ledgment, or which may be so made, | same effect only, as if the same had executed and acknowledged as afore- been so acknowledged or proved besaid, before the first day of January fore any judge, justice of the peace, next, shall be deemed, held or ad- or alderman within this commonjudged, invalid or defective, or insuf- wealth." ficient in law, or avoided or preju- The act relating to executions and diced, by reason of any informality for other purposes, passed 16th April, or omission in setting forth the parti- 1840, Pamph. L. 412, enacts, § 7, culars of the acknowledgment made" that the recorders of deeds should before such officer, as aforesaid, in have authority to take the acknowthe certificate thereof, but all and ledgment and proof of the execution every such grant, bargain and sale, of any deed, mortgage, or other confeoffment, deed of conveyance, lease, veyance of any lands, tenements, or release, assignment or other assu- hereditaments lying or being in the rance so made, executed and acknow- county, for which they are respectledged as aforesaid, shall be as good, ively appointed as recorders of deeds, valid and effectual in law for trans- or within every city, district, or part ferring, passing and conveying the thereof, or for any contract, letter estate, right, title and interest of such of attorney, or any other writing, husband and wife of, in, and to the under seal, to be used or recorded lands, tenements and hereditaments within their respective counties; and mentioned in the same, as if all the such acknowledgment or proof, taken requisites and particulars of such ac- or made in the manner directed by knowledgment mentioned in the act, the laws of this state, and certified by entitled an act for the better confirm the said recorder, under his hand and ation of the estates of persons holding seal of office; which certificate shall or claiming under feme coverts, and be endorsed or annexed to said deed for establishing a mode by which hus- or instrument aforesaid, shall have band and wife may hereafter convey the same force and effect, and be as their estates, passed the twenty-fourth good and available in law, for all day of February, one thousand seven purposes, as if the same had been hundred and seventy, were particu- made or taken before any judge of larly set forth in the certificate thereof, the supreme court, or president or or appeared upon the face of the associate judge of any of the courts of common pleas within this common. wealth."

same.

By the act of the 3d day of April, 1840, Pamph. L. 233, it is enacted, "that where any deed, conveyance, or other instrument of writing has been or shall be made and executed, either within or out of this state, and the acknowledgment or proof thereof, duly certified, by any officer under seal, according to the existing laws of this commonwealth, for the purpose of being recorded therein, such certicate shall be deemed prima facie evidence of such execution and acknowledgment, or proof, without requiring proof of the said seal, as fully, to all intents and purposes, and with the

Rhode Island. Before any sena. tor, judge, justice of the peace, or town clerk. When the acknowledg ment is made in another state or country, it must be before a judge, justice, mayor or notary public therein, and certified under his hand and seal. A wife releasing dower need not acknowledge the deed; but to a conveyance an acknowledgment and private examination are necessary. 2 Hill. Ab. c. 34, s. 94.

South Carolina. Before a judge of the supreme court. A feme covert may release her dower or convey her

own estate, by joining her husband | By the statute of 1820, the acknowin a deed, and being privately ex- ledgment in other states may be amined, in the latter case, seven days conformable to the laws of the state, afterwards, before a judge of law or in which the grantor resides. By equity, or a justice of the quorum; the act of 1831, c. 90, s. 9, it is proshe may also release dower by a vided, that all deeds or conveyances separate deed. The certificate of the for land made without the limits of officer is under seal and signed by this state, shall be proved as heretothe woman. Deeds may be proved fore, or before a notary public under upon the oath of one witness before his seal of office. Caruthers & a magistrate, and this is said to be Nicholson's Compilation of the Stat. the general practice. When the deed of Tenn. 593. The officer must is to be executed out of the state, the certify that he is acquainted with the justices of the county where the land grantor, and that he is an inhabitant lies, or a judge of the court of com- of the state. There must also be a mon pleas, may by dedimus empower certificate of the governor or secretwo or more justices of the county tary, under the great seal, or a judge where the grantor resides to take his of the superior court that the acknowacknowledgment upon the oath of two ledgment is in due form. Griff. Reg. witnesses to the execution. 2 Hill. h. t.; 2 Hill. Ab. 458. By an act Ab. 448, 9; Griff. Reg. h. t. passed during the session of 18391840, chap. 26, it is enacted,—§ 1. "That deeds of every description may be proved by two subscribing witnesses, or acknowledged and recorded, and may then be read in evidence. 2. That deeds executed beyond the limits of the United States may be proved or acknowledged before a notary public, or before any consul, minister, or ambassador of the United States, or before a commissioner of the state.-3. That the governor may appoint commissioners in other states and in foreign countries for the proof, &c. of deeds.-4. Affidavits taken as above, as to pedigree or heirship, may be received as evidence, by executors or administrators, or in regard to the partition and distribution of property or estates." See 2 Yerg. 91, 108, 238, 400, 520; 3 Yerg. 81; Cooke, 431.

The

Tennessee. A deed or power of attorney to convey land must be acknowledged or proved by two subscribing witnesses, in the court of the county, or the court of the district where the land lies. certificate of acknowledgment must be endorsed upon the deed by the clerk of the court. The acknow ledgment of a feme covert is made before a court of record in the state, or, if the parties live out of it, before a court of record in another state or territory; and if the wife is unable to attend court, the acknowledgment may be before commissioners empowered by the court of the county in which the husband acknowledges -the commission to be returned certified with the court seal, and recorded. In all these cases the certificate must state that the wife has been privately examined. The seal of the court is to be annexed when the deed is to be used out of the state, when made in it, and vice versa; in which case there is to be a seal, and a certificate of the presiding judge or justice to the official station of the clerk, and the due formality of the attestation.

Vermont. 1. All deeds and other conveyances of lands, or any estate or interest therein, shall be signed and sealed by the party granting the same, and signed by two or more witnesses, and acknowledged by the grantor, before a justice of the peace. Rev. Stat. tit. 14, c. 6, s. 4. Every

She acknowledges the deed before the court, or else before two justices of the county where she dwells, or the magistrate of a corporate town, if she lives within the United States, these officers being empowered by a commission from the clerk of the court where the deed is to be recorded, to examine her and to take her acknowledgment. If she is out of the United States, the commission authorises two judges or justices of any court of law, or the chief magistrate of any city, town, or corporation, in her county, and is executed as by two justices in the United States. The certificate is to be authenticated in the usual form. 2 Hill. Ab. 444, 5; Griff. Reg. h. t. ; 2 Leigh's R. 186; 2 Call, R. 103; 1 Wash. R. 319.

deed by the husband and wife shall | pears in court and is examined pricontain an acknowledgment by the vately by one of the judges, as to wife, made apart from her husband, her freely signing the instrument, before a judge of the supreme court, and continuing satisfied with it,-the a judge of the county court, or some deed being shown and explained to justice of the peace, that she executed her. such conveyance freely, and without any fear or compulsion of her husband; a certificate of which acknowledgment, so taken, shall be endorsed on the deed by the authority taking the same. Id. s. 7.-2. All deeds and other conveyances, and powers of attorney for the conveyance of lands, the acknowledgment or proof of which shall have been, or hereafter shall be taken without this state, if certified agreeably to the laws of the state, province, or kingdom in which it was taken, shall be as valid as though the same were taken before some proper officer or court, within this state; and the proof of the same may be taken, and the same acknowledged with like effect, before any justice of the peace, magistrate, or notary public, within the United States, or in any foreign country, or before any commissioner appointed for that purpose by the governor of this state, or before any minister, chargé des affaires, or consul of the United States in any foreign country; and the acknowledgment of a deed by a feme covert, in the form required by this chapter, may be taken by either of the said persons. Id. 9.

Virginia. Before the general court, or the court of the district, county, city, or corporation where some part of the land lies; when the party lives out of the state or of the district or county where the land lies, the acknowledgment must be before any court of law, or the chief magistrate of any city, town, or corporation of the country where the party resides, and certified by him in the usual form. When a married woman executes the deed, she ap

ACQUETS, estates, in the civil law. Property which, has been acquired by purchase, gift, or otherwise than by succession. Merlin Rép. h. t., confines acquets to immoveable property. In Louisiana they embrace the profits of all the effects of which the husband has the administration and enjoyment, either of right or in fact, of the produce of the reciprocal industry and labour of both husband and wife, and of the estates which they may acquire during the marriage, either by dona. tions, made jointly to them both, or by purchase, or in any other similar way, even although the purchase be only in the name of one of the two, and not of both, because in that case the period of time when the purchase is made is alone attended to, and not the person who made the purchase. Civ. Code, art. 2371. This applies to all marriages contracted in that state, or out of it,

when the parties afterwards go there | refuses to acquit him after the debt to live, as to acquets afterwards has been satisfied. Reg. of Writs, made there. Ib. art. 2370. The 158. acquets are divided into two equal portions between the husband and wife, or between their heirs at the dissolution of the marriage. Ib. art. 2375. The parties may however lawfully stipulate there shall be no community of profits or gains. Ib. art. 2369. But the parties have no right to agree that they shall be governed by the laws of another country. 3 Martin's Rep. 581. Vide 17 Martin's Rep. 571; 2 Kent's Com. 153, note.

or his slaves. Vide Ruth. Inst. ch. | himself, on oath, of having intended 6 & 7; Dig. 41, 1, 53; Inst. 2, 9; any contempt. Ib. 2, 9, 3.

ACT, contracts, in the civil law. Any writing which proves something, and which establishes the principal foundation of a cause. Acts are either

ACQUITTAL, contracts. A release, a discharge from an obligation or engagement. According to Lord Coke there are three kinds of acquit-public or private. Public acts usutal, namely, 1, By deed, when the party releases the obligation; 2, By prescription; and, 3, By tenure. Co. Litt. 100, a.

ACQUITTAL, crim. law, practice, is the absolution of a party charged with a crime or misdemeanor. Acquittal is of two kinds, in fact and in law. The former takes place when the jury upon trial find a verdict of not guilty; the latter when a man is charged merely as an accessary, and the principal has been acquitted. 2 Inst. 384. An acquittal is a bar to any future prosecution for the same offence as that contained in the first indictment.

ally denominated authentic, are those which have a public authority, and which have been made before public officers, are authorised by a public seal, have been made public by the authority of a magistrate, or which have been extracted and been properly authenticated from public re cords. Acts under private signature are those which have been made by private individuals, under their hands. An act of this kind does not acquire the force of an authentic act, by being registered in the office of a notary. 5 N. S. 693; 8 N. S. 568; 3 L. R. 419; 3 N. S. 396; 11 M. R. 243, unless it has been properly acknowledged before the officer by the parties to it. 5 N. S. 196. Private acts are those made by private

ACQUITTANCE, contracts, is an agreement in writing to discharge a party from an engagement to pay a sum of money; it is evidence of pay-persons, as registers in relation to ment. It differs from a release in this, that the latter must be under seal, while an acquittance is not under seal. Poth. Oblig. n. 781. In Pennsylvania, a receipt (q. v.) though not under seal, has nearly the same effect as a release. 1 Rawle R. 391. Vide 3 Salk. 298, pl. 2; Off. of Ex. 217. Co. Litt. 212 a, 273 a.

ACRE, measures, is a quantity of land containing in length forty perches, and four in breadth, or one hundred and sixty square perches, of whatever shape may be the land. Serg. Land Laws of Penn. 185. See Cro. Eliz. 476, 665; 6 Co. 67; Poph. 55; Co. Litt. 5, b, and note

22.

ACREDULITARE, obsolete. To purge one's self of an offence by oath. It frequently happens that when a person has been arrested for a contempt, he comes into court and purges

their receipts and expenditures, schedules, acquittances, and the like. Nov. 73, c. 2; Code, lib. 7, tit. 22, 1. 6; lib. 4, t. 21; Dig. lib. 22, tit. 4; Civ. Code of Louis. art. 2231 to 2254; Toull. Dr. Civ. Français, tom. 8, p. 94.

ACT, evidence. The performance of something, as the acts of one conspirator, committed in pursuance of their design, are evidence against them all; proof of an overt act of treason by two witnesses is required. See Övert. The term, acts, includes written correspondence, and other papers relative to the design of the parties, but whether it includes unpublished writings upon abstract questions, though of a kindred nature, has been doubted. Foster's Rep. 198; 2 Stark. R. 116, 141. In cases of partnership it is a rule that the act or declaration of each partner in furtherance