If the property purchased be situate in Middlesex or Yorkshire (including the town and county of Kingston-upou-Hull), the conveyancer must, of course, have regard, in advising on title, to the law established by the Registry Acts (g) for those counties, and to the construction placed on the Middlesex and the old Yorkshire Registry Acts in Courts of Equity with regard to purchasers having notice of prior unregistered assurances (h). He should note, in perusing the abstract, whether every document which ought to be registered has been duly registered, and, if not, he should require the vendor to procure the same, if still capable of registration, to be registered at the vendor's expense (i).

Lands in Middlesex or Yorkshire.

Ltd., 1910, 1 Ch. 12, 27 (as to which case and dictum, see above, p. 371, u. (y)); Wms. Real Prop. 415. and note (c), 21st ed.: and the writer's article on the Rule against Perpetuities in the Encyclopaedia of the Laws of England, vol. ii. pp. 72, 73, 2nd ed.

(g) Stats. 7 Anne, c. 20, for Middlesex, of which the register was transferred to the Land Registry Office by 54 & 55 Vict, c. 64; 2 & 3 Anne, c. 4; 6 Anne, c 20 5 Anne, c. 18, in Ruffhead). for the West Riding of Yorkshire; 6 Anne, c. 62 (c. 35 in Ruffhead), for the East Riding and King-stun-upou-Hull: and 8 Geo. II. 0. 6, for the North Riding. All the Yorkshire Acts were repealed and replaced by 17 & 48 Vict. c. .54, amended by 48 & 49 Vict. c. 26.

(h) See Wms. Real Prop. 211, 262, 572 - 574, 21st ed.; 2 Dart. V. & P. 678 685, 852 857, 5th ed.; 767 - 776, 958 - 965, 6th ed.; 697 - 705, 865 - 872, 7th ed.; Brickdale on Registration in Middlesex.

(i) Sug. V. & P. 546. The memorial to be registered in Middlesex or Yorkshire of any deed was required to be under the hand and seal of some or one of the grantors or grantees, his or their heirs, executors or administrators, guardians or trustees, and to be attested by two witnesses, whereof one should be one of the witnesses to the execution of the deed: Sug. V. & P. 729, 730. The Yorkshire Registries Act, 1884, -. 6, substituted parties to the deed for grantors or grantees and one or more for two witnesses. In Middlesex, the memorial is now required to be attested by one witness only, such witness, where practicable, to be a witness to the execution of the deed: stat. 54 & 65 Vict, c. 64, s. 2, and First Schedule,

If the omission to register cannot be rectified, the purr-chaser's counsel must consider whether the circumstances are such as prevent his client from obtaining an indefeasible legal estate in the property purchased, and he should make requisitions or objections as to the title, according to the conclusion at which he arrives. With regard to dispositions taking effect inter vivos, the general effect of the Middlesex and old Yorkshire Registry Acts was that an unregistered deed or conveyance of lands in either of these counties was voidable at law by a subsequent registered deed or conveyance of the same lands to a purchaser or mortgagee for valuable consideration (k). But an unregistered assurance by deed was not void or inoperative; it passed the legal estate to the grantee, and was only defeasible by such a registered assurance as above described (l). Thus, if A. granted the same lands by unregistered deed first to B. and subsequently to C, whether r. 2; Land Registry (Middlesex Deeds) Rules, 1892, r. 6; W. N. 13th Feb. 1892. It is sufficient if a witness to the execution of the deed by the grantee attest the memorial: R. v. Registrar for Middlesex, 21 Q. B. D. 555. In default of compliance with these conditions the registration is void: Essex v. Baugh, 1 Y. & C. C. C. 620.

(k) Stats. 2 & 3 Anne, c. 4, s. 1; 6 Anne, c. 62 (c. 35 in Ruff head), s. 1; 7 Anne, c. 20, s. 1; 8 Geo. II. c. 6, s. 1. These enactments required the registration of "all deeds and conveyances whereby any hereditaments may be in any way affected at law or in equity "; and it was held that these words extend to a written memorandum of an agreement giving or operating as a charge in equity upon certain lands: Neve v. Pennell, 2 H. & M. 170, 185 - 187; Credland v. Potter, L. R. 10 Ch. 8; but not to the charge created by a deposit of title deeds without agreement or memorandum in writing: Sumpter v. Cooper, 2 B. & Ad. 223; or to a vendor's lien arising without express agreement in writing: Kettlewett v. Watson, 26 Ch. D. 501, 507; or to the vesting, effected by an adjudication of bankruptcy, of the bankrupt's estate in his trustee: Re Calcott and Elvin's Contract, 1898, 2 Ch. 460. Considering these decisions, it would appear that the words above quoted are wide enough to include an unsealed memorandum in writing of a contract to sell land, Brady, Ir. C, Gardiner v. Blesin-ton, 1 Ir. Ch. Rep. 79, 85; but see and consider Inland Revenue Commrs. v. Angus, 23 Q. B. D. 579; Rodger v. Harrison, 1893, 1 Q. B. 161. The law stated in this note now applies to lands in Middlesex only; see below, p. 377, and n. (z).

(l) Grant, M. R., Jones v. Gibbons, 9 Ves. 407, 411.

For value or not, and C. by registered deed granted the lands to D. on a sale or mortgage, 1). did not thus obtain the legal estate or any priority of interest over B. For when A. granted the lands to C, he had already parted with all his estate therein to B., and A.'s grant to C, being unregistered, could not operate to displace B.'s estate (m). If, however, the conveyance from A. to C. were duly registered, as well as that from C. to D., D.. would obtain the legal estate, whether he had or had not notice of the conveyance from A. to B. (n) ; but if he had such notice, in equity he would obtain no priority of interest over B., and would be a trustee of his legal estate for B.'s benefit (o). It has been decided by the House of Lords, in a case upon the Irish Registry Act, that in order to avoid an unregistered assurance it is not necessary that the subsequent registered conveyance should be made by the first grantor personally ; it may be made by anyone who, but for the unregistered assurance, would take his estate by operation of law in his lifetime (p). And in the same case the English judges, who were called in to advise the House, uuanimously expressed the opinion (q) that a secret conveyance of a man's lands made by unregistered assurance may be avoided by a registered conveyance from his heir, or even from his devisee (r) to a purchaser. Wills of lands in Middlesex or Yorkshire, if not registered within six months of the testator's death, were voidable by a registered conveyance from the testator's heir to a purchaser (s); so that the devisee under a will not so registered could not make a good title to the devised lands without the heir's concurrence (t). But under the Vendor and Purchaser Act, 1874 (u), where such a will has not been registered within due time, an assurance of the land to a purchaser or mortgagee by the devisee, or by someone deriving title under him, shall, if registered before, take precedence of and prevail over any assurance from the testator's heir-at-law. It is not clear to what extent this enactment is retrospective. On a sale of lands in Middlesex by the devisees under an unregistered will of a testator, who died in 1875, subject to the condition that no objection should be taken on account of any document not being registered in Middlesex, the purchaser was obliged to take the title, notwithstanding that it was unknown who was the heir, and search against the heir's name was thus prevented (x).