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.

tenants names; and the entries so made shall be reputed and taken of such force and validity, as that, in case the bills of sale should happen to be lost, the record is sufficient to make good the title." "And when any lands are to be divided between tenant and tenant, the same shall be done by the setting quest; and it is considered that no traverse should be granted upon the verdicts or returns of the setting quests, as upon other juries at common law."

The act of settlement absolutely and irrevocably confirms these estates of inheritance, which are descendible from ancestor to heir, according to the Manks laws before stated, subject to the annual-rents to the lord, and to the fines due to him upon death or alienation*, and also to the fines on any unredeemed mortgage of five years standing, at the end of which period the mortgagee becomes the lord's tenant; but the mortgager has power of redemption within twenty-one years from the date of the mortgage. The act declares all mortgages null and void, which shall not be recorded within six months next after their execution.

With respect to the obtaining payment of any principal or interest which may be due on mortgage, the most summary redress may be obtained by application to the deemster, who, after the ordinary summons and hearing, will either order the interest to be levied out of the mortgagor's effects, or order possession of the mortgaged premises to be given to the mort

* The fines were permanently established, at the general fining which took place a short time previous to the passing of the act in 1645.

gagee forthwith, to hold until payment of principal, interest, costs, and charges, according to the terms of the mortgage deed. And in case the premises be of that description called purchased lands, or cottages, or intacks, if the mortgage deed be in the usual form of a bond and security, the deemster may order the principal, interest, costs, and charges, to be levied out of the mortgaged premises. But under a common mortgage this cannot in an ordinary way be done. Nor can the mortgagee, in any case when the premises consist of quarter-land of inheritance, have other relief for recovery of his mortgage money, than an order or judgment to possess the premises as before mentioned; and being so possessed, it is his duty to let the premises from year to year by public auction to the highest bidder, and to apply the rents in reduction and discharge of the mortgage.

Relating to estates which are recognized under the denomination of intacks, cottages, mills, &c. they are, by the act of settlement, chargeable with debts, and may be alienated by gift, grant, demise, will, or assignment; but by the statute of 1777, such property (although still liable to the debts of the owner) shall not be deemed personal effects or chattels, so as to be considered assets in the hands of executors, or subject to be claimed by right of consanguinity, or next of kindred, in exclusion of the heir at law.

From these premises it appears, that nothing can be more simple or easily defined than the modern Manks tenures, which are totally un

shackled with, and unrestrained by fictitious suits or records, similar to English fines or recoveries; by abstruse family settlements, for no entail can be created of hereditaments within the isle, beyond the life of the grantee, or the heirs of persons in esse*; by feofments with livery of seisin; by lease and release; or the subtle and intricate learning of reversions and remainders, which forms so essential and abstruse a part of the English code.

The common conveyance of a Manks freehold, is a deed signed by the parties in the presence of two witnesses, in the nature of an English bargain, and sale, not indented, and without seal or stamp, neither of which are necessary to any deed executed in the island, except instruments of a public nature, and letters of attorney to be used out of the island, in which case the government seal is requisite; and it is usual and advisable for the parties to acknowledge the deed before a magistrate, who verifies it to be their act under his hand. With this formality it is received in any court of justice in the island, without the necessity of producing witnesses to prove the execution; but, in the neighbouring kingdoms, before a Manks deed can be received in evidence, it is necessary that the hand-writing of the parties should be proved in court.

With respect to wills in writing, there is no law that prescribes any particular form of execution, excepting that two witnesses are re

* The deemsters and keys, after solemn argument in 1745, declared, that they knew no law in the Isle of Man, by which estates tail could be created.