70. A Surrender will not destroy a contingent Remainder 74. A Surrender and Resurrender alters the Descent 76. Construction of Surrenders 99. A Surrender is sometimes supplied in Equity • 591 17. How such Recoveries may be reversed 21. Within what time 25. Surrender 31. A Custom to bar by Surrender, or by Recovery, is good 33. A Grant of the Freehold will destroy an Estate Tail 38. How an Equitable Entail may be barred 41. How conditional Fees are barred 44. Effect of Releases HA Matter of deeds entered into by private persons, which Record. derive their effect from the consent of the contracting parties, I shall now proceed to treat of those assurances which are effected by matter of record; that is, where the sanction of a court of record is called in to substantiate, preserve, and be a perpetual VOL. V. B Private Act. of Lords, c. 4 & 10. testimony of the transfer of property, from one person to another. Assurances by matter of record are, 1. Private acts of parliament; 2. King's grants; 3. Fines; and, 4. Common recoveries. 2. Private acts of parliament derive their origin from the following circumstances. It was a common Hale's Juris. practice, so early as in the reign of Edw. I., for persons to present petitions to parliament for relief in private affairs. These were referred to certain prelates, earls, and barons, appointed at the meeting of every parliament to be receivers and tryers of petitions; who, upon examination of the contents of such petitions, indorsed upon them what course was to be pursued by the petitioners to obtain redress. ld. c. 12. Rot. Parl. N° 78, 79. 3. In those cases where the petitioners might have relief by the ordinary course of law, in the King's courts, the answer was, that the petitioners might sue at common law; and sometimes the petition was referred to the proper court in which the case was determinable: but where the petitioner could have no relief without a new law, made by an act of parliament, either in that particular case, or which might, by a general purview, extend to it, the petition was referred to parliament, and an award was made upon it by the King and the Lords, or by the Lords alone, and sanctioned by the King, which had all the force and effect of a statute. 4. In the first year of the reign of Hen. IV. the vol. 3. 427. Commons indirectly claimed a right of concurring with the Lords in the consideration of petitions, and of joining in the awards made upon them; but the Archbishop of Canterbury told them, in the King's name, that they were only petitioners, and that all judgements appertained to the King and to the Lords, |