Mortmain

Dead hand

Lands which have been conveyed to corporations having perpetual succession, so that the lands may remain for ever inalienable, are said to be held in mortmain. Conveyances to religious houses were, in the early legal history of England, found to be contrary to public policy, because, as the corporations did not sell again, the lands of the kingdom were gradually becoming tied up in their ownership and control. This led to statutes restricting conveyances to corporations, known as the mortmain acts. An alienation of lands in mortmain is an alienation of lands or tenements to any corporation, sole or aggregate, ecclesiastical or temporal. The name is thought to have been derived from the fact that the religious houses, to whom principally in former days alienations in mortmain were made, were composed of persons dead in law.

Mozley i-W

Mortmain acts. The statutes whereby the rights of corporations to take lands by grant or devise is abridged. The principal act on the subject now in operation is the Stat. 9 Geo. H. ch.

36, passed in 1735.

At the time of the passing of that act no devise of lands to a corporation was good, except for charitable uses. By that statute, no lands or hereditaments or money to be laid out therein may be given or conveyed, charged or incumbered, for any charitable use whatever, unless by deed executed in the presence of two witnesses, twelve calendar months before the death of the donor, and enrolled in chancery within six calendar months of its execution, nor unless such gift be made to take effect immediately, and be without power of revocation. Gifts to the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and their colleges, or in trust for the scholars on the foundations of Eton, Winchester, and Westminster, are excepted from the operation of the act; so are bona fide purchases for valuable consideration paid down. Various other exceptions have been