Tenterden's Act

St. 9 Geo. IV. c. 14, extending the statutes of frauds to certain other contracts.

LORD. The statute of George IV. c. 14, § 6, which provides that no action shall be brought whereby to charge any person upon any representation given concerning the character, credit, etc., of another, or to the intent that another person may obtain credit, unless such representation be made in writing, signed by the party to be charged therewith. See Frauds, Statute of. TEN U IT (Lat. he held). A term used in stating the tenure in an action for waste done after the termination of the tenancy. See Tenet. TENURE (from Lat tenere, to hold). The mode by which a man holds an estate in lands. Such a holding as is coupled with some service, which the holder is bound to perform so long as he continues to hold. The thing held is called a tenement; the occupant, a tenant; and the manner of his holding constitutes the tenure. Upon common-law principles, all lands within the state are held directly or indirectly from the king, as lord paramount or supreme proprietor. To him every occupant of land owes fidelity and service of some kind, as the necessary condition of his occupation. If he fails in either respect, or dies without heirs upon whom this duty may devolve, his land reverts to the sovereign as ultimate proprietor. In this country, the people in their corporate capacity represent the state sovereignty; and every man must bear true allegiance to the state, and pay his share of the taxes required for her support, as the condition upon which alone he may hold land within her boundaries; Co. Litt. $5 a; 2 Bla. Com. 105; 3 Kent 487. land found unappropriated as his necessities required. Over this he exercised an unqualified dominion; and when he parted with his ownership the possession of his successor was equally free and absolute. An estate of this character necessarily excludes the idea of any tenure, since the occupant owes no service or allegiance to any superior as the condition of his occupation. But when the existence of an organized society became desirable to secure certain blessings only by its means to be acquired, there followed the establishment of governments, and a new relation arose between each government and its citizens,— that of protection on the one hand and dependence on the other, — necessarily involving the idea of service to the state as a condition to the use and enjoyment of lands within its boundaries. This relation was of course modified according to the circumstances of particular states; but throughout Europe it early took the form of the feudal system. See Alod. The principal species of tenure which grew out of the feudal system was the tenure by knight’s service ( q. v.). Many arbitrary and tyrannical incidents or lordly privileges were attached to this tenure, which was abolished by statute 12 Charles II. c. 24, which declared that all such lands should thenceforth be held in free and common socage. Tenure in socage is where a tenant holds his tenement by any certain service, in lieu of all other services, so that they be not services of chivalry or knight’s service: as, to hold by fealty and twenty shillings rent, or by homage, fealty, and twenty shillings rent, or by homage and fealty without any rents, or by fealty and a certain specified service, as, to plough the lord’s land for three days. Littleton 117; 2 Bla. Com. 79. See Socage Other tenures have grown out of the two last mentioned species of tenure, and are still extant in England. See [1907] 1 ch. 36G. Among these are tenures by copyhold and in frankalmoin, in burgage and gavelkind, and grand and petit serjeanty; but their nature, origin, and history are explained in the several articles appropriated to those terms. Tenures were distinguished, according to the quality of the service, into free or base; the former were such as were not unbecoming a soldier or a freeman to perform, as, to serve the lord in the wars; while the latter were only considered fit for a peasant, as to plough the land, and the like. They were further distinguished with reference to the person from whom the land was held, as a tenure in c apite, where the holding was of the person of the king, and tenure in gross, where the holding was of a subject. By the statute of Quia Emptores, 18 Edw. I, it was provided that if any tenant should alien any part of his land in fee, the alienee should hold immediately of the lord of the fee, and should be charged with a proportional part of the service due in respect of the quantity of land held by him. The consequence of which was that upon every such alienation the services upon which the estate was originally granted became due to the superior lord, and not to the immediate grantee; 4 Term 443; 4 East 271; Crabb, R. P. 8 735. Only free tenures were recognized by the royal courts. The free tenures were frankalmoin, knight service, serjeanty and socage; see 2 Iloldsw. 159; 3 id. 27. In the United States every estate in fee-simple is held as absolutely and unconditionally as is compatible with the state’s right of eminent domain. Many grants of land made by the British Crown prior to the Revolution created socage tenures, which were subsequently abolished or modified by the legislatures of the different states. Thus, by the charter of Pennsylvania, the proprietary held his estate of the crown in free and common socage, statute of quia emptores. An act of Pennsylvania of November 27, 1779, substituted the commonwealth in place of the proprietaries as the ultimate proprietor of whom lands were held. Pennsylvania titles are allodial not feudal; Wallace v. Harmstad, 44 Pa. 492. In New York there was supposed to have been some species of military tenure introduced by the Dutch previously to their surrender to the English, in 1664; but the legislature of that state in 1787 turned them all into a tenure in free and common socage, and finally, in 1830, abolished this latter tenure entirely, and declared that all lands in that state should thenceforth be held upon a uniform allodial tenure. See Quia Emptohes; Ailodial. See Parliamentary Report (1870) on Tenures in the countries of Europe.

The English Stat. 9 Geo. IV. ch. 14, understood to have been passed at the instance of Lord Tenterden. It is in the nature of an enlarged application of the principle of the statute of frauds, requiring contracts to be in writing. Its leading provisions, as now in force, are epitomized by Brown, thus: In actions of debt or upon the case, grounded upon any simple contract, no acknowledgment or promise by words only is to be deemed a sufficient evidence of a new and continuing contract to take the case out of the statutes of limitations, unless such acknowledgment or promise be in writing, signed by the party chargeable thereby. No action is "to be brought whereby to charge any person upon or by reason of any assurance made concerning the character, conduct, credit, ability, trade, or dealings of any person, to the intent that such person may obtain credit, money, or goods, unless such representations be in writing, and signed by the party to be charged therewith. Section 17 of the statute of frauds — by which it is provided that no contract for the sale of goods for the price of £10 sterling or upwards shall be good, except the buyer accept part of the goods so sold, and actually receive the same, or give something in earnest to bind the bargain, or some note or memorandum of the said bargain be signed by the parties to be charged by such contract, or their agents lawfully authorized — is extended to all such contracts, notwithstanding that the goods may be intended to be delivered at some future time, or may not at the time of the contract be actually made, procured, or provided, or be fit or ready for delivery.