'H. WENDELL, JR., [L. S.] Justice of the Peace.'
[The reader will note that the magistrate who takes the acknowledgment was a subscribing witness to the execution, but that nothing is said as to the grantor's being known to him, as the real party who signed the deed.]
A certificate of the official character of Wendell as a justice of the peace, at the time he took the above acknowledgment, from a clerk of a court of record of New York, accompanied the above certificate.
In addition to the record of acknowledgment there was upon this deed from Davenport a certificate (by the same magistrate who took the acknowledgment) of the proof of execution by the person who with him had attested the execution as a subscribing witness. That certificate ran thus, no particular city or town being given as the place where it was made:
'STATE OF NEW YORK:
'On this second day of September, 1818, before me came William D. Wooster, one of the subscribing witnesses to the within indenture, to me known, who being sworn, saith, that he saw the within-named grantor, William T. Davenport, duly execute and acknowledge the within indenture, and that he knows him to be the same person named and described in, and who acknowledged duty to have executed the same as his free act and deed. I allow the same to be recorded.
'H. WENDELL, JR., Commissioner, &c., &c.'
[The magistrate taking this probate, it will be observed, signs himself Commissioner, &c. By the statute of New York in force on the 2d of September, 1818, commissioners of deeds were authorized to take the acknowledgment and proof of deeds for the county where they resided.]
A certificate of the official character of Wendell as a commissioner of deeds, and of his authority to take the proof of deeds at the time when the above-mentioned proof was taken, accompanied the certificate just mentioned.
So far as respected the deed from Davenport.
The commencement of the deed from Munson to James, was as follows:
'This indenture, made the thirteenth day of February, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and nineteen, between Thaddeus Munson, of the city and county of Albany, and State of New York, of the first part, and William James, of the city, county, and State aforesaid, of the second part, witnesseth, &c.'
The certificate of acknowledgment to this was with the same general form of place of making as was the last deed.
'STATE OF NEW YORK, ss.
'Be it remembered, that on this thirteenth day of February, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and nineteen, came before me the above-named Thaddeus Munson, to me well known, and acknowledged to have signed, sealed and delivered the above deed for the uses and purposes therein expressed. All which I certify according to law, and allow the same to be recorded.
'ESTES HOWE,
Judge, Albany Common Pleas, Counsellor, &c., ex-officio performing the duties of a Judge of the Supreme Court at Chambers, &c.'
This certificate was unaccompanied by any evidence of the official character of this judge, or that his certificate was in conformity with the laws of New York.
To the introduction of the several deeds produced by the plaintiff, objection was made on the ground that they had not been duly proved. No specification was made of the particulars in which the proof failed.
How far certain objections made on the argument here, and which may perhaps be assumed to have been the true ground of objections below, were well founded, depended upon certain statutes of Illinois now to be mentioned.
A statute of 1845, which enacts that all deeds and other instruments, relating to or affecting the title to real property, shall be recorded in the county where the same was enacted, in regard to the acknowledgment, &c. (prior acts as to acknowledgments not having required a certificate of personal knowledge, &c.), as follows:
'No judge or other officer shall take the acknowledgment to any deed unless the person offering to made such acknowledgment shall be personally known to him to be the real person who executed the deed, and in whose name such acknowledgment is proposed to be made, or shall be proved to be by a credible witness; and the judge or officer taking such acknowledgment shall in his certificate thereof, state that such person was personally known to him to be the person whose name is subscribed to such deed, as having executed the same, or that he was proved to be such by a credible witness.'
The statute further provided that the fact of such personal knowledge or proof should be stated in the certificate.
