1491

Any femme covert who holds houses, lands or tenements within the borough, whether through inheritance, or a life interest, or in fee simple, in her own right or jointly with her husband (or with any other person), and who with her husband is party to a deed transferring them to any person or persons, whether before or after livery of seisin has been carried out, shall come with her husband before the bailiffs then in office, or either of them, and they are to acknowledge the deed as theirs. The femme covert is to be separately questioned by the bailiffs, or one of them, on this matter, according to the custom of the borough, with the fact of the questioning, and a statement of its findings, to be included in the record entered into the borough court rolls. If the husband and wife are of the age of majority, the enrolled record shall have complete legal validity for the parties, the grantees, and their heirs, for the purpose expressed in the deed and the enrollment, in perpetuity. Moreover, according to the custom of the borough, by force of that record and enrollment the femme covert and her heirs shall be as utterly and forever excluded and debarred from any kind of interest, right, or title in and to the said lands, houses and tenements (or any part of them), as are her husband and his heirs. Such a custom has always been applied to final concords at common law.