Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol I).djvu/167

 CH. XIV.] § 141. The law of descents of intestate real estates, of wills, and of uses, existing in England, thus seem to have acquired a permanent foundation in the colony, and remained undisturbed, until after the period of the American Revolution. As in the other colonies, the registration of conveyances of lands was early provided for, in order to suppress fraudulent grants.

§ 142. In respect to North Carolina, there was an early declaration of the legislature [1715] conformably to the charter, that the common law was, and should be in force in the colony. All statute laws for maintaining the royal prerogative and succession to the crown; and all such laws made for the establishment of the church, and laws made for the indulgence to Protestant dissenters; and all laws providing for the privileges of the people, and security of trade; and all laws for the limitation of actions and for preventing vexatious suits, and for preventing immorality and fraud, and confirming inheritances and titles of land, were declared to be in force in the province. The policy thus avowed was not departed from down to the period of the American Revolution; and the laws of descents and the registration of conveyances in both the Carolinas was a silent result of their common origin and government.