RECORDING DEEDS IN AMERICA Cambridge in 1632 and 1634, in Dorchester in 1634, and in Boston in 1635. 1 Mean while the colony passed an ordinance which is important in the history of our recording acts. On April 1, 1634, the general court ordered that the constable and four of the chief inhabitants of even' town, to be chosen by the freemen, with the advice of some one or more of the next assistants, should make a survey of houses and lands and enter the same in a book with the sev eral bounds and quantities by the next estimation: "& shall deliuer a transcript thereof into the Court within sixe monethes nowe nexte ensueing, & the same soe entered and recorded shal be a sufficient assurance to every such ffree inhabitant, his & theire heires and assignes, of such estate of inheri tance, or as they shall haue in any such howses, lands, or ffranke-tenements." * This provision, which practically made an entry in the book of possessions a guaranteed title of the land, seems to fur nish the first indication of the present rule of priority. Many of the towns properly prepared their books of possessions under this ordinance, and these books form the basis of land titles in such towns. But the work was slow and not altogether satisfactory to the General Court, and from time to time they passed additional orders for doing work. Finally on Oct. 7, 1640, the court passed a general ordinance in almost the exact terms of the present law.8 "For avoyding all fraudulent conveyences, & that every man may know what estate or interest other men may have in any houses, lands or other hereditamants they are to deale in, it is therefore ordered, that after the end of this month no morgage, bargaine, sale, or graunt hereafter to bee
1 Cambridge Town Records, vol. ii. pp. 4, 10; Boston Record Commissioner's Reports, vol. iv, p. 8. Ibid. vol. ii, p. 5.
- 1 Records of Massachusetts 116.
- Ibid. 306.
337
made of any houses, lands, rents, or other hereditaments shalbee of force against any other person except the graunter & his heires, unless the same bee recorded, as is hearafter expressed." Provision is made for acknowledging the deeds, and they are to be recorded within the districts into which the Colony had already been divided for holding courts. The ordinance further provided that "it is not intended that the whole bargaine, sale, &c. shalbee entered, but onely the names of the graunter & grauntee, the thing & the estate graunted & the date; and all such entryes shalbee certified to the recorder at Boston." Mag istrates were also appointed to take acknowl edgments. This ordinance of 1640 remained the law throughout Colonial times, omitting, how ever, in the revisions the express provision against recording the deed in full; and it was further provided that the clerk of every shire court should be the recorder.1 The provision appears substantially un changed in the Revised Laws of 1902.' The only other colonies which legislated before 1640 were Rhode Island and Con necticut, and neither of them appears to have contributed anything to the system of recording deeds.' We may, therefore, safely conclude that the American registry system as it prevails at present throughout 1 Colonial Laws, ed. 1672, p. 33. 1 "A conveyance of an estate in fee simple, fee tail, or for life, or a lease for more than seven years from the making thereof, shall not be valid as against any person, except the grantor or lessor, his heirs and devisees and persons having actual notice of it, unless it ... is recorded in the registry of deeds" etc. R. L. Ch. 127, Sect. 4. Considering that the act has passed through twelve revisions and has been amended at least twice, the language is very close to the original. 3 A vote of the town of Portsmouth in 1638 was similar to the ordinance establishing Books of Pos sessions in Massachusetts. Rhode Island Colonial Records, vol. i, p. 54. No other vote in Rhode Island was earlier than 1644. Ibid. p. 127. Similar legis lation in Connecticut was adopted in 1639. Connec ticut Colonial Records, vol. i, p. 37.
