Fraudulent Devises Act 1691

IV. Heir aliening before Action brought, liable to the Value of the Land.

Creditors preferred as in Actions against Executors.

[X1 And whereas several Persons being Heirs att Law to avoid the Payment of such just Debts as in regard of the Lands Tenements and Hereditaments descending to them they have by law been liable to pay have sold aliened or made over such Lands Tenements or Hereditaments before any Processe was or could be issued out against them Be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid That in all cases where any Heire att Law shall be liable to pay the Debt of his Ancestor in regard of any Lands Tenements or Hereditaments descending to him and shall sell alien or make over the same before any Action brought or Processe sued out against him that such Heir att Law shall be answerable for such Debt or Debts in an Action or Actions of Debt to the value of the said Land so by him sold aliened or made over in which cases all Creditors shall be preferred as in Actions against Executors and Administrators and such [X2 Executions] shall be taken out upon any Judgment or Judgments so obtained against such Heire to the value of the said Land as if the same were his owne proper Debt or Debts saving that the Lands Tenements and Hereditaments (bona fide) aliened before the Action brought shall not be liable to such Execution.]

Editorial Information

X1 annexed to the Original Act in separate Schedules.

X2 Variant reading of the text noted in The Statutes of the Realm as follows: Execution O. [O. refers to a collection in the library of Trinity College, Cambridge]