Now! Then! Deeds, conveyances, and wills in the West Riding must henceforth be publicly registered in Wakefield to be considered valid

Excerpt

This part of Yorkshire is the chiefest place in the north of England for woollen manufacture, and most of the traders in wool there are freeholders; but because there was no register, they found it difficult to borrow money on land securities, which though really good, yet did not satisfy the lenders, therefore a law was made for a public register to be kept at Wakefield, in which a memorandum of all deeds and wills, were to be registered at the election of the party, and those which were not registered should be accounted fraudulent.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Abbreviations

Comment

Titles of this act, the succeeding one in 1707, also applicable to the West Riding, and similar legislation passed for the North and East Ridings, taken from the consolidating act of 1884:

2 & 3 Anne, c. 4. An Act for the publick registring of all deeds, conveyances, and wills that shall be made of any honors, manors, lands, tenements, or hereditaments within the west riding of the county of York after the nine-and-twentieth day of September one thousand seven hundred and four.
6 Anne, c. 20. An Act for inrollments of bargains and sales within the west riding of the county of York in the register office there lately provided, and for making the said register more effectual.
6 Anne, c. 62. An Act for the publick registring of all deeds, conveyances, wills, and other incumbrances that shall be made of or that may affect any honors, manors, lands, tenements, or hereditaments within the east riding of the county of York or the town and county of the town of Kingston-upon-Hull after the nine-and-twentieth day of September one thousand seven hundred and eight, and for the rendring the register in the west riding more complete.
8 Geo. II. c. 6. An Act for the publick registring of all deeds, conveyances, wills, and other incumbrances that shall be made of or that may affect any honors, manors, lands, tenements, or hereditaments within the north riding of the county of York after the nine-and-twentieth day of September one thousand seven hundred and thirty-six.

(HMG 1884)

The act apparently says that Wakefield was chosen as “the nearest market town to the centre or middle of the said West Riding” (Wakefield Town Council 1864).

The West Riding Registry of Deeds was not the oldest, “the Bedford Level registry … having been established after the Bedford Level Corporation charter of 1637 and the act of parliament of 1649, and recognised as a registry, if not before, at any rate in 1663, when the governor and company were constituted commissioners of sewers for the Level.”

Elections were held, and “competition for the appointment was very keen, for the registrar took all fees after paying the modest administrative expenses, which were very small in proportion to the gross receipts,” although, election expenses may have approached or exceeded income.

In 1817 it is reported that “a considerable part of the hall was literally crowded with beauty and fashion, which contributed not a little to enliven and adorn the scene.” In 1842,

During the whole of the morning of the first day, the officers had experienced great difficulty in resisting the pressure of votes endeavouring to reach the poll-booths, and at about half-past two the force became so great as to break down the barriers which had been erected, and the body of voters borne along by those behind were driven forward to the tables, which were upset and broken in all directions. The election was now carried on amid a scene of violence seldom surpassed (Tate 1944).

I haven’t yet read Jean Howell’s Deeds registration in England: a complete failure? (Howell 1999/07).

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Original

This part of Yorkshire is the chiefest place in the north of England for woollen manufacture, and most of the traders in wool there are freeholders; but because there was no register, they found it difficult to borrow money on land securities, which though really good, yet did not satisfy the lenders, therefore a law was made for a public register to be kept at Wakefield, in which a memorandum of all deeds and wills, were to be registered at the election of the party, and those which were not registered should be accounted fraudulent.

97 words.