estate after his decease, may distrain, or have any lawful action to levy any such arrearages of rents or fee-farms, due unto him in his life as is aforesaid; (3) by reason whereof, the tenants of the demean of such lands, tenements or hereditaments, out of the which such rents were due and payable, who of right ought to pay their rents and farms at such days and terms as they were due, do many times keep, hold and retain such arrearages in their own hands, so that the executors and administrators of the persons to whom such rents or fee-farms were due, cannot have or come by the said arrearages of the same, towards the payment of the debts and performance of the will of the said testators (4) For remedy whereof, be it enacted by the authority of this present parliament, That the executors and administrators of every such person or persons, unto whom any such rent or fee-farm is or shall be due, and not paid at the time of his death, shall and may have an action of debt for all such arrearages, against the tenant or tenants that ought to have paid the said rent or fee-farms so being behind in the life of their testator, or against the executors and administrators of the said tenants; (5) and also furthermore, it shall be lawful to every such executor and administrator of any such person or persons unto whom such rent or fee-farm is or shall be due, and not paid at the time of his death as is aforesaid, to distrain for the arrearages of all such rents and fee-farms, upon the lands, tenements and other hereditaments, which were charged with the payment of such rents or fee-farms, and chargeable to the distress of the said testator, (6) so long as the said lands, tenements or hereditaments continue, remain and be in the scisin or possession of the said tenant in demesn, who ought immediately to have paid the said rent or fee-farm so being behind, to the said testator in his life, (7) or in the seisin or possession of any other person or persons claiming the said lands, tenements and hereditaments, only by and from the same tenant by purchase, gift or descent, (8) in like manner and form as their said testator might or ought to have done in his life-time, and the said executors and administrators shall, for the same distress, lawfully make avowry upon their matter aforesaid.

III. And further be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, That if any man which now hath, or hereafter shall have in the right of his wife, any estate in fee-simple, fee-tail, or for term of life, of or in any rents or fee-farms, and the same rents or fee-farms now be, or hereafter shall be due, behind and unpaid in the said wife's life; then the said husband, after the death of his said wife, his executors and ad

ministrators, shall have an action of debt for the said arrearages against the tenant of the demesn that ought to have paid the same, his executors or administrators; (2) and also the said husband, after the death of his said wife, may distrain for the said arrearages, in like manner and form, as he might have done if his said wife had been then living, and make avowry upon his matter as is aforesaid.

IV. And likewise it is further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That if any person or persons which now have, or hereafter shall have, any rents or fee-farms for term of life or lives, of any other person or persons, and the said rent or fee-farnf now be, or hereafter shall be due, behind and unpaid in the life of such person or persons for whose life or lives the estate of the said rent or fee-farm did depend or continue, and after the said person or persons do die, then he unto whom the said rent or fee-farm was due in form aforesaid, his executors or administrators shall and may have an action of debt against the tenant in demesn, that ought to have paid the same when it was first due, his executors and administrators, (2) and also distrain for the same arrearages upon such lands and tenements out of the which the said rents or fee-farms were issuing and payable, (3) in such like manner and form as he ought or might have done, if such person or persons by whose death the aforesaid estate in the said rents and fee-farms was determined and expired, had been in full life and not dead; and the avowry for the taking of the same distress to be made in manner and form aforesaid.

34 & 35 HEN. VIII. CAP. 5. [A.D. 1542-1543.]

The bill concerning the explanation of wills.

I. Where in the last parliament begun and holden at Westminster the thirty-eighth day of April in the thirty-first year of the King's most gracious reign, and thereby divers prorogations holden and continued unto the twenty-fourth day of July in the thirty-second year of his said reign, it was by the King's most gracious and liberal disposition shewed toward his most humble and obedient subjects, ordained and enacted how and in what manner lands, tenements, and other hereditaments might be by will or testament in writing, or otherwise by any act or acts lawfully executed in the life of every person, given, disposed, willed or devised, for the advancement of the wife, preferment of the children, payment of debts of every such person, or otherwise at his will and pleasure, as in the same act more plainly is

declared: (2) sithen the making of which estatute, divers doubts, questions and ambiguities have risen, been moved, and grown, by diversity of opinions, taken in and upon the exposition of the letter of the same estatute.

II. For a plain declaration and explanation whereof, and to the intent and purpose that the King's obedient and loving subjects shall and may take the commodity and advantage of the King's said gracious and liberal disposition, the lords spiritual and temporal, and the commons, in this present parliament assembled, most humbly beseechen the King's majesty, that the meaning of the letter of the same estatute, concerning such matters hereafter rehearsed, may be by the authority of this present parliament enacted, taken, expounded, judged, declared and explained in manner and form following:

III. First, Where it is contained in the same former statute, within divers articles and branches of the same, that all and singular person and persons having any manors, lands, tenements or hereditaments of the estate of inheritance, should have full and free liberty, power and authority to give, will, dispose or assign, as well by his last will and testament in writing, or otherwise by any act or acts lawfully executed in his life, his manors, lands, tenements or hereditaments, or any of them, in such manner and form as in the same former act more at large it doth appear. Which words of estate of inheritance, by the authority of this present parliament, is and shall be declared, expounded, taken and judged of estates in fee-simple only.

IV. And also that all and singular person and persons having a sole estate or interest in fee-simple, or seised in fee-simple in coparcenary, or in common in fee-simple, of and in any manors, lands, tenements, rents or other hereditaments, in possession, reversion, remainder, or of rents or services incident to any reversion or remainder, and having no manors, lands, tenements or hereditaments holden of the King, his heirs or successors, or of any other person or persons by knights-service, shall have full and free liberty, power and authority to give, dispose, will or devise to any person or persons (except bodies politick and corporate) by his last will and testament in writing, or otherwise by any act or acts lawfully executed in his life, by himself solely, or by himself and other jointly, severally or particularly, or by all those ways, or any of them, as much as in him of right is or shall be, all his said manors, lands, tenements, rents and hereditaments, or any of them, or any rents, commons or other profits or commodities out of or to be perceived of the same, or out of any parcel thereof, at

his own free will and pleasure; any clause in the said former act notwithstanding.

XIV. And it is further declared and enacted by the authority aforesaid, That wills or testaments made of any manors, lands, tenements, or other hereditaments, by any woman covert, or person within the age of twenty-one years, idiot, or by any person de non sane memory, shall not be taken to be good or effectual in the law.

13 ELIZ. CAP. 5. [A.D. 1570.]

An act against fraudulent deeds, alienations, &c.

For the avoiding and abolishing of feigned, covinous and fraudulent feoffments, gifts, grants, alienations, conveyances, bonds, suits, judgments and executions, as well of lands and tenements as of goods and chattels, more commonly used and practised in these days than hath been seen or heard of heretofore: (2) which feoffments, gifts, grants, alienations, conveyances, bonds, suits, judgments and executions, have been and are devised and contrived of malice, fraud, covin, collusion or guile, to the end, purpose and intent, to delay, hinder or defraud creditors and others of their just and lawful actions, suits, debts, accounts, damages, penalties, forfeitures, heriots, mortuaries and reliefs, not only to the let or hinderance of the due course and execution of law and justice, but also to the overthrow of all true and plain dealing, bargaining and chevisance between man and man. without the which no commonwealth or civil society can be maintained or continued:

II. Be it therefore declared, ordained and enacted by the authority of this present parliament, That all and every feoffment, gift, grant. alienation, bargain and conveyance of lands, tenements, hereditaments, goods and chattels, or of any of them, or of any lease, rent. common or other profit or charge out of the same lands, tenements. hereditaments, goods and chattels, or any of them, by writing or otherwise, (2) and all and every bond, suit, judgment and execution. at any time had or made sithence the beginning of the Queen's majesty's reign that now is, or at any time hereafter to be had or made, (3) to or for any intent or purpose before declared and expressed, shall be from henceforth deemed and taken (only as against that person or persons, his or their heirs, successors, executors, administrators and assigns, and every of them, whose actions, suits, debts. accounts, damages, penalties, forfeitures, heriots, mortuaries and re

liefs, by such guileful, covinous or fraudulent devices and practices, as is aforesaid, are, shall or might be in any wise disturbed, hindred, delayed or defrauded) to be clearly and utterly void, frustrate and of none effect; any pretence, colour, feigned consideration, expressing of use, or any other matter or thing to the contrary notwithstanding.

III. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That all and every the parties to such feigned, covinous or fraudulent feoffment, gift, grant, alienation, bargain, conveyance, bonds, suits, judgments, executions and other things before expressed, and being privy and knowing of the same, or any of them; (2) which at any time after the tenth day of June next coming shall wittingly and willingly put in ure, avow, maintain, justify or defend the same, or any of them, as true, simple, and done, had or made bonâ fide and upon good consideration; (3) or shall alien or assign any the lands, tenements, goods, leases or other things before-mentioned, to him or them conveyed as is aforesaid, or any part thereof; (4) shall incur the penalty and forfeiture of one year's value of the said lands, tenements and hereditaments, leases, rents, commons or other profits, of or out of the same; (5) and the whole value of the said goods and chattels ; (6) and also so much money as are or shall be contained in any such covinous and feigned bond; (7) the one moiety whereof to be to the Queen's majesty, her heirs and successors, and the other moiety to the party or parties grieved by such feigned and fraudulent feoffment, gift, grant, alienation, bargain, conveyance, bonds, suits, judgments, executions, leases, rents, commons, profits, charges and other things aforesaid, to be recovered in any of the Queen's courts of record by action of debt, bill, plaint or information, wherein no essoin, protection or wager of law shall be admitted for the defendant or defendants; (8) and also being thereof lawfully convicted, shall suffer imprisonment for one half year without bail or mainprise.

VI. Provided also, and be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, That this act, or anything therein contained, shall not extend to any estate or interest in lands, tenements, hereditaments, leases, rents, commons, profits, goods or chattels, had, made, conveyed or assured, or hereafter to be had, made, conveyed or assured, which estate or interest is or shall be upon good consideration and bond fide lawfully conveyed or assured to any person or persons, or bodies politick or corporate, not having at the time of such conveyance or assurance to them made, any manner of notice or knowledge of such covin, fraud or collusion as is aforesaid; anything before mentioned to the contrary hereof notwithstanding.