that case, furnish the agent with sufficient instructions; the agent on receiving the affidavit, will obtain and send down the commission, and then the commissioners may proceed to take the acknowledgment in the usual way, only the form of the certificate will, in some respects, vary from that used in other cases (a); and the special commissioners who take the acknowledgment must make a return on the back of the commission (b); the commission will then be annexed to the certificate, and the affidavit of the taking of the acknowledgment must then be made, which will not vary from that used in the cases which have been already treated of. The commission, certificate, and affidavit must then be sent to the London agent, who will file them, and send the copy certificate in the usual way. If the woman who is to make the acknowledgment be out of the kingdom, a special commission may be obtained as a matter of course, and without any affidavit; in that case it is merely necessary to send the agent a note of instructions for the commission (c), a copy of which he will leave with the proper officer, and obtain and send down the commission. In these cases it will generally happen that the commission is not to be executed by commissioners accustomed to the proceeding, and therefore it will be proper that the memorandum on the deed, the certificate, the affidavit, and the return on the commission, be prepared in England, and sent ready to the place where the commission is to be executed; in this case the commissioners selected had better be both uninterested, and it must be one of them who makes the affidavit; it will almost always be necessary to send the commissioners' instructions as to their mode of proceeding; and as a form for such See form of the Certificate, in Appendix, sect. 49. (b) See form of Return, in Appendix, sect. 50. See a form of this note, containing the necessary particulars, in Appendix, sect. 51. instructions is given in the Appendix (a), it will be unnecessary to detail the substance of them here; if the forms applicable to this subject given in the Appendix are attended to in preparing the documents, there will be no danger of their being imperfect. It will now be proper to show what fees are payable for the matters rendered necessary by the act; and first, those payable to the perpetual commissioners: the amount of these was settled by the Rule of Hilary Term, 1834, and they are as follows: £. S. d. To each perpetual Commissioner, for taking the acknowledgment of every married woman, when not required to go farther than a mile from his residence. 0 13 4 To each Commissioner, when required to go more than one mile, but not exceeding three miles, besides his reasonable travelling expenses.. 1 1 0 To each Commissioner, where the distance required shall exceed three miles, besides his reasonable travelling expenses.... 2 2 0 The above is sufficiently intelligible where only one deed is to be acknowledged by one married woman, but after these fees were first fixed, doubts arose what the commissioners were entitled to where more than one married woman acknowledged the same deed, and where the same married woman acknowledged several deeds; these doubts were set at rest by the Rule of Trinity Term, 1834, which, as far as it relates to the subject of fees, orders as follows: "That where more than one married woman shall at the same time acknowledge the same deed respect (a) See form of memorandum on deed, certificate, affidavit, return to commission, and of instructions to commissioners, in Appendix, sect. 52. ing the same property, the fees directed by the said Rules" (i. e. the Rules of Hilary Term, 1834,) "to be taken, shall be taken for the first acknowledgment only. And the fees to be taken for the other acknowledgment or acknowledgments, how many soever the same may be, shall be one half of the original fees, and so also where the same married woman shall at the same time acknowledge more than one deed respecting the same property. "And where, in either of the above cases, there shall be more than one acknowledgment, all such acknowledgments may be included in one certificate and affidavit. "In every case the acknowledgment of a lease and release shall be considered and paid for as one acknowledgment only. It now only remains to give a list of the other fees fixed by the Rules of Hilary Term, 1834, which is the only portion of those Rules which has not been already given, though they are not likely to be of much service to the country attorney. I give them in order to render the subject more complete: To a Judge or Master in Chancery, for £. s. d. taking the acknowledgment of every married woman (a)... To the Clerk of the Peace or his Deputy, or to the Officer of the Court of Common Pleas, for every search To the same, for every copy of a List of Commissioners, provided such list shall not exceed the number of one hundred names 1 6 8 010 050 To the same, for every further complete number of fifty names, an additional (6) 0 2 6 (a) The Rule of Trinity Term, 1834, as to half fees, is applicable in this case. (b) The Rule does not provide for the case of the number being above one hundred, and under one hundred and fifty. To the Officer of the Court of Common £. To the same, for preparing every Special To the same, for examining the certificate s. d. 026 0 15 0 050 All the Rules made by the Court of Common Pleas, in pursuance of the Act, which gives rise to the subject of which we have been treating, have now been given with one exception, and though not immediately bearing on the subject of which we have been treating, it is in some degree connected with it, and, as it is likely to be peculiarly useful to the country attorney, it is here given; it is the last of the Rules of Hilary Term, 1834: "AND IT IS HEREBY FURTHER ORDERED, that the fees and charges to be made for the entries of deeds, required by the said Act to be entered on the court rolls of manors, and for the indorsements thereon, and for taking the consents of the protectors of settlements of land, held by copy of court roll, where such consents shall not be given by deed, and for taking surrenders by which dispositions shall be made under the said Act, by tenants in tail of lands held by copy of court roll, and for entries of such surrenders, or the memorandums thereof, on the court rolls, shall be as follows: For the indorsements on the deed of the £. s. d. memorandum of production, and memorandum of entry on court rolls, to be signed by the lord, steward, or deputy steward, each indorsement of memorandum, 58., together 0 10 0 For the entries on the court rolls of deeds, £. s. d. and the indorsements thereon, at per folio of seventy-two words For taking the consent of each protector of settlement of lands.. For taking the surrender, by each tenant in tail of lands.. 0 0 6 0 13 4 0 13 4 For entries of such surrenders, or the memorandums thereof, on the court rolls, at per folio of seventy-two words.. 0 0 6 P 2 |