberty of alienating their estates, to be holden of the same lord, or his successors, as they themselves had holden of originally.

Before this abstruse subject is dismissed, it may not be irrelevant to show, by an ancient note, the opinion of the English judges, who solemnly confirmed, by their judgment, the prior doctrine of Sir Edward Coke, as contained in his fourth institute, with reference to the perfect independence of the Manks law.

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By the report of Killway, surveyor of the Court of Wards, 11th Henry VIII., it was found by inquisition, that Thomas, Earl of Derby, tempore mortis suæ, was seized of the Isle of Man; upon which Ann, Countess-dowager of Derby, sued to have dower of the said isle, to which Blundel, Chief Justice, ex assensu, Brook, Fitzherbert, and of all other the council of the King, said the inquiry was void, for that the Isle of Man is no parcel of the realm of England, nor do they use the law of England."

* 18th Edward I.

A

OF THE MODERN MANKS TENURES, WITH THE TITLES BY DESCENT, MARRIAGE, WILL, PURCHASE, &c.

WHATEVER might be the criterion, or distinguishing mark of the ancient Manks tenures, which included the various methods of holding lands in fealty, by certain and invariable rents and duties, we have no record of their permanent mode of descent or alienation, until the act of Tynwald, passed by James, Earl of Derby, his council, deemsters, and keys, in the year 1645. It had been previously declared, by an ordinance of Ferdinando, Earl of Derby, made in 1593, "that any person that is entered tenant to an estate upon the court rolls for the space of twenty-one years, and no bill exhibited, or claim made, possession of the grantee is a good bar against the grantor and his issue *.

It is understood in the island, that some time previous to the passing of the act of 1645, the lords officers had prevailed upon many proprietors of land, to surrender their customary estates (which, by ancient custom, had descendded to the eldest son, and for want thereof to the eldest daughter) to the lord, and accept leases for lives in lieu thereof. This measure

*The deemsters and keys said, in 1745, that as to an heir claiming an estate by the statute of 1593, the twenty-one years are to be reckoned from the time of the dispossession of the grantor, and not from his decease. The statute of limitation of 1593, is confirmed and established by an act of Tynwald, passed in 1647.

was accomplished by the members of the lord's council suggesting, that the land-owners had no fixed property in their estates by any positive law, but that they held merely as tenants at will from the lord. Happily, however, for the people, the constitutional guardians of their rights, the Twenty-four Keys, interfered; and remonstrating with respectful firmness to the Earl of Derby, he graciously listened to their complaints and solicitations; and the Keys procured not only the passing of this act, but ultimately succeeded in obtaining the celebrated act of settlement, or, as it is emphatically called, the Manks Magna Carta, in the year 1704*.

By the statute law† the purchaser of a farm, quarter land, or any other real property, may either alien or devise his purchase; and if not disposed of, it remains assets in the hands of the heir at law in default of personal property, for payment of all debts, whether by specialty or simple contract, without any preference. And by the Manks common law, such premises, after one descent from the purchaser, are in the nature of estates of inheritance; and, consequently, the first proprietor of such inheritance after the purchaser, takes by the law an absolute estate of inheritance, descendible from ancestor to heir, in the manner prescribed by the act of Tynwald of 1645, which settles the estate, conformably with the ancient custom, on the eldest son, and for want thereof, on the eldest daughter, and, in default of chil

* Appendix ; title, Act of Settlement.

+ Appendix, A. T. 1777; title, Laron and Feme.

dren, on the next of kin, but subject always to the gift, grant, sale, mortgage, lease, or assignment by deed of the owner, and subject also to forfeiture for felony or treason; and in case of want of personal effects, the estate may be sold for the payment of arrears of the lord's rent, to which all the lands in the island are subject.

But, although lands may be alienated by deed, they cannot be disposed of by will, except by the first purchaser, neither are they subject to any other than mortgage debts, except in the instance of purchased lands as before mentioned, and that description of property called mills, cottages, and intacks. With respect to a Manks purchaser, the term cannot be construed in the large and extended sense of Lyttleton's perquisitio, which included every kind of title, except only hereditary transmission; for here it can only mean a purchaser for a consideration in money or effects.

The quarter-lands alluded to by these acts, may be analagous to the hides of land, formerly so denominated in England, and which usually consisted of about 100 acres. The Manks name implies the act of quartering out, or allotting the principal lands by the lord's officers to his tenants. These quarterlands have, immemorially, been considered property of the highest nature in the island, and though now absolute estates of inheritance, are subject by the act of settlement to the payment of an annual-rent to the lord, and a fine certain upon descent or alienation.

The act of settlement having directed that

the tenants names should be entered in the court rolls* as formerly done; it is proper to observe, that in case the conveyance should be lost or destroyed, the title cannot be impugned, if it is entered on the rolls of the sheading court, unless another person shews a better title.

At the chancery, common law, or baron court, all deeds, whereby any lands are alienated, settled, or incumbered, ought to be published, approved, and recorded. And at the baron court (formerly called the sheading court) the names of all deceased proprietors of land, grantors, mortgagors, &c. are drawn out of the liber assedacionis, and the names of the heir, grantee, and mortgagee are entered in the liber vastarum, and their respective titles by which they are so entered, ascertained and specified, and from which liber vastarum a new liber assedacionis is made; from these books the title of every acre of land in the Isle of Man may easily be traced.

The ancient records (particularly the 19th customary law) inform us, "that the time for entering the tenants names in the court rolls, for any lands, is to be at the sheading courts, to be holden after May in every year; and that there shall be a jury of four men in every parish elected out of the ancient moars, called a setting quest, sworn to aid and assist the court in entering the

* At a baron or sheading court, holden at the Castle of Rushen for Middle Sheading, the day of 1811. The before written deed of sale being acknowledged before the deemster, and now openly published in court, and no objection offered against it, the same is therefore allowed of, for, and in the name and on behalf of the most noble John, Duke of Atholl, lord of the Lordship of Man and the isles, and confirmed by this court.

NORRIS MOOR, Seneschal.