Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 5.djvu/263



, or proved and certified, be delivered to the clerk to be recorded on the same day, that which shall have been first sealed and delivered shall have preference in law.

. And be it further enacted, That every title-bond, or other written contract in relation to land, may be proved, acknowledged, certified, and recorded, in the same manner as deeds for the conveyance of land; and such proof or acknowledgment, and certificate, and the delivery of such bond or contract to the clerk of the proper court, to be recorded, shall be taken and held to be notice to all subsequent purchasers of the existence of such bond or contract.

. And be it further enacted, That if any feme covert shall be a party executing such deed and shall only be relinquishing her right of dower in such estate or interest, or when a husband and his wife shall have sealed and delivered a writing purporting to be a conveyance of any estate or interest, and such feme covert shall appear before any two justices of the peace of any State or Territory of the United States, or of the District of Columbia, and, being by them examined privily and apart from her husband, and having the deed fully explained to her, shall acknowledge the same to be her act and deed, and shall declare that she had willingly signed, sealed, and delivered the same, and that she wished not to retract it; and such privy examination, acknowledgment, and declaration, shall be certified by such justices under their hands and seals, by a certificate annexed to such writing, and to the following effect; that is to say:

—————county [or corporation, &c.] to wit:

We, A B and C D, justices of the peace in the county [or corporation, &c.] aforesaid, in the State [or Territory, &c.] of ————, do hereby certify that E F the wife of G H, party to a certain deed bearing date on the ——— day of ———— and hereunto annexed, personally appeared before us in our county [or corporation, &c.] aforesaid, the said E F, being well known to us as [or proved by the oaths of credible witnesses before us to be] the person who executed the said deed, and being by us examined, privily and apart from her husband, and having the deed aforesaid fully explained to her, she, the said E F, acknowledged the same to be her act and deed, and declared that she had willingly signed, sealed, and delivered the same, and that she wished not to retract it. Given under our hands and seals this ——— day of ————.

A. B. [.]

C. D. [.]

And such certificate shall be offered for record to the clerk of the circuit court of the District of Columbia, in that county in which such deed ought to be recorded. It shall be the duty of such clerk to record the same accordingly; and when the privy examination, acknowledgment, and declaration of a married woman, shall have been so taken and certified, and delivered to the clerk to be recorded pursuant to the directions of this act, such deed shall be as effectual in law to pass her right, title, and interest, as if she had been an unmarried woman: Provided, however, That no covenant or warranty contained in such deed hereafter executed shall in any manner operate upon any feme covert, or her heirs, further than to convey effectually from such feme covert and her heirs her right of dower or other interest in real estate which she may have at the date of such deed.

. And be it further enacted, That all deeds heretofore recorded within the District of Columbia, and in the county wherein any lands, tenements and hereditaments are situated, which are conveyed in or by said deeds, on an acknowledgment before any two justices of the peace for said District, shall be good and effectual for the purpose of purposes therein mentioned, and valid as to all subsequent purchasers, and all creditors, from the passage of this act, Provided, said deeds