or persons described in and who executed the conveyance in question. Without such knowledge or proof he is forbidden to act in the premises, and to certify his doings. And in his certificate of acknowledgment endorsed upon or annexed to the conveyance, he is required and commanded to state "that such person was personally known to him to be the person whose name is subscribed to such deed or writing, as having executed the same, or that he was proved to be such by a creditable witness, (naming him)." The precise information, (personal knowledge and proot) the courts regard as facts, which are as necessary to be set forth in the certificate, as the acts constituting the acknowledgment.

The execution of deeds may be proven by a subscribing witness who signed his name thereto as an attesting witness in the presence and at the request of the grantor. When such instances occur another duty devolves on the officer. Before receiving his testimony, the officer is required to ascertain from his own knowledge or by a creditable witness that he is a subscribing witness to the deed. This done, the officer may swear him and proceed to take his testimony; "and if it shall appear from the testimony of such subscribing witness that the person whose name appears subscribed to such deed or writing, is the real person who executed the same, and that the witness subscribed his name as such, in his presence and at his request, the Judge or officer shall grant a certificate stating that the person testifying as subscribing witness was personally known to him to be the person whose name appears to such deed as a witness of the execution thereof, or that he was proved to be such by a creditable witness, (naming him) and stating the proof made by him." [Id., 107, Sec. 20.]

Where the grantor and witness shall be dead, it is provided that the officer "may take proof of the handwriting of such deceased party and subscribing witness or witnesses, (if any) and the examination of a competent and creditable witness,

who shall state on oath or affirmation, that he personally knew the person, whose hand writing he is called to prove, and well knew his signature, (stating his means of knowledge,) and that he believes the name of such person subscribed to such deed or writing, as party or witness, (as the case may be,) was thereto subscribed by such person; and when the handwriting of the grantor or person executing such deed or writing, and of one subscribing witness, (if any there be,) shall have been proved as aforesaid, the Judge or officer shall grant a certificate thereof, stating the proof aforesaid." [Id., Sec. 21.]

IX. THE RECORDING OF DEEDS AND MORTGAGES IN ILLINOIS, AND THE EFFECT THEREOF.

The Statutes provide that deeds and other instruments relating to, or affecting the title to real estate in Illinois, shall be recorded in the county in which such real estate is situated; but if such county is not organized, then they shall be record-ed in the county to which, for judicial purposes, such unorganized county is attached. R. S., 108, Sec. 22.

"All deeds, mortgages, and other instruments of writing which are required to be recorded, shall take effect, and be in force from and after the time of filing the same for record, and not before, as to all creditors and subsequent purchasers without notice; and all such deeds and title papers shall be adjudged void as to all such creditors and subsequent purchasers, without notice, until the same shall be filed for record." [Id., Sec. 23.]

All powers of attorney to convey lands are required to be recorded before any deed executed under the authority contained in the power goes upon record. [Id., Sec. 24.]

From the sections above cited it will be seen that a neglect to record deeds and mortgages, largely jeopards the rights of the alienee. Registry acts are mainly designed for the prevention of fraud, by means of the notice given to all the world

by the record. As between two grantees, the one whose deed or mortgage is first put on record holds as against the other, provided he have no knowledge of the other deed. Indeed no deed or mortgage takes effect as against creditors and subsequent purchasers, without notice, until the same shall be filed for record.

In Illinois, the people biennially elect a County Recorder who, when elected, is commissioned by the Governor, and required to reside at the county seat, and to keep a fair book or books of record, in which to make entry of every deed or writing brought into his office to be recorded, mentioning therein the date, the parties, and the place where the lands, tenements, or hereditaments granted or conveyed by the said deed or writing are situate, dating the entry on the day on which such deed or mortgage was brought into his office, and to record all such deeds and writings in regular succession, according to the priority of time of their being brought into said office; and also to make and keep a complete alphabetical index to each record book, showing the page on which each instrument is recorded, with the names of the parties thereto. He is also required to give a receipt to the person bringing any deed or writing to be recorded, bearing date on the same day as the entry, and containing the abstract aforesaid, and for which entry and receipt he is entitled to no fees, [R, S., 432, Sec. 7,] but for the recording he is entitled to fif teen cents per hundred words, and twenty-five cents for a certificate that the same has been recorded. [Id., 248, Sec. 23.]

But to entitle a deed or mortgage to go upon record, it must be duly acknowledged or proven, and in some cases duly authenticated. Deeds and other conveyances, acknowledged or proven in the State before any Judge, Justice of the Supreme or Circuit Court, or before any court or officer having a seal, and attested by such seal, are entitled to record without further attestation. But when acknowledged

or proven before a Justice of the Peace, residing within the State, the certificate of the Clerk of the County Commissioners' Court, of the proper county, under his seal of office, that the person taking such proof or acknowledgment was a Justice of the Peace at the time of taking the same, must be produced to the Recorder; and when acknowledged or proved out of the State, before an officer other than a Commissioner of this State residing there, the certificate of acknowledgment or proof must be accompanied with a certificate of a Clerk of a Court of Record within the State, Territory, or District where the acknowledging officer resides, under the hand of such Clerk and the seal of his court, setting forth that the deed or instrument is executed, acknowledged or proved in conformity with the laws of such State, Territory, or District.

The conveyance, certificate of acknowledgment, or proof and the certificate of authentication, go upon record together; and for recording the whole thereof, the Recorder is entitled to be paid.

Satisfaction of mortgages may be entered upon record by the mortgagees in the Recorder's office, and the record will thereby be effectually canceled. If not so done, the cancelation may be effected by the mortgagee's signing and sealing in the presence of an attesting witness, and acknowledging in form, satisfaction thereof in writing; which instrument, on being produced to the Recorder, is sufficient authority for him to discharge the record.* [R. S., 110, Sec. 37.]

Non-residents may discover from this note the several counties or recording districts in small capital letters, with the name of the county seat of each annexed, viz: ADAMS, Quincy; ALEXANDER, Unity; BOND, Greenville; BOONE, Belvidere; BROWN, Mount Sterling; BUREAU, Princeton; CALHOUN, Gilead; CARROLL, Savannah; Cass, Virginia; CHAMPAIGN, Urbana; CHRISTIAN, Edinburg; CLARKE, Marshall; CLAY, Lewisville; CLINTON, Carlyle; COLES, Charleston; Cook, Chicago; CRAWFORD, Palestine; DE KALB, Sycamore; DE WITT, Clinton; DU PAGE, Napierville; EDGAR, Paris; EDWARDS, Albion; EFFINGHAM, Ewington; FATETTE, Vandalia; FRANKLIN, Benton; FULTON, Lewiston; GALLATIN, Equality; GREENE, Carrollton; HAMILTON, McLeansboro'; HANCOCK, Carthage; HARDIN,

X. WILLS OF REAL ESTATE IN ILLINOIS.

This feature of the Athenian economy has commended itself to favor throughout Christendom; and at this day, the franchise is commensurate with, and a concomitant of freehold estates. In the American Republic, each State defines for itself the limits of the privilege, and by arbitrary statutes, regulates the manner of its exercise.

The statutes of Illinois provide that every person, aged twenty-one years, if a male, or eighteen years, if a female, or upwards, and not married, being of sound mind and memory, shall have power to devise all the estate, right, title and interest, in possession, reversion or remainder, which he or she hath, or at the time of his or her death shall have, of, in and to any lands, tenements, hereditaments, annuities or rents, charged upon or issuing out of them; or goods and chattels or personal estate, of every description whatsoever, by will or testament; all persons of the age of seventeen years, and of sound mind and memory, (married women ex. cepted,) have power to dispose of their personal estate, by will or testament; and married women have power to dis pose of their separate estate, both real and personal, by will

Elizabethtown; HENRY, Morristown; IROQUOIS, Montgomery; JACKSON, Brownsville; JASPER, Newton; JEFFERSON, Mount Vernon; JERSEY, Jerseyville; JoDAVIESS, Galena; JOHNSON, Vienna; KANE, Geneva; Knox, Knoxville; LAKE, Little Fort; LA SALLE, Ottawa; LAWRENCE, Lawrenceville; LEE, Dixon; LIV INGSTON, Pontiac; LOGAN, Postville; MACON, Decatur; MACOU PIN, Carlinville; MADISON, Edwardsville; MARION, Salem; MARSHALL, Lacon; MCDONOUGH, Macomb; MCHENRY, McHenry; MCLEAN, Bloomington; MENARD, Petersburg; MERCER, Millersburg; MONROE, Waterloo; MONTGOMERY, Hillsboro'; MORGAN, Jacksonville; OGLE, Oregon City; PEORIA, Peoria; PERRY, Pinckneyville; PIKE, Pittsfield; POPE, Golconda; PUTNAM, Hennepin; RANDOLPH, Kaskaskia; Rock ISLAND, Rock Island; SANGAMON, Springfield; SCHUYLER, Rushville; ScoTT, Winchester; SHELBY, Shelbyville; STARK, Toulon; STEPHENSON, Freeport; ST. CLAIR, Belleville; TAZEWELL, Tremont; UNION, Jonesboro'; VERMILION, Danville; WABASH, Mt. Carmel; WARREN, Monmouth; WASHINGTON, Nashville; WAYNE, Fairfield; WHITE, Carmi; WHITESIDE, Sterling; WILL, Juliet; WIL LIAMSON, Bainbridge; WINNEBAGO, Rockford. [Haskel's Gaz., 290.]