Statute of Enrolments

Statute of Enrolments

Act of Parliament
Parliament of England
Long title	An Act concerning Inrollments of Bargains and Contracts of Lands and Tenements.
Citation	27 Hen. 8. c. 16
Dates
Royal assent	14 April 1536
Other legislation
Relates to	Statute of Uses

The Statute of Enrolments or Enrolment of Bargains of Lands, etc. Act 1535 was a 1536 Act of the Parliament of England that regulated the sale and transfer of landsmen. The Statute is commonly considered an addition to the Statute of Uses, which was passed within the same Parliament, probably due to an omission in the Statute of Uses. It is thought to have been intended to prevent secret conveyancing, although modern academics instead assert that it was so Henry VIII could keep an accurate record of who his freeholders were. The Statute, which only provided for estates "of inheritance and freehold", was easily evaded through the sale of an estate for a limited time period, as leasehold, something given validity at the common law level in 1621 by Lutwich v Mitton.