should be from the end of that feffion of parliament, utterly void to all intents, conftructions, and purposes." THE purpose of these ftatutes was to prevent "archbishops and bishops" from making, even with the confent of their chapters, any other estates of the poffeffions of their fees than fuch as are defcribed in the ftatute of the firft of Elizabeth. By the 13th El. c. 10, f. 3, after reciting that long and unreasonable leafes made by colleges, deans and chapters, parfons, vicars, and others having spiritual promotions, had been the chief causes of the dilapidations and the decay of all fpiritual livings and hofpitality, and the utter impoverishing of all fucceffors incumbents in the fame, “it is enacted, that from thenceforth all leafes, gifts, grants, feoffments, conveyances, or eftates, to be made, had, done, or fuffered by any mafter and fellows, of any college, dean and chapter of any cathedral or collegiate church, mafter or guardian of any hofpital, parfon, vicar, or any other having any spiritual or ecclefiaftical living, or any houses, lands, tythes, tenements, or other hereditaments, being any parcel of the poffeffions of any fuch college, cathedral church, chapter, hospital, parsonage, vicarage, or other spiritual promotion, or any way appertaining or belonging to the fame, or any of them, to any person or perfons, bodies politic or corporate, other than for the term of twenty-one years, or three lives, from the time when any fuch leafe or grant shall be made, on which the accustomed yearly rent or more fhall be referved, and payable yearly during the faid term, fhall be utterly void, and of no effect, to all intents, constructions, and purposes." AND it is further provided by f. 4, this act fhall be taken to make good any leafe or other grant to be made, by any fuch college or collegiate church "that nothing in within either of the universities of Oxford or Cambridge, or elsewhere within the realm of England, for more years than are limited by the private ftatutes of the fame college" (a). IT has been often decided that, though this ftatute ufes only the words "mafters and fellows" of any college, yet. whether the college be incorporated by that name, or by the name of warden and fellows, warden and scholars, warden, fellows and scholars, or by the name of master, fellows and scholars, or mafter and scholars, or provost, fellows and scholars, or by any other name of incorporation; and whether the college be temporal for the advancement of liberal arts and sciences, or merely ecclefiaftical, or mixed, every fuch college is within the provifions of this act: and that, though the statute says, "the master or warden of any hospital," yet whether the hofpital be incorporated by any other name, or whether it be a fole corporation, or a corporation aggregate of many, it extends to hospitals of all descriptions (b). BY 14 El. c. 11, f. 17, it is enacted, "that neither the former branch of 13 El. c. 10, nor any thing therein contained, fhould extend to any grant, affurance, or lease of any houses belonging to any the perfons or bodies politic or corporate aforefaid, nor to any grounds to fuch houses appertaining, which houses are fituate in any city, borough, town corporate, or market-town, or the fuburbs of any of them, but that all fuch houfes and grounds may be granted, demifed, and affured, as by the laws of this realm, and the several statutes of the faid colleges, cathedral churches, and hofpitals, they lawfully might have been be (a) This act was continued by 1 Jac. 1, c. 25, and 21 Jac. 1. c. 28, to the end of the next feffion of parliament, and continued by 1 Car. (b) Vid. 11 Co. 76. a. and 14 El. c. 14. I, C. 4. fore fore the making of the faid ftatute, or lawfully might be, if the faid ftatute did not exift; fo always that fuch house were not the capital or dwelling house used for the habitatation of the persons above described, nor have ground, to the fame belonging, above the quantity of ten acres." "PROVIDED, f. 19, that no leafe fhould be permitted to be made, by the force of this act, in REVERSION, nor without referving the accuftomed yearly rent at the least, nor without charging the leffee with the reparations, nor for longer term than forty years at the moft; and that no houses should be permitted to be alienated, unless, in recompence thereof, there fhould be before, with, or prefently after fuch alienation, good, lawful, and fufficient affurance made in fee fimple abfolutely, to fuch colleges, houses, bodies politic or corporate, and their fucceffors, of lands of as good value, and of as great yearly value at the leaft, as those which fhould be so alienated; any law or ftatute to the contrary notwithstanding." IT was the intention of the act 13 El. c. 10, to prevent all kinds of leafes for more than the periods mentioned in it; but as it did not prohibit in express words a lease in REVERSION, or a CONCURRENT leafe, many leases were made to commence at the expiration of the lease in being, and many to run during the time of the leafe in being; as if fifteen years of a twenty-one years lease had elapsed, they would make another term to run along with the firft, fo that at the end of the firft, there would be fifteen years of the second to come.-The ftatute of 18 El. c. 11, after alluding to this practice in the recital, enacts" that all leafes thereafter to be made by any of the ecclefiaftical, fpiritual, or collegiate perfons or others," mentioned in the 13th El. "of any of their faid ecclefiaftical, fpiritual, or collegiate lands, tenements, or hereditaments, of which any any former leafe for years was in being, not to be expired, furrendered, or ended within three years next after the making of any fuch new leafe, fhould be void, fruftrate, and of no effect." And it was further provided by f. 13, "that every bond and covenant thereafter to be made, for renewing or making any leafe or leafes, contrary to the true intent and meaning of this act, or of the said act made in the 13th year of the Queen, fhould be utterly void." And by a subsequent statute (a), which continues the 13th El. c. 10, "together with all and every explanations, additions, and alterations thereof, or thereunto made, by any other ftatute or ftatutes fince the making thereof," it is further enacted, "that all judgments thereafter to be had, for the intent to have or enjoy any leafe contrary to the faid ftatutes, or any of them, fhould be void, in the fame manner as bonds or covenants are appointed to be void which are made for that purpose." IT has been decided (b), however, that the ftatute 18 El. c. 11, did not relate to the 14th El. and that confequently a bond or covenant for renewing or making a lease within a city or town may be enforced. (b) Crane v. Taylor, Hob. 269. Crane brought an action of covenant against Taylor, one of the prebendaries of Ely; and the cafe appeared to be, that Doctor Tindall, dean of Lincoln, and this defendant, and all other the prebendaries, by their fpecial names, had covenanted, jointly and feverally, to make a leafe of an inn within the city of London; on demurrer the covenant was argued to be void, on the 18th El. but judgment was given in favour of the plaintiff, and the covenant was held good in law, on the principle that it was not within the statute 18 El. for that though the ftatute 13 El. c. 10, was general against all leafes and grants, other than for twenty-one years, or three lives, yet the 14th El. c. 11, enacted that that ftatute should not extend to houfes in cities and towns, but created a new law with respect to them. BUT it is prefumed that this ftatute of 43 El. c. 9, does extend to the 14th El. The latter makes an alteration in 13 El. c. 10, and is therefore one of the ftatutes intended to be continued, and, by the enacting part, all judgments -contrary to the faid ftatutes, or any of them, are rendered void. By rendering void all leafes of lands, &c. of which any former leafe was in being, not to be expired or furrendered within three years after the making of the new leafe, this ftatute rendered impoffible any diftinction between concurrent leafes and leafes in reverfion; but the ftatute of the 14th of Elizabeth only prohibiting, in direct terms, leafes in reverfion, fome doubt was left whether, in cases within that ftatute, concurrent leases were alfo void (a). In their effects, (a) John abbot of Westminster and the convent being seised, jure ecclefiæ, of certain lands in St. Martin's demised them for ninetynine years in the 2 P. and M. and in 1637, there being seventeen years of the lease for ninety-nine years to run, John bishop of Lincoln and dean of Westminster, and the convent, made a leafe to Sir Richard Winn, to commence prefently, and to hold for forty years. John the bishop and dean died in 1651, and John Earles was elected dean, and in 1660 received 351. os. 4d. for one year's rent. On the 13th of Feb. 1661, the dean and chapter entered for the purpose of bringing an ejectment to try the title, which was accordingly brought. We are not told what was in fact the judgment of the court, for Carter, who reports the cafe, tells us that he did not hear the arguments of Brown and Archer, juftices, and he reports the arguments of Tirrel, juftice, and Bridgeman, C. J. who ultimately differ in opinion, but he does not tell us what was the judgment of the majority of the court. Two questions were made by those two judges whofe arguments are reported. 1. Whether this leafe, being of houses within Westminster, and within the 14th of El. was warranted by that statute? Or, in other words, whether this was a leafe in reversion? 2. If it was not warranted by the 14th of El. yet whether the acceptance of the rent should make it good? As to the first question, they both agreed in effect, though they differed |