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6. PRIVATE PAPERS, SECURITIES, AND DOCUMENTS.

5 Eliz. c. 14.

Private

Securities,

&c.

cond time,

&c.

I. Forasmuch as the wicked, pernicious, and dangerous The several penalties for practice of making, forging, and publishing false and un- forging of true charters, evidences, deeds, and writings, hath of late deeds the time been very much more practised, used, and put in use first or sein all parts of this realm, than in times passed, not only to the high displeasure of God, but also to the great injury, wrong, hurt, damage, disherison, and utter undoing of divers the queen's majesty's subjects of this realm, and to the great subversion of justice and truth, which seemeth to have grown and happened chiefly by reason that the pains and punishments limited for such great and notable of fences, by the laws and statutes of this realm, before this time have been, and yet are, so small, mild, and easy, that such evil people have not been, nor yet are, afraid to enterprise the practising and doing of such offences.

The mild

ness of the
law hath
increased

the forging
of deeds.,

II. Be it therefore enacted, &c., that if any person or persons whatsoever, after the first day of June now next coming, upon his or their own head and imagination, or by false conspiracy and fraud with others, shall wittingly, subtilly, and falsely forge or make, or subtilly cause or wittingly assent to be forged or made, any false deed, charter, or writing sealed, court-roll, or the will of any person or persons, in writing, to the intent that the state of freehold or inheritance of any person or persons, of, in, or to any lands, tenements, or hereditaments, freehold or copyhold, or the right, title, or interest of any person or persons, of, in, or to the same, or any of them, shall or may be molested, troubled, defeated, recovered, or charged; or after the said first day of June shall pronounce, publish, or show forth his evidence, any such false and forged deed, charter, writing, court-roll, or will, as true, knowing the same to be false and forged, as is aforesaid, to the intent above remembered, and shall be thereof convicted, either upon action or actions of forger of false deeds, to be founded upon this statute, at the suit of the party grieved, or otherwise, according to the order and due course of the laws of this realm, (or upon bill or information to be exhibited into the Court of the Star-Chamber, &c.) shall pay unto the party The penalty grieved his double costs and damages, to be found or as- for forging or publishsessed in that court where such conviction shall be, (and ing of a also shall be set upon the pillory, &c., and there to have both his false deed,' ears cut off, and also his nostrils to be slit and cut, and seared whereby with a hot iron, &c.) and shall forfeit to the queen our sove- freehold reign lady, her heirs and successors, the whole issues and shall be profits of his lands and tenements during his life, and also troubled. shall suffer and have perpetual imprisonment during his life; the said damages and costs to be recovered at the suit of the party grieved as is aforesaid, to be first paid and

another's

1

&c.

Private levied of the goods and chattels of the offender, and of the Securities, issues and profits of the said lands, tenements, and hereditaments, of such party convicted, or of one or both of them, the said title of our said sovereign lady, the queen, her heirs or successors, to the same notwithstanding.

Forging of a deed, whereby a lease or annuity may

Forging of an obligation, acquit

tance, release, &c.

III. And be it further enacted, &c. that if any person or persons, after the said first day of June, upon his or their own head or imagination, or by false conspiration or fraud, had with any other, shall wittingly, subtilly, and be claimed. falsely forge or make, or wittingly, subtilly, and falsely cause or assent to be made and forged, any false charter, deed, or writing, to the intent that any person or persons shall or may have or claim any estate or interest for term of years, of, in, or to any manors, lands, tenements, or hereditaments, not being copy hold, or any annuity in fee-simple, fee-tail, or for term of life, lives, or years; or after the said day shall, as is aforesaid, forge, make, or cause or assent to be made or forged, any obligation or bill obligatory, or any acquittance, release, or other discharge of any debt, account, action, suit, demand, or other thing personal, or if any person or persons, after the said first day of June, shall pronounce, publish, or give in evidence, any such false and forged charter, deed, writing, obligation, bill obligatory, acquittance, release, or discharge, as true, knowing the same to be false and forged, and shall be thereof convicted by any the ways or means aforesaid; that then he shall pay unto the party grieved his double costs and damages, to be found and assessed in such court where the said conviction shall be had, and shall be also set upon the pillory, in some open market-town, or other open place, and there to have one of his ears cut off, and shall also have and suffer imprisonment by the space of one whole year, without bail or mainprise.

The second offence, felony.

Which justices may

VII. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that if any person or persons, being hereafter convicted or condemned of any the offences aforesaid, by any the ways or means above limited, shall, after any such his or their conviction or condemnation, eftsoons commit or perpetrate any of the said offences in form aforesaid, that then every such second offence or offences shall be adjudged felony, and the parties being thereof convicted or attainted according to the laws of this realm, shall suffer such pains of death, loss and forfeiture of their goods, chattels, lands, and tenements, as, in cases of felony, by the common laws of this realm ought to be lost or forfeited, without having any advantage or benefit of clergy or sanctuary.

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VIII. [There shall be no forfeiture of dower or corruption of blood for this felony.]

X. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, hear and de- that all and every justices of oyer and determiner, and justermine tices of assize in their circuits, and every of them, shall

these of

fences.

have full power and authority in every of their open and general sessions, to inquire, hear, and determine of all and every the offences aforesaid committed, or done within the limits of their commission, and to make process for the execution of the same, as they may do against any person being indicted before them of trespass, or lawfully convicted thereof.

XI. [A repeal of all other statutes made against forgery.]

Public

Securities,

&c.

forged deed.

XV. Provided always, and be it enacted by the authority A lawyer or aforesaid, that this act, nor any pain, forfeiture, or thing attorney therein contained, shall not extend to any attorney, lawyer, pleading a or counsellor, that shall for his client plead, show forth, or give in evidence any false and forged deed, charter, will, court-roll, or other writing, for true or good, being not party or privy to the forging of the same, for the pleading, shewing forth, or giving in evidence of the same, any thing in this act to the contrary notwithstanding.

Note. This statute has now nearly fallen into disuse, since the passing of 2 Geo. 2, c. 25. On an indictment on this statute, for forging a conveyance of lands, it has been determined that the prosecution will not fail, from a mere

error in the parcels set forth in the forged instrument, and that it is sufficient if the prosecuting party may be molested in his possession, though he be not evicted: 2 E. P. C. 921; Cro. Circ. Comp. 285.

2 Geo. 2, c. 25.

Whereas the wicked, pernicious, and abominable crimes of forgery, perjury, and subornation of perjury, have of late time been so much practised, to the subversion of common truth and justice, and prejudice of trade and credit, that it is necessary, for the more effectual preventing of such enormous offences, to inflict a more exemplary punishment on such offenders, than by the laws of this realm can now be done; be it therefore enacted, &c. that To forge if any person, from and after the 29th day of June, in the any deed, &c. felony year of our Lord 1729, shall falsely make, forge, or coun- without beterfeit, or cause or procure to be falsely made, forged, or nefit of counterfeited, or willingly act or assist in the false making, clergy. forging, or counterfeiting any deed, will, testament, bond, writing obligatory, bill of exchange, promissory note for payment of money, indorsement or assignment of any bill of exchange, or promissory note for payment of money, or any acquittance or receipt, either for money or goods, with intention to defraud any person whatsoever, or shall utter or publish as true, any false, forged, or counterfeited deed, will, testament, bond, writing obligatory, bill of exchange, promissory note for payment of money, indorsement, or assignment of any bill of exchange or promissory note for

&c.

Private payment of money, acquittance, or receipt, either for money Securities, or goods, with intention to defraud any person, knowing the same to be false, forged, or counterfeited; then every such person, being thereof lawfully convicted, according to the due course of law, shall be deemed guilty of felony, and suffer death as a felon, without benefit of clergy. See the note after the 37 Geo. 2, c. 2, post, p. 213.

or the sums

7 Geo. 2, c. 22.

I. [Recites 2 Geo. 2, c. 25, and proceeds thus:]-and whereas no punishment is inflicted by the said act upon any person who shall falsely make, alter, forge, or counterfeit, or cause or procure to be falsely made, altered, forged, or counterfeited, or willingly act or assist in the false making, altering, forging, or counterfeiting any acceptance of any bill of exchange, or the number or principal sum of any accountable receipt for any note, bill, or other security for payment of money, or any warrant or order for payment of any money, or delivery of goods, or who shall knowingly utter or publish the same as true; Forging or altering the be it therefore enacted, &c., that if any person, from and after acceptance the 24th day of June, 1734, shall falsely make, alter, forge, of bills of or counterfeit, or cause or procure to be falsely made, exchange, altered, forged, or counterfeited, or willingly act or assist of account- in the false making, altering, forging, or connterfeiting any acceptance of any bill of exchange, or the number or principal sum of any accountable receipt for any note, bill, or other security for payment of money, or any warrant or order for payment of money, or delivery of goods, with intention to defraud any person whatsoever, or shall utter or publish as true, any false, altered, forged, or counterfeited acceptance of any bill of exchange, or accountable receipt for any note, bill, or other security for payment of money, or warrant or order for payment of money, or delivery of goods, with intention to defraud any person, knowing the same to be false, altered, forged, or counterfeited; then every such person, being thereof lawfully convicted according to the due course of law, shall be deemed guilty of felony, and shall suffer death as a felon, without benefit of clergy.

able re

ceipts, &c.

Forging,&c. to defraud corporations.

18 Geo. 3, c. 18.

Whereas doubts have arisen whether the punishment inflicted by [7 Geo. 2, c. 22,] on persons guilty of the several species of forgery therein mentioned, extends to such forgeries when committed with an intention to defraud any corporation; be it, therefore, enacted, &c., that if any person, from and after the 25th day of March, 1778, shall falsely make, [&c. as in 7 Geo. 2, c. 22, substituting the word "corporation" for "person."]

31 Geo. 2, c. 22. |

LXXVIII. Whereas doubts may arise whether the punishment inflicted in and by (2 Geo. 2, c. 25) on persons guilty of the several species of forgery therein mentioned, extends to the commission of the like forgeries, with an intention to defraud any corporation; be it, therefore, enacted, &c. that if any person, from and after the 1st day of July, 1758, shall falsly make, [&c. as in 2 Geo. 2, c. 25, substituting the word "corporation" for "person."] Note. A forged receipt for banknotes is not a receipt for money or goods, within 2 Geo. 2, c. 25: Harrison's case, 2 E. P. C. 926. On a prosecution by the Navy-Board, on the same statute, for uttering forged receipts or acquittances, proof of the prisoner's having produced forged vouchers, in order to induce the Navy-Board to pass his accounts, will bring the offence within the statute, though the persons, whose vouchers were so forged, were accountable to the prisoner only, and not to the Navy-Board: id. 934. A power of attorney is within the same statute: Lyon's cuse, 1 Leach, 255; Fauntleroy's case, 2 Bing. 413. Forging a deed has been held to be within this statute, in a case where a particular form, with certain requisites, for the same purposes as the forged deed, had been provided by a subsequent statute, and the forged deed was not of the form so prescribed: Lyon's case. So, also, a bill, purporting to be drawn upon the commissioners of the navy, for pay, was held to be a bill of exchange, within this statute, though not such an instrument as the 35 Geo. 3, c. 94, warrants: Chisholm's case, R. & R. 297. But it should be observed, that the former of the two last-cited cases seems to rest upon particular circumstances. For the ground on which the latter was decided, see the next note. A promissory note, though not negotiable, is within 3 & 4 Anne, c. 9; Brochell v. Stocock, 2 Lord Raym. 1545; and see Bayley on Bills, 29. Therefore,

Private Securities,

&c.

a forged promissory note, of this kind, is within the 2 Geo. 2, c. 25; Box's case, R. & R. 300. A memorandum, importing that A. B. had paid a sum to C. D., but not importing any acknowledgment of his having received it, is not such a receipt as the statute makes it capital to forge or utter: Harvey's case, R. & R. 227. For other cases, upon the 2 Geo. 2, c. 25, which turn upon general points, rather than on the construction of the statute, see the note to the next act. With respect to the 7 Geo. 2, c. 22, it seems to have been considered that an entry, on the debtor side of a bank book, in this form, "1777, June 16, bank notes, c. £3210," is an accountable receipt, within that statute: R. v. Harrison, 2 E. P. C. 928. A forged instrument will not be deemed a warrant or order, within the same statute, unless the party, in whose name the instrument is forged, appears, on the face of it, to have an interest in the money to be paid, or the goods to be delivered. Therefore, if the instrument only purport to be a request to advance the money, or supply the goods, on the credit of the party whose name appears upon it, it is not a warrant or order within the statute: R. v. Mitchell, id. 936; R. v. Williams, id. 937; R. v. Ellor, id. 938. But, if it purport to be an order, which the party has a right to make, it will be deemed a warrant or order within the statute: R. v. Lockett, id. 940. A forged order, for pay

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