ACTS OF THE ASSEMBLY PASSED DURING
JUNE-JULY, 1773

At a Session of Assembly begun and held at the City of Annapolis
on Tuesday the fifteenth Day of June in the Year of our Lord One
thousand seven hundred and seventy three and in the second year
of the Dominion of the Right Honourable Henry Harford Esquire
Absolute Lord and Proprietary of the Province of Maryland and
ending the third Day of July following, the following Laws were
enacted and assented to by his Excellency Robert Eden Esquire
Governor

No. 1 An Act concerning Estates-tail and the Jurisdiction of the County
Courts.

Liber R. G.

1773
p. 171

Whereas Common Recoveries are considered as a Mode of Con-
veyance by which Tenants in Tail are enabled to convey and dispose
of their Lands and Tenements but the said Mode of Conveyance is
attended with an heavy Expence and great Inconvenience by reason
of a necessary and chargeable Attendance in many Cases on the
Provincial Court

[Preamble.]

Be it therefore enacted by the Right honourable the Lord Pro-
prietary by and with the Advice and Consent of his Governor and
the Upper and Lower Houses of Assembly and the Authority of the
same that any Person or Persons seised of any Estate-Tail in Pos-
session Reversion or Remainder shall have full Power to grant bar-
gain sell and convey any Lands Tenements or Hereditaments whereof
he she or they shall be so seised by such manner and form of Con-
veyance or Assurance as any Person seised of an Estate in fee-simple
may by the Laws of this Province grant bargain sell and Convey any
Lands Tenements or Hereditaments whereof such Person is seised
of an Estate in Fee-Simple and all and every such Grants Bargains
Sales and Conveyances of any Person or Persons so seised in Tail
shall be good and available to all Intents and Purposes against all
and every Person and Persons whom the Grantor Bargainer or
vendor might or could debar by any Mode of Common Recovery or
any ways or means whatsoever any Law or Usage to the Contrary
Notwithstanding
And Whereas it is often grievously inconvenient to Defendants
and Witnesses to attend at the Provincial Court in Annapolis and
in no wise necessary or expedient for the due Administration of
Justice in the Cases of such Suits or Actions as are cognizable by
the Justices of the County Courts and as it may give great Relief
to Witnesses and Jurymen as well as to Suitors to Confer on the

[Persons
seised of
Estates-tail,
may sell and
convey them
in the same
manner as
those seised
of Estates in
Fee-simple.]