Statute of Uses Act 1535
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1535 c. 10 |
(27 Hen. 8) C A P. X.
'W H E R E by the common Laws of this Realm, Lands, Tenements and Hereditaments be not devisable by Testament, (2) nor ought to be transferred from one to another, but by solemn Livery and Seisin, Matter of Record, Writing sufficient madebona fide , without Covin or Fraud; (3) yet nevertheless divers and sundry Imaginations, subtle Inventions and Practices have been used, whereby the Hereditaments of this Realm have been conveyed from one to another by fraudulent Feoffments, Fines Recoveries and other Assurances craftily made to secret Uses, Intents and Trusts; (4) and also by Wills and Testaments, sometime made by nude parolx and Words, sometime by Signs and Tokens, and sometime by Writing, and for the most Part made by such Persons as be visited with Sickness, in their extreme Agonies and Pains, or at such Time as they have scantly had any good Memory or Remembrance; (5)at which Times they being provoked by greedy and covetous Persons lying in wait about them, do many Times dispose indiscreetly and unadvisedly their Lands and Inheritances; (6)by reason whereof, and by Occasion of which fraudulent Feoffments, Fines, Recoveries and other like Assurances to Uses, Confidences and Trusts, divers and many Heirs have been unjustly at sundry Times disherited, the Lords have lost their Wards, Marriages, Reliefs, Harriots, Escheats, Aidspur fair fitz chivalier, & pur file marier , (7) and scantly any Person can be certainly assured of any Lands by them purchased, nor know surely against whom they shall use their Actions or Executions for their Rights, Titles and Duties; (8) also Men married have lost their Tenances by the Curtesy, (9) Women their Dowers, (10)manifest Perjuries by Trial of such secret Wills and Uses have been committed; (11) the King's Highness hath lost the Profits and Advantages of the Lands of Persons attainted, (12) and of the Lands craftily put in Feoffments to the Uses of Aliens born, (13) and also the Profits of Waste for a Year and a Day of Lands of Felons attainted, (14) and the Lords their Escheats thereof; (15) and many other Inconveniences have happened, and daily do increase among the King's Subjects, to their great Trouble and Inquietness, and to the utter Subversion of the ancient Common Laws of this Realm; (16) for the extirping and Extinguishment of all such subtle practised Feoffments, Fines, Recoveries, Abuses and Errors heretofore used and accustomed in this Realm, to the Subversion of the good and ancient Laws of the same, and to the Intent that the King's Highness, or any other his Subjects of this Realm, shall not in any wise hereafter by any Means or Inventions be deceived, damaged or hurt, by reason of such Trusts, Uses or Confidences:' (17)It may please the King's most Royal Majesty, that it may be enacted by his Highness, by the Assentof the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and the Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the Authority of the same, in Manner and Form following; that is to say, That where any Person or Persons stand or be seized, or at any Time hereafter shall happen to be seized, of and in any Honours, Castles, Manors, Lands, Tenements, Rents, Services, Reversions, Remainders or other Hereditaments, to the Use, Confidence or Trust of any other Person or Persons, or of any Body Politick, by reason of any Bargain, Sale, Feoffment, Fine, Recovery, Covenant, Contract, Agreement, Will or otherwise, by any manner Means whatsoever it be; that in every such Case, all and every such Person and Persons, and Bodies Politick, that have or hereafter shall have any such Use, Confidence or Trust, in Fee-simple, Fee-tail, for Term of Life or for Years, or otherwise, or any Use, Confidence or Trust, in Remainder or Reverser, shall from henceforth stand and be seized, deemed and adjudged in lawful Seisin, Estate and Possession of and in the same Honours, Castles, Manors, Lands, Tenements, Rents, Services, Reversions, Remainders and Hereditaments, with their Appurtenances, to all Intents, Constructions and Purposes in the Law, of and in such like Estates as they had or shall have in Use, Trust or Confidence of or in the same; (9)and that the Estate, Title, Right and Possession that was in such Person or Persons that were, or hereafter shall be seized of any Lands, Tenements or Hereditaments, to the Use, Confidence or Trust of any such Person or Persons, or of any Body Politick, be from henceforth clearly deemed and adjudged to be in him or them that have, or hereafter shall have, such Use, Confidence or Trust, after such Quality, Manner, Form and Condition as they had before, in or to the Use, Confidence or Trustthat was in them.
II Assurance made of divers to the Use of one or some of them.
II. And be it further enacted by the Authority aforesaid, That where divers and many Persons be, or hereafter shall happen to be, jointly seized of and in any Lands, Tenements, Rents, Reversions, Remainders or other Hereditaments, to the Use, Confidence or Trust of any of them that be so jointly seized, that in every such Case that those Person or Persons which have or hereafter shall have any such Use, Confidence or Trust in any such Lands, Tenements, Rents, Reversions, Remainders or Hereditaments, shall from henceforth have, and be deemed and adjudged to have only to him or them that have, or hereafter shall have any such Use, Confidence or Trust, such Estate, Possession and Seisin, of and in the same Lands, Tenements, Rents, Reversions, Remainders and other Hereditaments, in like Nature, Manner, Form, Condition and Course, as he or they had before in the Use, Confidence or Trust of the same Lands, Tenements or Hereditaments; (2) saving and reserving to all and singular Persons, and Bodies Politick, their Heirs and Successors, other than those Person or Persons which be seized, or hereafter shall be seized, of any Lands, Tenements or Hereditaments, to any Use, Confidence or Trust, all such Right, Title, Entry, Interest, Possession, Rents and Action, as they or any of them had, or...
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