IN CONVEYANCING, INCLUDING RECITALS. BY CHARLES DAVIDSON, OF THE MIDDLE TEMPLE, ESQ., BARRISTER-AT-LAW. LONDON: A. MAXWELL & SON, 32, BELL YARD, LINCOLN'S INN, DUBLIN: HODGES & SMITH, GRAFTON STREET. 1846. PREFACE. THIS Work is strictly what it purports to be, a Collection of the Common Forms used by Conveyancers. It contains no special Forms, and is intended simply to render the preparation of certain drafts of frequent occurrence, as far as possible, mechanical, and to facilitate the mechanical part of the business. For this purpose the Forms of frequent use are repeated, in extenso, for several different kinds of property, and for several transactions which are nearly akin. The variations in each case are slight, but the saving of time and trouble will be found to be considerable, because by this means, any person, however ignorant and unskilful, if directed to the Forms needed, and furnished with the names to be substituted for the words in italics, will produce a clause requiring little or no alteration; while, if the Forms be adapted only generally to the business in hand, it will occupy a good deal of the time of a skilled person to get it into proper shape. For instance, if it be required to adapt the Forms in a Mortgage to one Person to the case of a Mortgage to several Persons, it will be found that considerable time and labour is expended in a mere mechanical operation, which is altogether avoided by having a Form literally adapted to the case. The principle may be carried much farther than it is in the present Work, especially in the Forms for Wills and Settlements, but the Author trusts that the following Forms will to some extent afford the draftsman the mechanical assistance referred to. The Author has again the pleasure of expressing his thanks to his friend T. C. WRIGHT, Esq., of Lincoln's Inn, for the very able and efficient assistance he has afforded in the preparation of the Work, and for the valuable suggestions he has made. The subject of a reform of the shape of Assurances now engages so much attention, that it may be proper to add, that, in the Author's opinion, Conveyancers ought to be enabled, by legislative enactment, to dispense with many of the following Forms. At present however there is little prospect of this being effectuated; the steps lately taken have not been of any use, and there seems no tendency to proceed in the right way. The persons who have taken charge of the reform of Conveyancing Law, though many of them of great ability and various learning, are none of them Conveyancers of experience; and, however able a man may be, he cannot do otherwise than fail, when he attempts to improve an art which he has not practised. The following Forms have, according to modern practice, been to a great extent relieved from the verbiage and tautology of those formerly in use, and of which specimens may be seen in the schedules to the acts of the 8 & 9 Vict. cc. 119, 124. |