Statute of Enrolments

The Statute of Enrolments
Other legislation
Parliament of England
Long title	An Act concerning Inrollments of Bargains and Contracts of Lands and Tenements.
Citation	27 Hen 8 c 16
Relates to	Statute of Uses

The Statute of Enrolments was a 1536 Act of the Parliament of England that regulated the sale and transfer of landsmen. The Statute is commonly considered an addition to the Statute of Uses, which was passed within the same Parliament, probably due to an omission in the Statute of Uses. It is thought to have been intended to prevent secret conveyancing, although modern academics instead assert that it was so Henry VIII could keep an accurate record of who his freeholders were. The Statute, which only provided for estates "of inheritance and freehold", was easily evaded through the sale of an estate for a limited time period, as leasehold, something given validity at the common law level in 1621 by Lutwich v Mitton.

Statute

The Statute was intended as an addition to the Statute of Uses, and was passed in the same session of Parliament; Edward Coke, for example, referred to it as "but a Proviso" to the Statute of Uses. The Statute was drafted quickly, by the Clerk of the House of Commons rather than a legislator, and is interesting in that unlike most government bills it completely lacks a preamble. It is thought by Charles Isaac Elton that it was drafted "as some sort of emergency legislation", which Kaye backs up, saying that it was most likely due to some omission in the Statute of Uses. The Statute provided that after 31 July 1536, no land was to be transferred based on a sale unless that sale had been certified by either the courts in Westminster or the local Justices of the Peace, unless it was in those cities or boroughs where this was already required.^[1]

The Statute was evaded through simply selling the land for a period of years, rather than freehold,^[2] something given validity at the common law by Lutwich v Mitton in 1621.^[3] This was valid because the statute only applied to estates "of inheritance and freehold", not of leasehold.^[4] The common impression is that the Statute was intended to prevent secret conveyancing;^[5] Oxland instead interprets it as being a way for Henry VIII to keep an accurate record of who his freeholders were at any one time.^[6]

References

↑ Kaye (1988) p.617
↑ Holdsworth (2004) p.159
↑ Holdsworth (2004) p.160
↑ Oxland (1985) p.64
↑ Kaye (1988) p.618
↑ Oxland (1985) p.63

Bibliography

Holdsworth, William (2004). An historical introduction to the land law. The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. ISBN 1-58477-262-X.
Kaye, J.M. (1988). "A note on the Statute of Enrolments, 1536". Law Quarterly Review (Sweet & Maxwell) 104 (1). ISSN 0023-933X.
Oxland, John (1985). Understanding land law. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 0-455-20303-2.

United Kingdom legislation

Pre-Parliamentary legislation	List of English statutes Charter of Liberties Magna Carta

Acts of Parliament by states preceding the Kingdom of Great Britain	Acts of the Parliament of England to 1483 1485–1601 1603–1641 Interregnum (1642–1660) 1660–1699 1700–1706 Acts of the Parliament of Scotland Acts of the Parliament of Ireland to 1700 1701–1800

Acts of Parliament of the Kingdom of Great Britain	1707–1719 1720–1739 1740–1759 1760–1779 1780–1800

Acts of Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland	1801–1819 1820–1839 1840–1859 1860–1879 1880–1899 1900–1919 1920–1939 1940–1959 1960–1979 1980–1999 2000 to date Halsbury's Statutes UK Statute Law Database Short titles

Church of England measures	List Church of England Assembly (Powers) Act 1919

Legislation of devolved institutions	Acts of the Scottish Parliament Acts and Measures of the National Assembly for Wales Acts of the Northern Ireland Assembly Acts of the Parliament of Northern Ireland Orders in Council for Northern Ireland

Orders-in-Council	Order in Council

Secondary legislation	United Kingdom Statutory Instruments Scottish Statutory Instruments Act of Sederunt, Act of Adjournal

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Thursday, September 19, 2013. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.