CHAP. ecclesiastical and eleemosynary corporations from dilapiXXXIII. dating their possessions, and anticipating the profits of ELIZAB. their successors by long and ruinous leases. Of Bankrupts. There were some alterations made in the rights of persons and of property during this reign, which now come under consideration. That which deserves our first notice is the law against bankrupts, which took up that matter in a different way from that in which it had been treated in the time of Henry the Eighth, and laid the basis of that system which has since been framed concerning this description of persons. This act is stat. 13 El. c. 7., which complains, that notwithstanding stat. 34 & 35 Hen. 8. c. 4., those kind of persons had much increased: it was, therefore, necessary to make better provision for suppressing them, and to declare plainly who is and ought to be deemed a bankrupt, which it does in a very full manner; for it enacts, if any mer chant or other person using or exercising the trade of merchandise, by way of bargaining, exchange, re-change, bartry, chevisance, or otherwise, in gross or by retail; or seeking his trade of living by buying and selling, and being a subject born, or denizen; if any person of that description depart the realm, or begin to keep his house, or otherwise to absent himself, or take sanctuary, or suffer himself willingly to be arrested for any debt or other thing not due for any just cause or good consideration; or suffer himself to be outlawed, or yield himself to prison, or depart from his dwelling-house, to the intent to defraud or hinder any of his creditors, being a subject born, of his just debt or duty, shall be taken for a bankrupt. And for the management of such a person's affairs for the benefit of his creditors, there is power given to the lord chancellor, upon complaint in writing, to appoint, by commission, such wise and honest discreet persons as to him shall seem good, who are to take order and direction with the body of the bankrupt, and also with his money, goods, debts, and chattels ; and such lands, tenements, and here XXXIII. ELIZAB. ditaments which he had when he became bankrupt; in his CHA P. own right, or jointly with his wife or children, to his own use; or with any other person, for such interest as he may lawfully depart withal. And by deed indented and inrolled in one of the queen's courts of record, to sell or otherwise to order for the payment of his debts; that is, to every creditor a rateable portion according to his debt. And the commissioners are, upon the bankrupt's request, to make a true declaration of the manner in which they have bestowed his effects, sect. 4. If complaint is made to the commissioners by any party grieved, that the effects of the bankrupt are in the possession of any one, or that any person is indebted to the bankrupt they may send for, by such process, ways, and means as they in their discretions shall think convenient, and examine them, upon oath or otherwise, concerning the same, sect. 5. And if they do not disclose, upon their examination, the whole truth, or deny to swear, they shall forfeit double the value of the thing so secreted, to be levied by the commissioners, of the lands, goods, and chattels, in such manner as was before appointed for the principal offender, as the bankrupt is called, to be distributed for the payment of the bankrupt's debts, sect. 6. And if any person fraudulently, or by collusion, claim, demand, recover, possess, or detain any debts, duties, goods, chattels, lands, or tenements, by writing, trust, or otherwise, other than such as he can prove to be due, by right and conscience, on just consideration before the commissioners, he shall forfeit double the value of the thing in question, sect. 7. to be employed as the before-mentioned forfeiture. If these forfeitures amount to more than enough to pay the bankrupt's debts, the overplus is to go half to the queen and half to the poor, sect. 8. If the bankrupt withdraws himself from his usual place of abode, the commissioners, upon complaint, may award five proclamations to be made in the queen's name, on five market-days, near the bankrupt's house, commanding him CHA P. to return and yield himself to the commissioners at a time XXXIII. and place appointed in the proclamation; and if he disELIZAB. obeys, he is to be adjudged out of the queen's protection, Fraudulent conveyances. and every person who shall help to secrete him is to be imprisoned and fined as the chancellor (upon the information of the commissioners) shall think meet, sect. 9. If the creditors are not fully satisfied, they may have their remedy for the residue of their debts as if this act had not been made, sect. 10. And all future effects of the bankrupt, whether lands or goods, are to be appointed and sold by the commissioners for the satisfaction of his creditors, sect. 11. This act not to extend to any assurance of land made bona fide by the bankrupt, before the bankruptcy, not to the use of the bankrupt or his heirs and where the parties to whose use it is made are not consenting to the fraudulent purpose of the bankrupt to deceive his creditors, sect. 12. This was the manner in which a bankrupt was dealt with; who was all through considered as an offender, was stript of his property, both present and to come, and, after all, still left to the mercy of his unsatisfied creditors, without the least means of being likely to pay them. The two statutes concerning fraudulent conveyances come next under consideration. Several acts had been formerly made on this subject (stat. 50 Ed. 3. c. 6. 3 Hen. 7. c. 4.), but none of them had gone so far as the two following to restrain these feigned gifts. The first is made in favour of creditors; the other in favour of purchasers. By stat. 13 El. c. 5. it is complained, that gifts and conveyances are made of lands and goods, with intent to hinder or defraud creditors and others of their lawful demands; for prevention of which it is enacted, that every feoffment, gift, grant, alienation, bargain and conveyance of lands, tenements, hereditaments, goods, and chattels, or of any of them; or of any lease, rent, common, or other profit or charge out of the same lands or goods, by writing or otherwise; and every bond, suit, judgment, and execution XXXIII. for any intent or purpose before declared, shall be deemed CHA P. (only as against that person, his heirs, successors, executors, administrators and assigns, whose actions, suits, debts, ELIZAB. accounts, damages, penalties, forfeitures, heriots, mortmanes and reliefs, might be in anywise hindered, delayed, or defrauded by such fraudulent practices,) void and of no effect. And all parties to such fraudulent conveyance, knowing it to be such, who shall put in use, avow, maintain, justify, or defend it, as made bonâ fide, and upon good consideration; or shall assign the lands or thing so conveyed, shall forfeit one year's value of the lands, and the whole value of the goods and chattels conveyed; and as much money as is contained in such feigned bond, half to the queen and half to the party grieved, to be recovered in any court of record, sect.3. This act is not to extend to any estate or interest, made bona fide, and upon consideration, to any person not knowing at the time of such fraud or collusion. To avoid the like fraudulent conveyances when made to deceive purchasers, it is enacted by stat. 27 El. c. 4. that every conveyance, grant, charge, lease, estate, incumbrance, and limitation of uses, out of any lands, tenements, or other hereditaments whatsoever, for the intent to defraud such persons, bodies politic or corporate, as shall purchase in fee-simple, fee-tail, for life, or years, the same lands, or any rent, profit, or commodity out of them, shall be deemed void, as against such purchasers and all persons claiming under them. This is confined only to real property; and there is the same penalty on parties to such practices who are privy to the fraud, and on those who defend the conveyance, as was inflicted by the last statute (13 El. c. 5.), in the very words of that act; and a like clause in favour of those who have taken any estate bona fide, and upon good consideration, sect. 4., only there is no mention of the requisite added in the former act, that they should not know of the intended fraud. No lawful mortgage made CHAP. bona fide, upon good consideration, is to be impeached by this act, sect. 6. XXXIII. Recovery tenant for life. It is enacted, that where a person has made a conveyance, with a clause of revocation at his will or pleasure, and shall afterwards convey or charge the same lands (the first conveyance not being revoked), such former conveyance, as against the said vendees or grantees, shall be void, sect. 5. It is also provided, in order to make such transactions notorious, that statutes merchant and staple shall, within six months, be entered in the office of the clerk of the recognizances established by stat. 23 Hen. 8. c.6. Statutes not so entered are to be void against all such as shall purchase for good consideration the lands which were liable to them. If fraudulent conveyances deserved the notice of parliasuffered by ment, so did those feigned recoveries which were suffered by persons not having an inheritance in prejudice of those who stood in remainder or reversion. We have seen that, by stat. 32 Hen. 8. c. 31., a recovery had by assent of parties against the tenant for life was to be held void; but an opinion had prevailed concerning that statute which had opened a way for evading it. It was held, that if tenant for life made a lease for years, and the lessee for years had made a feoffment in fee, and the feoffee had suffered a common recovery in which the tenant for life was vouched, this was out of the purview of the statute, because the tenant was not seised for life, but had only a right, and because he in remainder had only a right, for all was divested by the feoffment. It was judged necessary to prevent such covenous recoveries effectually, and to extend the restriction to those who had even something more than an estate for life. It was therefore enacted by stat. 14 El. c. 8., that all recoveries had or prosecuted by agreement of the parties against tenants by the curtesy, tenants in tail after possibility of issue extinct, or for term of life or lives, or of estates determinable on a life or lives, or against any other, with voucher over such particular tenant, or of any having, |