lands.

time of entering up the said judgment, or at any time afterwards, or over which such person shall at the time of entering up such judgment, or at any time afterwards, have any disposing power which he might without the assent of any other person exercise for his own benefit, in like manner as the sheriff or other officer may now make and deliver execution of one moiety of the lands and tenements of any person against whom a writ of elegit is sued out; which lands, tenements, rectories, tithes, rents, and hereditaments, by force and virtue of such execution, shall accordingly be held and enjoyed by the party to whom such execution shall be so made and delivered, subject to such account in the Court out of which such execution shall have been sued out as a tenant by elegit is now subject to in a Court of Equity: Provided Proviso as to always, that such party suing out execution, and to whom copyhold any copyhold or customary lands shall be so delivered in execution, shall be liable and is hereby required to make, perform, and render to the lord of the manor or other person entitled all such and the like payments and services as the person against whom such execution shall be issued would have been bound to make, perform, and render in case such execution had not issued; and that the party so suing out such execution, and to whom any such copyhold or customary lands shall have been so delivered in execution, shall be entitled to hold the same until the amount of such payments, and the value of such services, as well as the amount of the judgment, shall have been levied: Provided also, that as Proviso as to against purchasers, mortgagees, or creditors, who shall have purchasers, mortgagees, become such before the time appointed for the commence- or creditors. ment of this act, such writ of elegit shall have no greater or other effect than a writ of elegit would have had in case this act had not passed.

affect real

XIX. Provided always, and be it further enacted, That no No judgment, judgment of any of the said superior Courts, nor any decree decree, &c., to or order in any Court of Equity, nor any rule of a Court of estate, othercommon law, or any order in bankruptcy or lunacy, shall by virtue of this act affect any lands, tenements, or heredita- until regis. ments, as to purchasers, mortgagees, or creditors, unless and tered. until a memorandum or minute, containing the name, and

wise than as before the act,

Prisoner's estate and

wearing ap

parel, &c., not exceeding 201.,

pro

and future estate, to be vested in visional assignee by order of the Court.

the usual or last known place of abode, and the title, trade, or profession of the person whose estate is intended to be affected thereby, and the Court and the title of the cause or matter in which such judgment, decree, order, or rule shall have been obtained or made, and the date of such judgment, decree, order, or rule, and the account of the debt, damages, costs, or monies thereby recovered or ordered to be paid, shall be left with the senior Master of the Court of Common Pleas at Westminster, who shall forthwith enter the same particulars in a book in alphabetical order by the name of the person whose estate is intended to be affected by such judgment, decree, order, or rule; and such officer shall be entitled for any such entry to the sum of five shillings; and all persons shall be at liberty to search the same book on payment of the sum of one shilling.

XXXVII. And be it enacted, That upon the filing of such effects, except petition by such prisoner, or on the filing of such petition by such creditor or creditors as aforesaid, and the evidence in support thereof, as the case may be, it shall be lawful for the said Court for the Relief of Insolvent Debtors, and such Court is hereby authorized and required, to order that all the real and personal estate and effects of such prisoner, both within this realm and abroad, except the wearing apparel, bedding, and other such necessaries of such person and his family, and the working tools and implements of such prisoner, not exceeding in the whole the value of twenty pounds, and all the future estate, right, title, interest, and trust of such prisoner in or to any real and personal estate and effects within this realm or abroad which such prisoner may purchase, or which may revert, descend, be devised or bequeathed, or come to him, before he shall become entitled to his final discharge in pursuance of this act, according to the adjudication made in that behalf; or in case such prisoner shall obtain his full discharge from custody without any adjudication being made by the said Court, then before such prisoner shall be so fully discharged from custody; and all debts due or growing due to such prisoner, or to be due to him or her before such discharge as aforesaid, shall be vested in the provisional assignee for the time being of the

estates and effects of insolvent debtors in England, and such order shall be entered of record in the same Court, and such notice thereof shall be published as the said Court shall direct; and such order when so made shall, without any conveyance or assignment, vest all the real and personal estate and effects of such prisoner, and all such future real and personal estate and effects as aforesaid, of every nature and kind whatsoever, and all such debts as aforesaid, in the said provisional assignee: Provided always, that in case the petition of any such prisoner shall be dismissed by the said Court, such vesting order made in pursuance of such petition shall from and after such dismission be null and void to all intents and purposes: Provided also, that in case any such vesting order as aforesaid shall become null and void by the dismission of the prisoner's petition, all the acts theretofore done by the said provisional assignee, or any person or persons acting under his authority, according to the provisions of this act, shall be good and valid; and no action or suit shall be commenced against such provisional assignee, nor against any person duly acting under his authority, except to recover any property, estate, money, or effects of such prisoner detained after an order made by the said Court for the delivery thereof, and demand made thereupon: Provided also, that when such vesting order shall have been made on the petition of a creditor as aforesaid, it shall be lawful for the said Court, if it shall seem just and right, but not without proof made to the satisfaction of the said Court of the consent of the petitioning creditor, to make order declaring such vesting order to be null and void, and the same shall thereupon be null and void to all intents and purposes.

XLVII. And be it further enacted, That the assignee or Sale of estate assignees of the estate and effects of any such prisoner shall, and effects to with all convenient speed after his or their appointment, use diately.

his or their best endeavours to receive and get in the estate and effects of such prisoner, and shall with all convenient speed make sale of all such estate and effects; and if such prisoner shall be interested in or entitled to any real estate, either in possession, reversion, or expectancy, such real estate, within the space of six months after the appointment

Creditors to meet thirty days before sale of real estate.

of such assignee or assignees, or within such other time as the said Court shall direct, shall be sold by public auction, in such manner, and at such place or places, as shall thirty days before any such sale be approved, in writing under their hands, by the major part in value of the creditors of such prisoner entitled to the benefit thereof, who shall meet together on notice of such meeting, published fourteen Meeting to be days previous thereto in the London Gazette and also in

advertised.

Assignee may

surrender or

convey copy

hold or customary estate.

some daily newspaper printed and published in London or within the bills of mortality, if the prisoner before his or her going to prison resided in London or within the bills of mortality, and if such prisoner resided elsewhere within the United Kingdom, then in some printed newspaper which shall be generally circulated in or near the place where such prisoner resided at the time aforesaid; and in case such prisoner shall be entitled to any copyhold or customary estate, a certified copy of such vesting order as aforesaid, and a like certified copy of the appointment of such assignee or assignees as aforesaid, shall be entered on the Court Rolls of the manor of which such copyhold or customary estate shall be holden, and thereupon it shall be lawful for such assignee or assignees to surrender or convey such copyhold or customary estate to any purchaser or purchasers of the same from such assignee or assignees, as the said Court shall direct; and the rents and profits thereof shall be in the meantime received by such assignee or assignees for the benefit of the creditors of such prisoner, without prejudice nevertheless to the lord or lords of the manor of which any such copyhold or customary estate shall be holden.

4 & 5 VICT. CAP. 35.

An Act for the Commutation of certain Manorial Rights in respect of Lands of Copyhold and Customary Tenure, and in respect of other Lands subject to such Rights, and for facilitating the Enfranchisement of such Lands, and for the Improvement of such Tenure.

[21st June, 1841.]

of commis

WHEREAS it is expedient to provide the means for an adequate compensation for the rents, fines, and heriots payable to the lords of manors in respect of lands of copyhold and customary tenure, and in respect of other lands subject to such payments, or any of them, and for facilitating the voluntary enfranchisement of such lands, and for improving such tenure: Be it therefore enacted by the Queen's most excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the lords spiritual and temporal, and commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, That “The Tithe Commissioners for England and Wales" Appointment for the time being shall be the commissioners for carrying sioners. this act into execution; and that, should the same not be fully carried into effect before the duties of the said tithe commissioners shall cease, it shall be lawful in such case for one of her Majesty's principal secretaries of state to appoint any number of fit persons to be commissioners to carry this act into execution, in the place of such commissioners so ceasing to act, and at pleasure to remove one or more of the commissioners so appointed, so that the number of commissioners shall never exceed three; and upon every vacancy in the office of commissioner some other fit person shall be appointed to the said office in like manner; and until such appointment it shall be lawful for the remaining commissioners or commissioner to act as if no such vacancy had occurred.

II. And be it enacted, That the commissioners acting in Style of comthe execution of this act shall be styled "The Copyhold missioners. Commissioners," and shall have their office in London or