Purchase, indeed, in its vulgar and confined acceptation, is applied only to such acquisitions of land as are obtained by way of bargain and sale for money, or some other valuable consideration. But this falls far short of the legal idea of purchase: for, if I give land freely to another, he is in the eye of the law a purchaser, and falls within Littleton's definition, for he comes to the estate by his own agreement; that is, he consents to the gift. A man who has his father's estate settled upon him in tail, before he was born, is also a purchaser; for he takes quite another estate than the law of descents would have given him. Nay, even if the ancestor devises his estate to his heir-at-law by will, with other limitations, or in any other shape than the course of descents would direct, such heir shall take by purchase. But if a man, seised in fee, devises his whole estate to his heir-at-law, so that the heir takes neither a greater nor a less state by the devise than he would have done without it, he shall be adjudged to take by descent, even though it be charged with incumbrances, this being for the benefit of creditors and others who have demands on the estate of the ancestor.

ID., 243. The difference, in effect, between the acquisition of an estate by descent and by purchase, consists principally in these two points: 1. That by purchase the estate acquires a new inheritable quality, and is descendible to the owner's blood in general, and not the blood only of some particular ancestor. For, when a man takes an estate by purchase, he takes it not ut feudum paternum or maternum, which would descend only to the heirs by the father's or the mother's side but he takes it ut feudum antiquum, as a feud of indefinite antiquity, whereby it becomes inheritable to his heirs general, first of the paternal, and then of the maternal line. 2. An estate taken by purchase will not make the heir answerable for the acts of the ancestor, as an estate by descent will. For if the ancestor, by any deed, obligation, covenant, or the like, bindeth himself and his heirs, and dieth; this deed, obligation, or covenant, shall be binding upon the heir, so far forth only as he (or any other in trust

for him) had any estate of inheritance vested in him by descent from (or any estate per auter vie coming to him by special occupancy, as heir to) that ancestor, sufficient to answer the charge; whether he remains in possession, or hath alienated it before action brought; which sufficient estate is in the law called assets: from the French word, assez, enough. Therefore if a man covenants, for himself and his heirs, to keep my house in repair, I can then (and then only) compel his heir to perform this covenant, when he has an estate sufficient for this purpose, or assets, by descent from the covenantor: for though the covenant descends to the heir, whether he inherits any estate or no, it lies dormant, and is not compulsory, until he has assets by descent. This is the legal signification of the word perquisitio, or purchase; and in this sense it includes the five following methods of acquiring a title to estates: I. Escheat. 2. Occupancy. 3. Prescription. 4. Forfeiture.

tion.

5. Aliena

CHAPTER II.

FEOFFMENT.

LIT., § 59. And it is to be understood that in a lease for yeares, by deed or without deed, there needs no livery of seisin to be made to the lessee, but he may enter when he will by force of the same lease. But of feoffements made in the country, or gifts in taile, or lease for terme of life; in such cases where a freehold shall passe, if it be by deed or without deed, it behoveth to have livery of seisin.

CO. LIT., 48, a. Traditio, or deliberatio seisinae, is a solemnitie that the law requireth for the passing of a freehold of lands or tenements by deliverie of seisin thereof..

And there be two kinds of livery of seisin, viz., a liverie in deed, and a livery in law. . A livery in deed may be done two manner of wayes. By a solemne act and words; as by delivery of the ring or haspe of the doore, or by a branch or twigge of a tree, or by a turfe of the land, and with these or the like words, the feoffor and feoffee both holding the deed of feoffment, and the ring of the doore, haspe, branch, twigge, or turfe, and the feoffor saying, Here I deliver you seisin and possession of this house, in the name of all the lands and tenements contained in this deed, according to the forme and effect of this deed; or by words without any ceremony or act; as, the feoffor being at the house doore, or within the house, Here I deliver you seisin and possession of this house, in the name of seisin and possession of all the lands and tenements contained in this deed; et sic de similibus: or, Enter you into this house or land, and have and enjoy it according to the deed: or, Enter into the house or land, and God give you joy or, I am content you shall enjoy this land according to the deed; or the like. For if words may amount to a liverie

within the view, much more it shall upon the land. But if a man deliver the deed of feoffment upon the land, this amounts to no livery of the land, for it hath another operation to take effect as a deed; but if he deliver the deed upon the land in name of seisin of all the lands contained in the deed, this is a good livery: and so are other books intended that treat hereof, that the deed was delivered in name of seisin of that land. Hereby it appeareth that the delivery of any thing upon the land in name of seisin of that land, though it be nothing concerning the land, as a ring of gold, is good, and so hath it beene resolved by all the judges; and so of the like.

tur.

48, b. A livery in law is, when the feoffor saith to the feoffee, being in the view of the house or land (I give you yonder land to you and your heires, and goe enter into the same, and take possession thereof accordingly), and the feoffee doth accordingly in the life of the feoffor enter, this is a good feoffment, for signatio pro traditione habeBut if either feoffor or the feoffee die before entry the livery is voyd. And livery within the view is good where there is no deed of feoffment. And such a liverie is good, albeit the land lie in another county. . . . A man maketh a charter of feoffment and delivers seisin within the view, the feoffee dares not enter for feare of death, but claimes the same, this shall vest the freehold and inheritance in him, albeit by the livery no estate passed to him, neither in deed nor in law, so as such a claime shall serve, as well to vest a new estate and right in the feoffee, as in the common case to revest an ancient estate and right in the disseisee, &c., as shall be said hereafter more at large in the chapter of Continuall Claime. And so note a liverie in law shall be perfected and executed by an entry in law.

LIT., § 60. But if a man letteth lands or tenements by deed or without deed for terme of yeares, the remainder over to another for life, or in taile, or in fee; in this case it behooveth that the lessor maketh livery of seisin to the

lessee for yeares, otherwise nothing passeth to them in the remainder, although that the lessee enter into the tenements. And if the termour in this case entreth before any liverie of seisin made to him, then is the freehold and also the reversion in the lessor. But if he maketh liverie of seisin to the lessee, then is the freehold together with the fee to them in the remainder, according to the forme of the grant and the will of the lessor.

2 BL. COM., 310. 1. A feoffment, feoffamentum, is a substantive derived from the verb, to enfeoff, feoffare or infeudare, to give one a feud; and therefore feoffment is properly donatio feudi. It is the most ancient method of conveyance, the most solemn and public, and therefore the most easily remembered and proved. And it may properly be defined, the gift of any corporeal hereditament to another. He that so gives, or enfeoffs, is called the feoffor; and the person enfeoffed is denominated the feoffee.

This is plainly derived from, or is indeed itself the very mode of, the ancient feodal donation; for though it may be performed by the word "enfeoff" or "grant," yet the aptest word of feoffment is, "do" or "dedi." And it is still directed and governed by the same feodal rules; insomuch that the principal rule relating to the extent and effect of the feodal grant, "tenor est qui legem dat feudo," is in other words become the maxim of our law with relation to feoffments, "modus legem dat donationi." And, therefore, as in pure feodal donations, the lord, from whom the feud moved, must expressly limit and declare the continuance or quantity of estate which he meant to confer, "ne quis plus donasse pracsumatur quam in donatione expresserit;" so, if one grants by feoffment lands or tenements to another, and limits or expresses no estate, the grantee (due ceremonies of law being performed) hath barely an estate for life. For as the personal abilities of the feoffee were originally presumed to be the immediate or principal inducements to the feoffment, the feoffee's estate ought to be confined to his person, and