Property, is either personal or real; the former consisting of what is movable from place to place, the latter, of lands and things built or growing thereon. Fruit, grain, trees, minerals, &c. become personal property, when separated from the land.

§ 630. Every citizen of the United States is capable of holding lands, and of taking the same by descent, devise, or purchase, and of aliening or conveying away such estate. Estates in land are divided into estates of inheritance, estates for life, estates for years, and estates at will and by suf ferance. An estate of inheritance is termed a fee simple, or fee. A fee is an estate of inheritance in law, belonging to a person, and transmissible to his heirs. No estate is deemed a fee, unless it may continue forever. Fee simple is a pure inheritance, clear of any qualification or condition, and gives a right of succession to all the heirs generally, provided that they shall be of the blood of the first pur. chaser, and of the person last seised.

§ 631. An estate for life, is an estate conveyed to a person for the term of his natural life. Estates for life and estates of inheritance, are called freeholds. An estate for years is a right created by a lease, or a contract for the possession and profits of land, for a determinate period, with the recompense of rent. An estate at will is where one man lets land to another, to hold at the will of the lessor. An estate at sufferance is where one has come into the possession of land by lawful title, but holds over by wrong, after his interest has ceased. He is not entitled to notice to quit, and he is not liable to pay rent. The landlord may dispossess such tenant whenever he pleases.

632. The real estate of any person who shall die without devising the same, shall descend in the following manner (1.) to his lineal descendants; (2.) to his father; (3.) to his mother; and (4.) to his collateral relatives. If any of the children of an intestate be living, and any be dead,

are estates in land divided? What is an estate of inheritance? What is meant by a fee in this use of the term? Has the word fee any other meaning? § 631. What is an estate for life? An estate for years? An estate at will? An estate by sufferance? § 632. What is the order in which the real estate of an intestate descends to his

the inheritance shall descend to the children living, and to the descendants of those who are dead; so that such descendants may inherit the share which their parent would have received, if living.

§ 633. If the intestate shall die without lawful descendants, and leave a father, the inheritance goes to the father, unless the inheritance came to the intestate on the part of the mother. If he leaves neither father nor descendants, the inheritance descends to the mother; but if he leaves also a brother or sister, the mother holds it only during her life; and on her death, it descends to his brothers and sisters or their descendants. If he leaves neither descendants nor father nor mother, the estate descends to his brothers and sisters or their descendants.

§ 634. But if there be no heir to take the inheritance in either of the above cases, the same shall descend to the brothers and sisters of the father, if the property shall have come to the intestate on the part of the father. If his father has no brothers and sisters, the estate descends to brothers and sisters of his mother. If the property comes to the intestate on the part of his mother, her brothers and sisters have precedence; and if the inheritance has not come to the intestate, on the part of either the father or mother, it descends, in equal shares, to the brothers and sisters of the intestate.

§ 635. Persons become possessed of real estate in various ways; but evidence of such possession consists, usually, in a writing called a deed, signed and sealed by the person who had a right to execute it, acknowledged by a proper person, and recorded in the public registry. Every deed conveying real estate, though it is, when duly executed, binding as between the parties, is nevertheless void as against any person who may subsequently purchase the conveyed estate in good faith, and for a valuable consideration, and whose deed shall be first recorded. Deeds, mortgages, and other securities in the nature of mortgages, are recorded by the clerks of the several counties in books prepared for that purpose.

heirs? 633, 634. What is the order of descent when the intestate has no lawful descendants? § 635. How is the proof of the title to real estate obtained? What is the effect of a deed without being r

§ 636. A mortgage is the conveyance of an estate, by way of pledge for the security of debt, and is to become void on the payment of it. The condition upon which the land is conveyed, is usually put in the deed of conveyance, but the condition, or defeasance, may be contained in a separate instrument; and if the deed be absolute in the first instance, and the defeasance be executed subsequently, it will relate back to the date of the principal deed, and connect itself with it, so as to render it a security in the nature of a mortgage.

§ 637. In order, however, to render the deed a security against subsequent purchasers and mortgagees, the deed and defeasance should be recorded together. An omission to have the defeasance registered, would make the estate, which was conditional between the parties, absolute against every person but the original parties and their heirs. The practice of placing the conveyance in fee, and the condition or defeasance which is to qualify it, in separate instruments, is liable to accidents and abuse, and injury to the mortgagee, and should be discouraged.

§ 638. When the condition of a mortgage shall have been fulfilled, the person in whose custody it may be, shall cause it to be discharged, whenever there shall be presented to him a certificate, signed by the mortgagee, acknowledged or proved, and certified as the law prescribes to entitle conveyances to be recorded, specifying that the mortgage has been paid. And every certificate of discharge shall be recorded.

§ 639. When a deed or a mortgage has been executed, before it shall be recorded, the party executing it must acknowledge, before a commissioner of deeds, that he executed the same; and the commissioner subscribes a certificate of the acknowledgment on the margin or back of the instrument. In New York, commissioners of deeds, of

corded? § 636. What is a mortgage? How is it executed? § 637. What rule is to be observed in the registering or recording of a deed of mortgage, and the defeasance? § 638. How is a mortgage discharged, when its conditions are fulfilled? § 639. What essential to a deed or mortgage before it is recorded? By whom are acknowledgments taken ?

whom there are at least two in each town, are appointed by the board of supervisors and judges of the county courts. Judges of the several courts in the state, also, are authorized to take such acknowledgments. If a married woman signs a deed, the acknowledgment must be made to the commissioner apart from her husband, that she executed the same freely, and without compulsion from her husband. If any married woman refuses to execute a conveyance, she retains her estate in dower against any person claiming the conveyed premises.

CHAPTER V.

Personal Property.-Contract of Sale.

§ 640. PERSONAL property is divided into chattels real and personal. Chattels real concern the realty, as a lease for years of land; and the duration of the time is immaterial. It is only personal estate, if it be for a thousand years. There are, also, many chattels which, though of a movable nature, yet, being attached to the freehold, and contributing to its value and enjoyment, go with it; as the shelves and fixtures in a house, and the posts and rails of an enclosure. But many things are now treated as personal property which seem, in a degree, to be attached to the freehold.

§ 641. It has been established as a general rule, that things which a tenant has fixed to the freehold, for the purposes of trade or manufactures, may be removed, when the removal does not cause any material injury to the estate. Thus fats, coppers, tubs, and partitions belonging to a soap boiler, have been removed. Chimney pieces, and even wainscot, put up by a tenant, or a cider mill and press erected by him, may be removed, if it can be done without

§ 640. What is personal property? What are chattels real? § 641. What chattels attached to a freehold may be removed? and what

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own life, if he shall die before his wife; and in that event, she takes the estate again in her own right. If the wife dies first, and there are no children, her heirs succeed immediately to the estate. If there has been a child born alive, the husband takes the estate for life, and on his death, it goes to the wife or her heirs. During the continuance of the life estate of the husband, he sues in his own name for an injury to the profits of the land; but for an injury to the inheritance, the wife must join in the suit.

§ 610. The husband acquires, by marriage, a right to all the chattels real of his wife, as leases for years; and he may, without her, sell, assign, or otherwise dispose of the same as he pleases; and they may be sold on execution for his debts. If he makes no disposition of the chattles real in his life time, he cannot devise them by will; and the wife, after his death, takes them in her own right. If he shall survive his wife, he will acquire an absolute right to such chattels real.

§ 611. All other personal property also, belonging to the wife at the time of her marriage, becomes the property of the husband; and on his death, it goes to his representatives. And he has power to sue for debts due to her by bond, note, or otherwise, which are termed choses in action; and when recovered and reduced to possession, the money becomes his own.

§ 612. The husband is answerable for her debts before coverture; but if they are not recovered during coverture, he is discharged. Coverture is the condition of a married woman, who, by the laws of the land, is in the power of the husband. If the husband dies before the debts are collected, his representatives are not liable; but the wife remains liable after her husband's death.

§ 613. The husband is bound to provide for his wife the necessaries suitable to her situation, and his condition in life; and he is obliged to pay any debts which she may contract for such necessaries: but for any thing beyond

real estate of a wife? § 610. What effect upon her chattels real? § 611. What effect upon her personal property? What are choses in action? § 612. Is a husband liable to pay the debts of his wife contracted before marriage? What is coverture? § 613. In what cases