law deeds
1) deed-poll -square piece of parchment, made
by 1 person such as a will or bond.
2) indenture - the work of several parties, such
as marriage settlements + 2 sales or transfers of land
- so called, from the fact that its upper edge was
vandy ked or indented, a very secure pub primative
method of testing authenticity - each party had
a copy. These duplicates were written on a single
strip of parchment, merely cut asunder afterwwards,
through a word written between the 2 copies,
such as 'chirographum' so that when required to be
produced as evidence the 2 divided portions +
words would fit each other exactly.
A very common form of deed, met with among
title deeds is the 'Fine' technically so called from
its opening sentence: 'Hic est finalis concordia
facta in cunia Domni Regis'; the sovereigh's name
follows with the year of accession, after which are
the names of the buyer + seller of the property, a
full description of the amount of acreage, tenements
etc. After warranting the whole for life to its
purchaser, the deed concludes with the sum of money
paid for the property; this is written in woeds, not
figures. The 'Fines' are narrow strips of parchment,
2 in number. A Fine was indited in court hand.
Sale by fine ie of very ancient date, probably
an old Saxon custom. A 'fine' is so called
EN