Deed Poll

[L. Lat. charta de una parte, factum simplex; L. Fr. fait poll.] In conveyancing. A deed of one part, or executed by one party only, (instead of between parties, and in two or more parts) and distinguished from an indenture by having the edge of the parchment or paper on which it is written, cut even (or polled, as it was anciently termed,) that is, in a straight line, or plain, without being indented. Litt. sect.

370. Co. Litt. 229 a. Shep. Touch. 50.

This distinction, however, though once peculiar and essential, has in modern times become of comparative insignificance, in consequence of the disuse of the formality of indenting the other description of deeds. See Deed indented. A deed poll properly is made in the first person, and commences with that formula of address to all mankind so common in ancient written instruments. "Know all men, &c., that I, &c., have given," &c. The forms given in Bracton and Britton, as examples of charters (as deeds were once called) are of this description. Sciant praesentes et futuri, quod ego, &c. Bract, fol.

34 b.

Sachent a touts ceux, &c., que jeo, &c. Britt. c.

39.

But a deed poll might be made in the third person.

Shep. Touch. 51.

And on the other hand an indenture might be made in the first. Litt. sect.

372.

In some of the United States, the ordinary mode of conveyance is by deed poll. A deed poll is considered in England as a deed made between the party or parties who executed it on the one side, and all the world on the other, or rather as a declaration, addressed to all mankind, of what the party executing it has done, so that any person may take a right of action on a covenant contained in a deed poll. But an indenture is made only between the persons named as parties to it, so that an indenture between A., B. and C. containing a covenant by A. with D., would not [formerly] give a right of action to D. So, a stranger to an indenture could not take a release under it, or an estate unless by way of remainder or through the statute of uses. Now a stranger may take immediately under an indenture, and a deed may have the effect of an indenture without being actually indented.

1 Spence's Chancery, 160.

In the United States a deed poll is held to be the deed of the party making it, and concludes him only; but an indenture is the deed of both parties, and concludes both.

2 Hill's (S. C.) R. 439. And see 2 Hilliard's Real Prop. 265, et seq.