p. 701 | AN ORTHODOX DEED

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Nov 18, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 44.

AN ORTHODOX DEED.

THE Albany Law Journal quotes from the Legal Intelligencer the description of a deed in the records of Northumberland County in Pennsylvania, drawn by a quaint old lawyer of the last century. The deed conveys lot No. 51 in the town of Lewisburg, and contains the following recital of title:—

“WHEREAS, The Creator of the earth, by parole and livery of seizin, did enfeoff the parents of mankind, to wit, Adam and Eve, of all that certain tract of land, called and known in the planetary system by the name of the earth . . . to have and to hold to them, the said Adam and Eve, and the heirs of their bodies, lawfully to be begotten, in fee-tail general forever, as by said feoffment recorded by Moses, in the first chapter of the first book of his records, more fully and at large appears.”

The deed recites that Adam and Eve died seized of the premises in fee-tail general, leaving issue, sons and daughters, who entered into the same premises, and became seized as tenants in common; that in process of time they multiplied their seed on the earth, and became very numerous; that they found it to be inconvenient to remain in common; that they “bethought themselves to make partition of the lands to and among themselves;” that the tract known on the general plan of the earth as America was allotted to certain of the heirs, eventually (now deemed time immemorial) a certain united people called the Six Nations of North America, heirs and descendants of said grantees of America, became seized of a part of the tract now called Pennsylvania.

The deed from this point then proceeds to give an accurate recital of the conveyance by the Six Nations to the Penns, and from them down to the grantor. It omits all reference to the royal grants to William Penn. The scrivener was either a very good lawyer, or intensely anti-British. It is more than likely that he was both.

The lawyer who drew up this deed evidently did not believe that this race of men started with a protoplasm, or a series of protoplasms, and finally worked its way up to humanity. He believed in the record of Moses and the title of man to the earth as given in that record. He makes out a first-class title to “lot No. 51 in the town of Lewisburg,” tracing it back to Adam and Eve, and from them to the great Creator of the earth and Giver of the same to Adam. We think the title to “lot No. 51” a good one, and the deed to be perfectly orthodox. Anybody who wants a better title to land must be hard to please.—Independent