is executed by the grantor, is usually called the original, and the rest are counterparts. Though of late it is most frequent for all the parties to execute every part, which renders them all originals. But a counEyton v. terpart of a deed has been admitted to be sufficient Eyton, Prec. in Cha. evidence of such deed and a conveyance decreed accordingly. 116. Finch's Law, 109. A Deed transfers the out the Assent of the Grantee. : 28. If there happens to be any variance between the indenture and counterpart, it shall be taken as the deed of the grantor is, and the other shall be intended only the misprision of the writer. 29. All deeds, whether deriving their effect from Estate with the common law, or the statute of uses, do, immediately upon their execution by the grantors, devest estate out of them, and put it in the party to whom the conveyance is made, though in his absence, and without his notice, till some disagreement to such estate appears. Gorton's Case, infra, c. 12. Thompson v. Leach, 2 Vent. 201. 3 Mod. 296. Article of Agreement. 30. This doctrine is founded on the principle, that the assent of the party who takes, is implied in all conveyances; 1. Because there is a strong intendment in law, that it is for a person's benefit to take : and no man can be supposed to be unwilling to that which is for his advantage. 2. Because it would seem incongruous and absurd, that when a conveyance is completely executed on the grantor's part, the estate should continue in him. 3. But the principal reason why the law will not suffer the operation of a conveyance to be in suspence, and to expect the agreement of the party to whom it was made, is to prevent the uncertainty of the freehold. 31. It is a common practice for persons to enter into an article of agreement, preparatory to the execution of a formal deed, whereby it is stipulated that one of the parties shall convey to the other certain lands, or release his right to them, or execute some other disposition of them. An article is therefore considered as a memorandum or minute of an agreement to make some future disposition or modification of real property; and such an instrument will create a trust or equitable estate, of which a specific per- Tit. 12. c. 1. formance will be decreed in Chancery. 32. Articles are usually entered into for the purchase and sale of lands; for the taking and granting of leases; for making mortgages, and settlements on marriage. 1° Sufficient Parties. SECTION 1. WHEN it became usual to reduce all agreements into writing, the following circumstances were deemed necessary to a deed: 1. Sufficient parties and a proper subject-matter. 2. A good and sufficient consideration. 3. Writing on paper or parchment duly stamped. 4. Words sufficient to specify the agreement, and bind the parties, legally and orderly set forth. 5. Reading, if desired. 6. Sealing and signing. 7. Delivery. 8. Attestation by witnesses. 2. The first requisite to a valid deed is, that there be persons able to contract and be contracted with, for the purposes intended by the deed; and also a thing or subject-matter to be contracted for. So that in every deed there must necessarily be a grantor, a grantee, and a thing granted. 3. All those who have any estate, right, title, or interest whatever, either at law or in equity, in that which is the subject-matter of a deed, must necessarily be parties to it, otherwise their estates or interests will remain in them. And all those who are intended to take an immediate interest under a deed indented, must also be parties to it, by sealing it. But a person may take an estate in remainder, by a deed 1 Inst. 231 a. to which he is not a party. And when the person to whom a remainder is limited, enters on the land, he then becomes bound to perform the conditions contained in the deed. 4. In a deed poll, the person to whom the estate is granted, becomes in fact a party to it. Thus if A. by deed poll agrees to pay a sum of money to B., B. shall maintain an action upon it, though he be a stranger, and did not seal it. 2 Vin. Ab. 673. Faits, C. a. 1 Inst. 230 b. 231 a. Com. Dig. Fait, D. I. 5. A power of attorney may be given in a deed 1 Inst. 52 b. poll to a stranger, to make livery of seisin. Though it was formerly held, that such a power could, in an indenture, be only given to one of the parties to it. convey by Deed. 6. With respect to the persons who are capable of Who may conveying by deed, it may be laid down as a general rule, that all those who have attained the age of 21 years, are of sound mind and understanding, and not under the power of others, may be parties to, and bind themselves by deed. 7. Persons who are blind, deaf, or dumb, or who are both deaf and dumb, may convey by deed; if it Perk. § 25 appear that, notwithstanding those disabilities, they are capable of comprehending the nature and con The Queen, Corporations. sequences of a deed, and can express their meaning by writing or signs. 8. The king can only grant and take by matter of record; but a queen consort is considered by the common law as a feme sole: she may therefore be party to any species of deed, without the king. By the statute 39 & 40 Geo. III. c. 88. § 8. a queen consort is enabled, during the joint lives of the king and such queen, by deed under her hand and seal, to grant, convey, alien, and dispose of any manors, &c. which shall be purchased by, or in trust for her; or which shall come to, or devolve upon, or vest in her, or any person or persons in trust for her, for any estate of inheritance or freehold, as fully and effectually as if she were sole and unmarried. By the ninth section the like power is given to all future queens, with a proviso that this act shall not enable any queen consort to dispose of any palace belonging to the king, in right of the Crown, vested in her for life: or to make any grant but such as she might make if sole. 9. A corporation sole, as a bishop or parson, may be a party to a deed; and although a corporation aggregate is said to be invisible, immortal, and to exist only in supposition of law, yet such an 1 Inst. 94 b. artificial body is capable, by its creation, of being party to a deed; and, in many cases, of acquiring or conveying away real property by deed. But a dean without his chapter, a mayor without his commonalty, or the master of a college without his fellows, cannot, by executing a deed, bind the corporation. 10 Rep. 30 b. 1 Sid. 162. 1 Ves, & B. 226. 10. All lay civil corporations may alien their lands as freely as individuals; but ecclesiastical and eleemosynary corporations are restrained by statute 1 Eliz. c. 19. and 18 Eliz. c. 10. from every mode of aliena |