Duchy of Lancaster Act 1779

1779 CHAPTER 45 19 Geo 3

An Act to enable the Chancellor and Council of the Duchy of Lancaster to sell and dispose of certain Fee-farm Rents, and other Rents, and to enfranchise Copyhold and Customary Tenements, within their Survey, and to encourage the Growth of Timber on Lands held of the said Duchy.

Preamble. Recital of two Acts 22 and 23 Car. II; and of an Act 1 Annæ

” Whereas by an Act of Parliament, passed in the twenty-second Year of the Reign of his late Majesty King Charles the Second, intituled An Act for advancing the Sale of Fee-farm Rents and other Rents; and by another Act, passed in the twenty-second and twenty-third Years of the same King, intituled, An Act for vesting certain Fee-farm Rents and other small Rents, in Trustees; or one of them, all the Fee-farm Rents, Rents Service, Rents Seck or Dry Rents, Chantry Rents, Guild Rents, Castle Guard Rents, and other Rents, within the Survey of the Duchy of Lancaster, due and payable to the said late King, his Heirs and Successors (except as therein mentioned), were vested in certain Trustees, and their Heirs, with Powers for them to make Sale thereof, for the Benefit of the said King, his Heirs and Successors, with a Proviso therein contained, that until Sale should be made of the said Rents by the said Trustees, the King’s Receivers should collect and receive the same: And whereas, by the Crown M1 Lands Act 1702 divers wholesome Provisions were made for the Preservation, Improvement, and Increase of the Land Revenues of the Crown, and for preventing the Alienation of any Manors, Messuages, Lands, Tenements, Rents, Tythes, Woods, or other Hereditaments, belonging to her said late Majesty, her Heirs or Successors, with a Proviso therein contained, that the said Act should not disable the Trustees for Sale of Fee-farm and other Rents, to execute any the Trusts of the said several Acts of Parliament herein-before mentioned: And whereas several of the said Rents within the Survey of the said Duchy of Lancaster were sold under the said Authority so given to the said Trustees, but the Residue thereof, consisting of many small Rents, arising and payable in divers Counties, remain unsold, the collecting and Payment whereof is not only chargeable to the Crown, but is troublesome and inconvenient to the Subject; but forasmuch as the said Trustees, who were six in Number, are all long since dead, and it has not been discovered which of them was the Survivor, or who is or are the Heir or Heirs of such Survivor, or in whom the legal Estate in the said unsold Rents is now vested, for which Reasons no complete Sale thereof can be effected, nor a good Title made thereto, without the further Aid of Parliament: And whereas the King’s Majesty is seised to himself, his Heirs and Successors, as Parcel of the Possessions of the said Duchy of Lancaster, of divers Honours, Manors, and Lordships, within which are divers Tenants holding of his Majesty Customary or Copyhold Messuages, Lands, and Tenements, Parcel of the said Honours, Manors, or Lordships, in respect of which said Messuages, Lands, and Tenements, the said Tenants are subject upon Descent or Alienation thereof, to the Payment of Fines, either arbitrary or certain, Heriots, Reliefs, and other Dues, according to the respective Customs of the said Honours, Manors, or Lordships, over and besides the yearly Quit-Rents issuing and payable thereout: And whereas it would tend greatly to the Relief of the said Tenants, and to the Improvement of their respective Estates, if the same could be enfranchised and discharged from the said Burthens incident to their respective Tenures; but the same cannot be done without the Aid of Parliament:”

Modifications etc. (not altering text)

C1 Short title given by Statute Law Revision Act 1948 (c. 62), Sch. 2

C2 Act amended by Duchy of Lancaster Act 1787 (c. 34)

Marginal Citations

M1 1702 c. 1.