mortlingt

See morling. mortmain (môrt'mān), n. [ All purchases made by corporate bodies being said to be purchases in mortmain , in mortua manu; for the reason of which appellation Sir Edward Coke offers many conjectures; but there is one which seems more probable than any that he has given us: viz., that these purchases being usually made by ecclesiastical bodies, the members of which (being profe ed) were reckoned dead persons in law, land therefore holden by them might with great propriety be said to be held in mortua manu. Black stone , Com., I. xviii. Though the statutes of mortmain had put some obstacles to its increase, yet a larger proportion of landed wealth was constantly accumulating in hands which lost nothing that they had grasped. Hallam , Const. Hist., ii. mortmain Here [Sicily], in the end, Rome laid her mortmain upon Greek, Phœnician, and Sikeliot alike, turning the island into a granary and reducing its inhabitants to serfdom. J. A. Symonds , Italy and Greece, p. 143. Alienation in mortmain, an alienation of lands or tenements to any corporation, sole or aggregate, ecclesiastical or temporal, particularly to religious houses, by which the estate becomes perpetually inherent in the corporation and unalienable. - Mortmain Act, an English statute of 1736 (9 Geo. II., c. 36), based on the impolicy of allowing gifts, under the name of charity, to be made by persons in view of approaching death, to the disinheritance of their lawful heirs. It prohibits, except in the instance of some universities and colleges, all alienation of land for charitable purposes (unle on full and valuable consideration) otherwise than by deed indented and executed in the presence of two or more witne es, twelve months before the death of the donor, and enrolled in chancery within six months after its date, and taking effect in po e ion immediately after the making thereof, and with out power of revocation or any reservation for the benefit of the grantor or persons claiming under him. - Statutes of mortmain, the name under which are known a number of English statutes, beginning in 1225 (9 Hen. III., с. 36; 7 Edw. I., st. 2; 13 Edw. I., c. 32; 15 Rich. II., c. 5; 23 Hen. VIII., c. 10), restricting or forbidding the giving of land to religious houses. The Mortmain Act (which see, above) is sometimes incorrectly called a statute of mort main.