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of such officers, respectively, and by reference to which, he is enabled to determine not only that they have been duly commissioned and sworn, but that the signature of any one of them attached to a certificate of proof or acknowledgment of a conveyance, is genuine. Hence his certificate in such cases is required, and when given under the seal of the county (an impression which has been recorded in the office of the Secretary of State, and which is judicially known throughout the commonwealth,) it becomes that evidence of the authenticity of the certificate of the Judge, Commissioner, or Justice, as the case may be, which all courts and recording officers in the State are bound to recognize.

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By placing both certificates upon the record, together with the conveyance, the public, and all parties in interest, are enabled to determine whether the conveyance recorded was properly executed, and the record itself is thereby made evidence in all courts of justice through all future time.

The proximity of New-York to the State of Connecticut, and the very considerable intercommunication and reciprocity of their inhabitants, have rendered some special legislation, in respect to conveyances executed by the Treasurer of that State, expedient. It is therefore enacted, that "All conveyances of real estate, executed since the tenth day of March, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-five, or hereafter to be executed by the Treasurer of the State of Connecticut, which shall be acknowledged by him before the Secretary of State of the State of Connecticut, and the acknowledgment of which shall be certified by the said Secretary, under the seal of the said State, in the manner herein prescribed, may be recorded in the proper offices within this State, without further proof thereof; and every such conveyance, or the record thereof, or the transcript of such record, duly certified, may be read in evidence, as if such conveyance had been acknowledged before a justice of the supreme court." [Id., Sec. 21.]

It is the duty of the recording officer to record every conveyance entitled to be recorded, in the order, and as of the time when the same shall be delivered to him for that purpose, and shall be considered as recorded, from the time of such delivery. He is required to make an entry in the record immediately after the copy of every conveyance recorded, specifying the time of the day, month, and year, when the said conveyance was recorded, and to endorse upon every conveyance recorded by him, a certificate, stating the time. as aforesaid when, and the book and page where, the same was recorded.

Upon payment of any mortgage which has been received, the same may be discharged upon such record by the recording officer, whenever there shall be presented to him a certificate, signed by the mortgagee, his personal representatives or assigns, acknowledged or proved, and certified, as hereinbefore prescribed, to entitle conveyances to be recorded; specifying that such mortgage has been paid, or otherwise satisfied, or discharged. This certificate of satisfaction, together with the certificate of its proof or acknowledgment, goes upon the record as the evidence upon which the Clerk cancels the record of the mortgage.

XVII.

RECORDING DISTRICTS IN NEW-YORK.

EACH County is a recording district for all conveyances affecting the title to land therein; the County Clerk is, by statute, the recording officer; and the county seat, with a few exceptions, the location of his office. The earliest statute on this subject was enacted in 1787, but the same has been several times amended. The counties then existing have been divided and subdivided into those now forming the political divisions of the State. (See following page.) The records of the several counties contain the conveyances of land situated within them at the time of their execution.

Upon the erection of new counties, new records were

opened for all subsequent conveyances. In tracing land titles, therefore, from the county records, recourse must be had to the records of that county which embraced the land in question at the time of the conveyance or conveyances sought. This, when unaided by any faithful chronology of the several alterations and changes, is a task that is attended

ALBANY, an original county in the Colony, erected in.......
ALLEGANY County was taken from Genesee, and erected in...
BROOME County was taken from Tioga, and erected in.....
CATTARAUGUS county was taken from Genesee, and erected in..
CAYUGA County was a part of Onondaga, and erected in..........
CHAUTAUQUE county was taken from Genesee, and erected in..
CHEMUNG County was taken from Tioga, and erected in.......

1688

1906

1906

1809

.1799

.1808

1836

CHENANGO County was taken from Tioga and Herkimer, and erected in...........1798
CLINTON County was taken from Albany, and erected in......
COLUMBIA County was also a part of Albany county, and erected in..
CORTLAND County was taken from Onondaga, and erected in.......
DELAWARE County was taken from Ulster and Otsego, and erected in.....
DUTCHESS County was an original county in the Colony, and erected in.
ERIE County was taken from Niagara, and erected in......
ESSEX county was taken from Clinton, and erected in..
FRANKLIN County was also taken from Clinton, and erected in.
FULTON County was a part of Montgomery, and erected in..

1788

.1786

1808

..1797

1693

.1821

.1799

.1803

.1837

GENESEE County was taken from Oatario, and erected in..
GREENE County was taken from Ulster and Albany, and erected in.....
HAMILTON County was taken from Montgomery, and erected in..
HERKIMER County was taken from Montgomery, and erected in...........
JEFFERSON County was taken from Oneida, and erected in...
KINGS County was an original county in the Colony, and erected in..
LEWIS county was taken from Oneida, and erected in..
LIVINGSTON County was taken from Ontario and Genesee, and erected
MADISON County was taken from Chenango, and erected in.............
MONROE County was taken from Ontario and Genesee, and reected in.
MONTGOMERY County was the ancient Tryon county, and erected in............
NEW-YORK, the New-Amsterdam of the Dutch, was erected in...
NIAGARA County was taken from Genesee, and erected in...
ONEIDA County was taken from Herkimer, and erected in..

ONONDAGA County was erected from the military tract in Herkimer in..
ONTARIO County was set off from Montgomery, and erected in..
ORANGE County, an original county in the colony, was erected in..
ORLEANS County was taken from Genesee, and erected in.....

in....1823

..1802

1800

..1916

.1791

.1805

.1683

1905

1906

. 1921 ..1784

1683

1803

1793

.1794

. 1789

. 1693

.1824

OSWEGO County was taken from Oneida and Onondaga, and erected in......1816

OTSEGO County was taken from Montgomery, and erected in..
PUTNAM County was taken from Dutchess, and erected in....
QUEENS County, an original county in the Colony, was erected in..

.1791

. 1912 .....1623

with much embarrassment, and oftentimes with great difficulty and expense. With an accurate knowledge of the derivation and age of each county, the title of any given parcel of land may be easily traced through the records of the several counties whose jurisdiction at different periods covered it; as for instance: Cayuga was taken from Onondaga, Onondaga from Herkimer, and Herkimer from Montgomery, the name of which was changed from Tryon county, in 1784; therefore, the Montgomery records should be examined for any deeds recorded between 1784 and 1791, the Herkimer records for such as were recorded between 1791 and 1794, the Onondaga records for such as were recorded between 1794 and 1799, and the Cayuga records for such as have been recorded since, conveying land therein.

XVIII.

WILLS OF REAL ESTATE IN NEW-YORK.

THIS species of conveyance was introduced into the Athenian government by Solon, for the purpose of breaking in upon the order of succession which had theretofore re

RENSSELAER County was taken from Albany, and erected in..
RICHMOND County, an original county in the colony, was erected in..
ROCKLAND County was taken from Orange, and erected in...
ST. LAWRENCE county was taken from Oncida, and erected in..
SARATOGA County was taken from Albany, and erected in...

.1791

......1683

1798

1802

1791

SCHOHARIE County was taken from Albany and Otsego, and erected in............
SCHENECTADY county was taken from Albany, and erected in....
SENECA County was taken from Cayuga, and erected in...
STEUBEN County was taken from Ontario, and erected in..
NUFFOLK County, an original county in the Colony, was erected in.
SULLIVAN County was taken from Ulster, and erected in.......
TIOGA County was taken from old Montgomery, and erected in..
TOMPKINS County was taken from Cayuga and Seneca, and erected in.
ULSTER County, an original county in the Colony, was erected in.......
WARREN County was set off from Washington, and erected in........
WASHINGTON County was the ancient Charlotte county, and was erected in........1772
WAYNE County was taken from Ontario and Seneca, and erected in...............
WESTCHESTER County, an original county in the Colony, was erected in..............1633
WYOMING County was taken from Genesee, and erected in..
YATES County was taken from Ontario, and erected in...

1795

1809

.1304

. 1799

.1683

..1809

.1791

..1317

.1683

. 1813

.. 1823

. 1841 .1823

mained unaltered for centuries. The doctrine upon which wills were predicated was, "that the general interests of society require that every man should have the free disposition, as well as the enjoyment, of his own property"-a doctrine recognized in this country as a concomitant of civil liberty.

In most cases, the statute of descents makes a just distribution of one's property after his death; yet there are oftentimes cogent reasons for a different apportionment. But as devises are allowed, in opposition to that statute, certain forms and ceremonies in their execution are required, to the end that they may be the good pleasure of a competent testator, and not the result of imbecility, coercion, or fraud.

Wills were allowed in the Roman Republic only when they were executed in the presence of five citizens, representing the people at large. Subsequently, by a law of the prætors, the number was increased to seven, who were required to attest them by their signatures and seals. To these Justinian superadded the requirement, that one-fourth of the estate should in all cases be reserved to the children of the testator, "to rebut evidence of imbecility."

Under the feudal system, no will was valid without the assent of the lord. In the reign of Charles II. this provision was abolished, and with it military tenures. In Scotland, until a recent period, a will was void, if it divested the major part of the estate from the lineal heir. The English rule on this subject was imported into this country on the settlement thereof, and became a part of the colonial jurisprudence. The statute of the Second Charles is the groundwork of ours, and from which many sections were copied verbatim.

In New-York, all persons, except idiots, persons of unsound mind, married women and infants, may devise their real estate by a last will and testament, and such devise may be made to any person capable in law of holding real estate. [2 R. S., 2., Sec. 1.] No corporation can take real estate by devise, unless its charter expressly authorize it. [Id., Sec. 3.]

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