Crown Debtors Act 1785

AN ACT for the more easy and effectual Sale of Lands, Tenements and Hereditaments of Crown Debtors or of their Sureties

WHEREAS by an Act made in the thirteenth year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth (intituled An Act to make the lands, tenements, goods and chattels of tellers, receivers, etcetera, liable to the payment of their debts), for the better security of the Queen's Majesty, her heirs and successors, against such as should have the receipt and charge of the money and treasure of her Highness, her heirs and successors, it was declared and enacted, that all lands, tenements, profits, commodities, and hereditaments which certain officers of the crown, farmers and persons therein named, particularly the treasurer or receiver of any sums of money impressed or otherwise for the use of the Queen's Majesty, her heirs or successors, then had or at any time thereafter should have within the time he or they or any of them should remain accountable, should, for payment and satisfaction unto the Queen's Majesty, her heirs and successors, of his or their arrearages at any time thereafter to be lawfully according to the laws of the realm adjudged and determined upon his or their account (all his due and reasonable petitions being allowed), be liable to the payment thereof and be put in execution for payment of such arrearages or debts in like and in as large and beneficial a manner as if the person had the day he became officer or accountant stood bound by writing obligatory, having the effect of a statute of the staple, to her Majesty, her heirs or successors; and reciting, that forasmuch as many times it might come to pass that the Queen's Highness, her heirs or successors, might not be conveniently satisfied of the debt to be determined or due upon any account as aforesaid by way of extent, for that the yearly value of the lands extended would not satisfy her Highness, her heirs or successors, within the compass of many years, so as that great loss might ensue to her Highness, her heirs or successors, for remedy thereof it was enacted, that if any treasurer or other person accountant before mentioned which should from and after the feast of Saint Michael then next ensuing receive or be chargeable with any money or treasure of the Queen, her heirs or successors, and should upon the determining of his or their account or by reason of any farm as aforesaid be found in arrearages, and should not within six months next after his or their accounts finished or debt known pay all such sums of money as he or they should upon determination of his or their account or upon his or their debt known, it should be lawful to the Queen's Highness, her heirs and successors, at any time and from time to time, after the said six months ended, to make sale by her or their letters under the great seal of England of so much of the lands, tenements and hereditaments of every such accountant or debtor so being found in arrearages or debt as might suffice the Queen, her heirs or successors, for satisfaction, until her Majesty, her heirs or successors, should be by such sale fully satisfied and paid off such arrearages and debt; and that if any overplus should be received upon such sale, then the same should be paid to the accountant or farmer or his heirs by the officer that should receive the same money upon any of the said sales, without further warrant in that behalf: And whereas by an Act made in the twenty-seventh year of the same Queen, after reciting certain doubts upon the said Act of the thirteenth year of her reign, it was declared and enacted, that the said recited Act in every part thereof touching the power thereby given to her Highness, her heirs and successors, to make sale of any of the lands, tenements or hereditaments by the same Act limited to be sold should be expounded and intended as well in case where the sale is to be made after the death of such accountant or debtor as where it is to be made in his or their life-time, and also as well in case where the account is made or the debt known within eight years after the death of such accountant or debtor as where the same account is made or the debt known in the life-time of the same accountant or debtor; but it was provided that after the death of such accountant or debtor, and before any the lands, tenements and hereditaments descended unto the heir of such accountant or debtor as heir should be sold, a scire facias should be awarded out of her Majesty's Court of Exchequer, unto the sheriff of the county where any such lands lie, to garnish the same heir to show cause why the same lands, tenements and hereditaments should not be put to sale for satisfaction of the same debts or farms in the said Act mentioned, according to the tenor thereof; whereupon if the heir should not within a convenient time, upon a garnishment or two nichils returned, show and prove unto the said court that the executors or administrators of such accountant or debtor have sufficient which ought to answer or be liable for the same debt or farm, then, after ten months next after such two nichils or garnishment returned, the same lands, tenements or hereditaments should be sold by her Majesty, her heirs or successors, and the money thereof coming disposed according to the said former recited Act; and after various other enacting clauses there was a proviso to prevent sale of the lands, tenements or hereditaments of any heir during the time of his or her nonage: And whereas by an Act made in the thirty-ninth year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth the said recited explanatory Act of the twenty-seventh year of Queen Elizabeth was repealed and a new exposition was made of the said recited statute of the thirteenth of Elizabeth with various new provisions, but the said Act of the thirty-ninth year of Elizabeth being only temporary and having expired early in the reign of James the First, the said explanatory Act of the twenty-seventh year of Elizabeth became revived and is now in force: And whereas it may tend greatly to facilitate and expedite the payment of debts to the crown where the real estates of its accountants or debtors or of their sureties are seized into the King's hands under writs of extent if a sufficient part of such estates was to be sold unto the provisions of the said recited Acts of the thirteenth and twenty-seventh years of Queen Elizabeth, but the said Acts have not been lately put in use, and inconvenience is likely to arise of the mode of sale therein directed should be pursued: Be it therefore declared and enacted by the King's most excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the lords spiritual and temporal, and commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, that it shall and may be lawful to and for his Majesty's Court of Exchequer, and the same court is hereby authorised on the application of his Majesty's attorney general in a summary way by motion to the same court, to order that the right, title, estate and interest of any debtor to his Majesty, his heirs and successors, and the right, title, estate and interest of the heirs and assigns of such debtor in any lands, tenements or hereditaments which have been or shall hereafter be extended under and by virtue of any such writ of extent or diem clausit extremum as aforesaid, or so much thereof as shall be sufficient to satisfy the debt for which the same shall have been so extended, shall be sold in such manner as the said court shall direct, and that when a purchaser or purchasers shall be found the conveyance of the lands, tenements or hereditaments so decreed to be sold shall be made to the purchaser or purchasers by his Majesty's remembrancer in the said Court of Exchequer or his deputy, under the direction of the said court, by a deed of bargain and sale to be inrolled in the same court; and that from and after the making of such conveyance and the inrollment thereof as aforesaid the bargainee or bargainees in such conveyance, and his or their heirs, executors, administrators and assigns, shall have, hold and enjoy the lands, tenements and hereditaments therein comprized for his and their own respective use and benefit, not only against the extent of the crown, but also against such debtor of the crown or the surety or sureties for such debtor, and all persons claiming under such debtor or the surety or sureties, unless by a title paramount to and available in law against such extend as aforesaid; and all monies which shall become payable from any such purchaser or purchasers as aforesaid shall be paid, accounted for and applied towards discharge of the debt due to the crown, and of all costs and expences which shall be incurred by the crown in enforcing the payment of such debt in such manner as the said Court of Exchequer shall from time to time order and appoint; and if after payment of the whole debt to the crown and of all costs and expences incurred in enforcing the payment thereof there shall be any surplus of the monies arising from any such sale, the said surplus shall belong to the same person or persons as would be intitled to the lands, tenements or hereditaments sold if there had not been a sale thereof, and shall accordingly be paid to such person or persons under the order and direction of the said Court of Exchequer, upon motion or petition to the said court, to be made upon such notice to the crown and to be supported by such affidavits or other proofs as to the said court shall from time to time seem just and reasonable.

AND whereas from the want of the deeds and writings relative to the title of such lands, tenements and hereditaments as the said Court of Exchequer may decree to be sold under this Act difficulties may arise in the execution hereof: Be it therefore further enacted, that it shall be lawful for the said Court of Exchequer from time to time to make such order touching the production, delivery and custody of such title deeds and writings as aforesaid in the same manner as if a decree had been made by the said court for a sale of the lands of a crown debtor in execution of a trust created for payment of debts by such crown debtor himself.