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~Allodi~l title - W ikipedia, the free encyclopedia Page 2 of 5 sons, who had the opportunity to will their estates to the Church, whereas in the absence of testamentary instructions, the estate would have reverted to the Crown automatically. These rights, which eventually could be relied upon by even the smallest property owners, guaranteed ownership in fee simple, or free of any obligations to a noble or the sovereign. To distinguish it from feudal title, and [o allow for situations like land used for religious or educational purposes which could be held free of crown tax, the term "allodial", from the Germanic for "all one's own", was used. Development of equitable title As late as the Tudor period, in order to avoid estate taxes, a legal loophole was exploited where land was willed to a trustee for the use of the beneficiary. However, trustees often abused this privilege, and heirs found that the courts of common law would refuse to recognize the "use" clause, and would instead grant title in law to the trustee. However, the courts of equity, which were developed by the sovereign to deal with obvious injustices in the common law courts, ruled that the heirs were entitled to the use of the property, and gave them title in equity. As rulings of equity courts ranked above those of common law courts, this gave heirs the use of the land, but not title to it in the common law. However, this distinction between common law and equity title helped develop forms of security based on the distinction, now known as the mortgage. Enjoyment of the property during the period where the mortgage was in good standing could be assured through the equity courts, while the right to foreclose on the property to merge the common law and equity title were guaranteed in the common law courts. Proof of ownership Until the 18th century, almost all common law property ownership depended on proving a link of possession from a royal grant of title to the property owner. Although the feudal system was rapidly disappearing from England in the 18th century, to be replaced with a system of taxation, in theory the feudal chain of title still existed, although it was a formality. However, proving ownership in absence of the documents was an impossibility, and forgeries of crown grants were common and difficult to detect. Moreover, it was nearly impossible to determine if land was subject to common law encumbrances (i.e. mortgages). This led to the establishment in the 18th century of land registry systems, where a central office in each county was responsible for the filing of land deed, mortgages, liens and other evidence of ownership, transfer or encumbrance. Under land registry, deeds and charges were not recognized unless [hey were filed, and persons who filed were given priority over previous transactions that had not been filed. Moreover, under statutes of limitation, only documents that had been filed in the past 40 years had to be consulted to determine the chain of ownership. By the time of the American Revolutionary War in 1774, this was essentially the land system in place in the thirteen American colonies. The Treaty of Paris Prior to 1774, all land in the American colonies could also be traced to royal grants, usually one grant creating each colony. However, when the colonies won the Revolutionary War, they did not want to create a feudal system. As a result in the Treaty of Paris (1783), which ended formal hostilities and recognized American independence, England agreed to give up any Crown rights to the land, and agreed that all land in the American colonies was held in allodial title. Essentially, this recognized that no person holding land in the new United http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI lodial_title 11 /9/2005