The language in a deed
Reader Roger Newman had no issues with the measurements of land mentioned in yesterday’s blog.
Whether land was measured in acres or arpens (or arpents) was something he could figure out.
But parsing through a deed and some of the language in it?
That’s another story.
“I see this sentence in the middle in (a) deed when (the buyer) purchased it (1878), mortgaged it and when he sold it (1887),” he wrote. “I don’t see this in any other deeds I have. What does it mean?”
The language:
“155.50 acres of land. Together with all and singular the tenements, hereditaments and appurtenances thereunto belonging, or in anywise appertaining. To have and to hold the said…”
What it doesn’t mean, of course, is that there was a city sitting on those 155.5 acres. Tenements, in this context, won’t likely be the kind you see in the illustration.
Tenement, in a legal sense, “signifies everything that may be holden, provided it be of a permanent nature, whether it be of a substantial and sensible, or of an unsubstantial, ideal, kind. … offices, rents, commons, advowsons, franchises, peerages, etc.”1 So “‘Tenement’ is a word of greater extent than ‘land,’ including not only land, but rents, commons, and several other rights and interests issuing out of or concerning land.”2
Hereditaments are those things “capable of being inherited, be it corporeal or incorporeal, real, personal, or mixed, and including not only lands and everything thereon. … The term includes a few rights unconnected with land, but it is generally used as the widest expression for real property of all kinds, and is therefore employed in conveyances after the words ‘lands’ and ‘tenements,’ to include everything of the nature of realty which they do not cover.”3
And an appurtenance is something “which belongs to something else; an adjunct; an appendage; something annexed to another thing more worthy as principal, and which passes as incident to it, as a right of way or other easement to land; an out-house, barn, garden, or orchard …”4
In other words, by selling the land and “all and singular the tenements, hereditaments and appurtenances thereunto belonging,” the seller was transferring to the buyer the land, any and all rights associated with the land, any and all buildings on the land — in other words, everything there was to sell.
And to have and to hold…? No, this wasn’t a marriage contact (“to have and to hold from this day forward as long as you both shall live”). It’s a “common phrase In conveyancing, derived from the habendum et tenendum of the old common law.”5 That habendum et tenendum stuff is just Latin for have and hold — and it’s nothing more than “(f)ormal words in deeds of land from a very early period.”6
Parsing through the language in a deed can be tough work, indeed… but it’s important to know just what was being sold: whether it’s some rights or all rights, some of the land or all of the land, can be the clue we need to reconstruct a family.
SOURCES
I would like to know what language in a deed indicates that it is a mortgage, rather than a quit-claim or warranty deed.
Usually, but not always, a deed that’s really a mortgage is called a deed of trust, and it gives the property to person C to hold until person A (often the buyer) pays person B (often the seller).
How about Federal Land of My Family in Orange County, FL.
The Deed was recorded and kept for safe keeping. Well no one claimed nor did the State or County notify the Heirs of the said Claimants to their Land. Bureau of Land Management confirmed and Orange County Comptroller confirmed so why did they not distribute the inheritance but to keep it for themselves? We all know about the Deed and we also knew it was to be inherited by My Grandmother Nellie Bell Freeman/Johnson when Mary Freeman died in 1942. My Grandmother Nellie had 9 children and many Grandchildren too. Nellie died 1961. Never recieved the inherited Land. My Family deserves the truth be known about how this Land in Winter Garden would become such controversey. We have been deprived of our inherited Land and The Government needs to provide for the True Family of the Lands. Orange County has also been decieving others by ridiculing Documents. Proven in 9Th District Curcuit Court under Judge Belvin Perry. Where is the Trust? Where is the Revenue from my Families Land going? Who had Jurisdiction over the sovereign Properties?
Answers not opinions.
Gloria Darlene Duckwitz
You need to consult with an attorney licensed to practice in Florida. No blog comment response can give you legal advice.
I’ve often wondered whether seeing appurtenances in this phrasing implies the presence of a building on a property. Is this just “boilerplate” wording which would be included whether the land had a building or not?
More likely to be boilerplate, Stanley — and remember, an orchard or a garden is an appurtenance, so it’s not there to say there’s a building at all.
Since you’re talking about deeds and their language, how about discussing people who don’t know the difference between owning a half-interest in a piece of land versus owning half of the land?
My GG grandfather and his never-married brother ended up being joint owners of land inherited from their father after buying out their siblings.
GG grandfather wills his half-interest in the land to his wife. BUT his brother, in his will, after describing the land, concludes that since the land amounts to 130 acres, he, therefore, owns 65. He then proceeds to give 40 acres to his sister-in-law (GG grandfather’s widow) and 25 acres to his niece.
No kidding!
Clearly no lawyer wrote that will up. 🙂
FWIW, all of the land eventually ended up being owned by the niece – my G grandmother.
A future post on tenancies in common versus joint tenancies versus… Good idea!
Thanks for your reply. Didn’t expect it to be the subject of you blog.
It was a great question — glad I could help answer it.
Does together with all and singular tenements, hereditament and appurtenances mean in the case of a business that all equipment is included or is it strictly the land & buildings?
Time and place? (It can depend on when and where the deed was executed.)
Does a normal deed always include the buildings (such as a home or permanent garage)? One of my deeds includes the phrase “and any improvements” while the other (which has a home on the land) does not say “and any improvements” in the property description. Looking for clarification.
That’s the kind of question that only a lawyer licensed in your jurisdiction can answer definitively.
What can you tell me about a Military Warrant on land.. what is done to cancel it? How does it effect fee ownership?
My mother’s estate property is under Military Warrant title I guess you would say.. it is or was at one time the whole of the warrent..the warrant limits acreage and all of the subdivisions of record excede the stated size.. 4 fractional lots along a river in sec6 and the ne1/4 of nw 1/4 of sec7.. what rights go along with this Military Warrant of Abraham Lincoln’ time?
You’ll have to consult with an attorney licensed in that jurisdiction to determine this for sure. In general restrictive covenants only persist if they are continued in subsequent transfers, but that’s a generalization and not legal advice (which I don’t give).
On the will I am transcribing it looks like it says “. . . all and every my land, tenements, and hereditaments with the appertainments which I have purchased from the United States . . .” Does “every” make sense?
Yup, typical boilerplate legal language.