confiderable part of their fubfiftence from them, became a burthen to the public, and the legislature found it neceffary to encourage fuch as fhould be charitably disposed, to appropriate part of their wealth to charitable purposes, and ́in the 35th of Elizabeth it was enacted, "That it should be lawful for every person, for and during the space of twenty years then next enfuing, 'to make feoffments, grants, or any other affurances, or by laft will in writing to give and bequeath in fee fimple, as well to the ufe of the poor, as for the provifion, fuftentation, or maintenance of any house of correction, or abiding houses, or of any stocks or ftores, all or any part of fuch of his lands, tenements, and hereditaments, and in fuch manner and form as he might have done" by a former ftatute (a) revived by the prefent (b). BUT the charges of incorporation, and of the licence of mortmain, which was neceffary to carry into effect the purposes of this act, having, by fome means or other, become fo great as to difcourage many from undertaking these pious and charitable works (c); it was thought neceffary, by an act of parliament, to dispense, in certain cafes, with the licence of incorporation and mortmain, and to enable the founder to do the whole by his own act, without the immediate affent of the King to every particular foundation; it was therefore enacted, "That all and every perfon or perfons, feised of an eftate in fee fimple, their heirs, executors, and affigns, at his or their will and pleafure, should have full power, ftrength, licence, and lawful authority, at any time during the space of twenty years then next ensuing, by deed inrolled in the High Court of Chancery, to erect, found, and establish, one or more hofpitals, maifons de Dieu, abiding places, or houses of cor(a) 22 H, 8, c. 12. (b) 35 El. c. 7. f. 27. (c) 2 Inft. 722. rection, rection, at his or their will and pleasure, as well as for the finding, fuftentation and relief, of the maimed, poor, needy, or impotent people, as to fet the poor to work, to have continuance for ever, and from time to time to place therein fuch head and members, and fuch number of poor, as to him, his heirs and affigns fhould feem convenient; and that the fame hofpitals or houfes fo founded, fhould be incorporated, and have perpetual fucceffion for ever, in fact, deed, and name; and of fuch head, members, and numbers of poor, needy, maimed, or impotent people as fhould be appointed, affigned, limited, or named by the founder or founders, his or their heirs, executors, or af signs, by any such deed inrolled; and that such hospital, &c. and the persons therein placed, should be incorporated, named, and called by fuch name as the faid founder, &c. fhould fo limit, &c. and that the fame hospital, &c. fo incorporated and named, fhould be a body politic and corporate, and should by that name of incorporation have full power, authority, and lawful capacity and ability to purchase, take, hold, receive, enjoy, and have, to them and to their fucceffors for ever, as well goods and chattels, as manors, lands, tenements, and hereditaments, being freehold, of any person or perfons whatsoever, so that the fame fhould not exceed the yearly value of 2001. above all charges and reprises to any one fuch hofpital, &c. without licence or writ of ad quod damnum, the ftatute of mortmain, or any other ftatute or law to the contrary notwithstanding; and that the fame hofpital, &c. and the perfons fo incorporated, &c. fhould have full power and lawful authority, by its true name of incorporation, to fue and be fued, implead and be impleaded, to answer and be anfwered, in all courts of the realm, as well temporal as fpiritual, in all manner of fuits whatever -and that that the fame hofpital, &c. fhould have and enjoy for ever fuch a common feal or feals as by the faid founder, &c. should be, in writing, under his or their hand and feal affigned, &c. whereby the fame corporation fhould or might feal any manner of inftrument touching the fame incorporation, and the lands, tenements, hereditaments, goods, or other things thereto belonging, or in any wife touching or concerning the fame (a). "PROVIDED that no perfon within age, or of non-fane memory, or women covert without their husbands, fhould have power by this act to make any fuch corporation, or to endow the fame (b). "AND provided that no fuch hofpital, &c. fhould be erected, &c. by force of this act, unless on the foundation or erection thereof the fame were endowed for ever with lands, tenements, or hereditaments, of the clear yearly value of ten pounds." (c) THE act is made perpetual by a subsequent statute (ɗ). THE words, "all and every person and perfons" in this act, extend to fuch bodies politic and corporate, as may alienate, such as mayor and commonalty, bailiffs and burgeffes, and the like; but not to those whofe power of alienation is reftrained by act of parliament (e). THE manors, lands, tenements, or hereditaments of which the endowment is made, must be of an estate in fee fimple, either abfolute, conditional, or qualified; they must be freehold; of the clear yearly value of 10l. or more, and not exceeding the yearly value of 200l. above all charges and reprises: but if the firft endowment be of the yearly value of 1ol. or more, and under the yearly value of zool. they may purchase, or take by gift from (a) 39 El. c. 5. f. 1. (d) 21 Jac. 1, C. I. (b) f. 3. (c) f. 4. others, others, without licence of mortinain, any manors, lands, tenements, or hereditaments, of fuch value as, together with their firft endowment, will amount to the yearly value of 200l. above all charges and reprises (a). And if, at the time of the foundation or endowment, they be of the yearly value of zool. or under, and afterwards they become of greater value, by good husbandry or other causes, they fhall continue to be enjoyed by the hofpital, though they be above the yearly value of 200l. ; for that must be reckoned as it was at the time of the endowment made. Goods and chattels, whether real or perfonal, they may take to any value whatever (b). THE hofpital, &c. can be erected by no other inftrument, conveyance, or affurance, than a deed inrolled in chancery according to the provifions of the act: but it is not neceffary that it fhould be inrolled within fix months after the date; nor is it neceffary to be indented: and the deed may be in paper, but it must be inrolled in parchment (c). ALTHOUGH, at common law, the incorporation may be of certain perfons to be governors of the hospital, which at the time of the incorporation may be only in contemplation, and not of the perfons placed in it; yet the safest and fureft way on this ftatute is, for the founder first to prepare the hofpital, and place the poor in it, and then to incorporate them, or rather to give them their name of incorporation; for it is the parliament which incorporates them, and the founder only gives them their name (d). THE next thing to be done after the incorporation, is to convey the lands, tenements, and hereditaments to the perfons incorporated, which may be done fafely, with (c) 2 Inft. 723. (a) Id. ibid. (b) Id. ibid. greater greater facility, and lefs charge, by bargain and fale, by deed indented and inrolled, according to the ftatute 27 H. 8, c. 16, between the founder or founders on the one part, and the master and brethren on the other, in confideration of five fhillings in hand paid by the mafter of the hofpital, for himself and for his brethren, and of other five fhillings in hand paid by the master and brethren (a), "of which," fays Sir Edward Coke, "you may have a precedent in the tenth book of my reports in the cafe of Sutton's Hofpital" (b). WHEN it is intended that a corporation fhould be eftablished, vefted with powers or privileges which by the principles of the common law cannot be granted by the King's charter, then recourfe must be had to the aid of an act of parliament; as, if it be intended to grant the power of imprisonment, as in the cafe of the college of phyficians; or, to confer an exclufive right of trading, as in the cafe of the Eaft India company; or when a court is erected with a power to proceed in a manner different from the common law, which is the cafe of the Vice Chancellor's court in the two univerfities (c). But it has been well obferved (d), that most of thofe ftatutes which are usually cited as having created corporations, either confirm fuch as have been previously created by the King; as in the cafe of the college of physicians before mentioned, which was erected by charter in the tenth year of Henry the 8th, and afterwards confirmed in parliament by an act of the 14th and 15th of the fame King (e); or they permit the King to erect a corporation in futuro, with fuch and fuch powers, as is the cafe of the bank of England (ƒ), (a) Id. 725. (b) 10 Co. 17 b. (c) Vid. Cro. Car. 73, 87, 88. Jenk. 97, 117. (d) 1 Bl. Com. 473. 114, Dr. Bonham's cafe. (e) 14 and 15 H. 8, c. 5. Vid. 8 Co. (f) 5 and 6 W. and M. c. 20. 1 and |