Bygone Essex Classic Reprint

Author : R. E. g. Kirk
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781331897156
Total Pages : 370 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (971 download)

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Download or read book Feet of Fines for Essex, Vol. 1 (Classic Reprint) written by R. E. g. Kirk and published by . This book was released on 2015-07-20 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from Feet of Fines for Essex, Vol. 1 "A Fine (Finis, or Finalis Concordia), so called from the words with which it begins, and also from its effect in putting a final end to all suits and contentions, was an amicable agreement or composition of a suit, whether real or fictitious, made between the parties with the consent of the judges, and enrolled among the records of the Court in which the suit was commenced... Fines no doubt originated in actual suits for recovering the possession of lands and other hereditaments, the possession thus gained being found so sure and effectual that fictitious actions were soon introduced for the sake of obtaining the same security." Many lawyers and antiquaries have treated learnedly on this subject, from Glanvill and Bracton down to Professors Pollock and Maitland in their "History of English Law before Edward I." Coke and Blackstone alleged that Fines were in existence before the Norman Conquest, but Cruise and Hunter gave reasons for doubting whether they could have been in use before 1130. The earliest Fine now preserved in the Public Record Office is dated 1st December, 1182, and this happens to relate partly to Essex. Mr. Round has discovered, in cartularies and other manuscripts, copies of a dozen or more Fines of earlier dates, 2 but even these do not carry us back further than the latter part of Henry II.'s reign, i.e. 1175 - 1180. They may, however, have originated previously, for it was not till the 15th July, 1195, that the Kings Court began systematically to preserve a triplicate of every Final Concord made before the Justices. This important fact is derived from an endorsement on a Fine, quoted in the History of English Law. From that date three copies of each Fine were made upon one piece of parchment, which was then cut into three portions. One copy, called the "Chirograph" or "Foot" of the Fine, was retained among the records of the Court, and the other two copies, called "Indentures," were delivered to the respective parties. The upper margin of the "Foot" is indented, and in the indentations are visible portions of the word "Cirographum," written in large capital letters wide apart, while the other corresponding portions of the same word would appear partly on the left side of one Indenture, partly on that of the other; but very few early Indentures are extant. One of the Essex Fines is indented on two sides. The most important effects of a Fine were: - i. the barring of any claim by a stranger, unless the claim were "put in" within a year and a day; 2. the barring of all claims by the issue-in-tail of the grantor immediately; 3. the binding of married women who were parties, so that they could claim no dower from the property thus settled. Although the Fines are mostly very brief and terse documents, written on small pieces of parchment, they contain sundry formal clauses, which are either abridged or omitted altogether in these abstracts, as will be explained in the following paragraphs. Each Fine begins with the words, "This is the Final Concord," or "Agreement," as it is translated in modern Fines. Then it is stated that it was made in "the King's Court," usually held at Westminster "before" the King's Justices and others of the King's "Barons" or "faithful people" then and there present; but the word "Barons" fell into disuse at the beginning of John's reign. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com