Statute of Enrolments

The Statute of Enrolments (27 Hen. 8. c. 16), also known as the Enrolment of Bargains of Lands, etc. Act 1535, was an act of the Parliament of England that regulated the sale and transfer of land. The statute is commonly considered an addition to the Statute of Uses27 Hen. 8. c. 10, 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, followed by subsequent "release", confirmed in 1621 by Lutwich v Mitton.