1491

If any deed is drawn up and sealed for conveyancing and confirming any houses, lands, or tenements within the borough, by any person or persons having reached the age of majority (21) and having the legal right to make such conveyance and confirmation, with seisin having been delivered, or any indentured agreement of which seisin has been delivered, the which [transfer of property] is thereafter acknowledged by the parties, grantors and grantees, before the bailiffs of the borough then in office, or either of them, this acknowledgement shall be recorded in the borough court roll along with the information declared before one or both bailiffs. Every such deed or indenture thus acknowledged and enrolled shall have as much legal validity in regard to its stated purpose, for both the grantors and grantees, as if enacted through a deed acknowledged and enrolled in any of the king’s courts at Westminster. And even if the deed or indenture does not survive to be presented in evidence, but is burned or lost, by the custom of the borough the record of that deed or indenture in the court rolls is acceptable as perfectly valid legal documentation on behalf of the grantees and their heirs, for the purpose therein stated against the grantors and their heirs, in perpetuity. And a deed or indenture that is enrolled shall be given greater credence over one which is not enrolled.