with intention to defraud any person or persons, body or bodies politic or corporate whatsoever, knowing the same to be false, forged, counterfeited, or altered; or shall willingly and knowingly take a false oath, or cause or procure any other person to take a false oath, to obtain the probate of any will or wills, or to obtain letters of administration, in order to receive, or to enable any other person to receive, any wages, pay, prize money, bounty money, or other allowances of money due or supposed to be due for or in respect of the services of any such officer, seaman, marine, or other person as aforesaid, performed or supposed to have been performed on board of any ship or vessel of his majesty, his heirs or successors; or shall demand or receive any wages, pay, prize money, bounty money, or other allowances of money due or supposed to be due for or in respect of the services of any such officer, seaman, marine, or other person as aforesaid, performed or supposed to have been performed on board of any of his majesty's ships or vessels, upon or by virtue of any probate of any will or letters of administration, knowing the will, on which such probate shall have been obtained, to be false, forged, and counterfeited, or knowing the probate of such will or such letters of administration as last aforesaid to have been obtained by means of any such false oath as aforesaid, with intention to defraud any person or persons, body or bodies politic or corporate whatsoever; then every such person or persons so offending, and being thereof convicted according to due course of law, shall be deemed guilty of felony, and shall suffer death as a felon without benefit of clergy.

By 57 Geo. 3. c. 127. certain allowances are directed to be paid out of the droits d'Admiralté to Greenwich Hopital, and it is, by s. 4., made felony without benefit of clergy, to personate any person entitled to part of such allowance, or to forge any power of attorney or certificate to enable the party to receive the same.

The muster books of the King's ships, documented in the navy office, to which returns are regularly made by the several commanders, of the names, &c. of their respective crews, are admitted as evidence of the persons therein named having served on board the several ships, in the capacities therein mentioned. (R. v. Rhodes, 1 Leach, 23—R. v. Fitzgerald, ib. 20.)

Certificates of Naval Stores.

By st. 39, 40 Geo. 3. c. 89. s. 25. reciting that "the commissioners of the navy, ordnance and victuals, may sell certain stores, which are to be accompanied by a certificate, under their hands and seals;" by sect. 26, ENACTS, "if any person or persons shall "make, sign, or give any false certificate or other instrument, "purporting the identity or the sale or disposal of any goods or "stores, as goods or stores so purchased of the said commis"sioners, as aforesaid; or if any person shall utter or publish any "such certificate, &c. purporting as aforesaid, knowing the same "to be false: every such offender, upon conviction, shall forfeit "£200, and be further corporally punished by pillory, whipping " or imprisonment, or by any or either of the said ways, in such “manner and for such space of time as the judge or justices, be

"fore

"fore whom such offender shall be convicted, shall seem meet, "with a power in the judge to mitigate the penalty, one moiety "of which is to go to the king, and the other moiety with full 66 costs, to the informer."

Land Tax Contracts.

By st. 42 Geo. 2. c. 116. which consolidates the former acts, Laud Tax. relating to the redemption of the land tax, and by 52 Geo. 3. c. 143. it is made felony, without benefit of clergy, "to forge, counterfeit or alter, or cause or procure to be forged, &c. or knowingly act or assist in the forging, &c. any contract, assignment, certificate, receipt or attested copy of certificate made out or purporting to be made out by any person or persons authorised to make out the same by any act of parliament, touching the redemption or sale of the land tax, or of any part thereof, or to utter the same knowing it to be forged, with intent to defraud his majesty, &c. or other persons."

Legacy Duty Receipts.

By st. 36 Geo. 3. c. 52. for granting duties on legacies and Legacies. shares of personal estates, which directs the commissioners of stamps to receive the same, and to give papers adapted for receipts or discharges to the parties applying upon payment of the duties, and that no legacies liable to the duties shall be paid without such a receipt containing certain particulars, and the amount of the duties payable therein under certain penalties; and that no receipt for any legacy shall be available in evidence unless duly stamped; enacts, s. 39. "That if any person shall "alter any word, letter, figure, or number, in any assessment or "receipt to be made or given in pursuance of this act for any of "the said duties after the same shall have been signed by the "officer appointed to sign the same, according to the direction of "this act; or shall utter or publish as true, any such altered as"sessment or receipt with intent to defraud his majesty, his heirs, &c. or any other person or persons, every person so altering or publishing as aforesaid shall forfeit 500l."

"

Sect. 40. enacts, "that if any person shall counterfeit or "forge, or procure to be counterfeited or forged any stamp "directed or allowed to be used, or provided, made or used in 66 pursuance of this act, or shall counterfeit or resemble the im

pression of the same upon any vellum, parchment or paper "with intention to defraud his majesty, his heirs, &c. or shall "utter, vend or expose to sale any vellum, parchment or paper, "liable to the said duty, with such counterfeit impression thereon "knowing the same to be counterfeited; or shall privately and fraudulently use any stamp directed or allowed to be used by "this act with intent to defraud his majesty, his heirs, &c.; every person so offending and being thereof lawfully convicted, shall "be adjudged a felon without benefit of clergy."

66

For quarantine orders in council, vide, post, Offences against Trade.

Exchequer bills and lottery tickets are provided for by respective acts, under the authority of which they are issued, and it has hitherto been usual to make the forgery of them a capital offence.

Of forgery by 5 Eliz. c. 14.

46.

It is also made felony without benefit of clergy, to forge the handwriting of the following public officers, with a fraudulent intent.

Treasurer, comptroller, surveyor, clerk of the acts, or of the commissioners of the navy.-1 Geo. 1. st. 2. c. 25.

The treasurer of the ordnance, by st. 46 Geo. 3. c. 45.

The receiver general of the excise for the time being, or of the comptroller of the cash of the excise, by st. 46 Geo. 3. c. 75. s. 8.

Receiver general of the stamp duties for the time being, or of his clerk, or of either of the commissioners of stamps, 46 Geo. 3. c. 76. s. 9.

Receiver general of the post office for the time being, or his clerk, by st. 46 Geo. 2. c. 83. s. 9.

Surveyor general of the woods and forests for the time being, or his deputy, by stat. 46 Geo. 3. c. 142. s. 14.

Receiver general of the customs for the time being, or of the supervisor of the receiver-generals, receipts and payments, by st, 46 Geo. 3. c. 150. s. 10.

6. Private Papers, Securities and Documents.

Charters, Writings sealed, Court Rolls, Will relative to Land, &c.

66

66

By 5 Eliz. c. 14. it is ENACTED," That if any person or persons 66 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 or freehold of inheritance of any person "or persons of, in, or to any lands, tenements, or hereditaments, See Poulton,45,"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 "shall pronounce, publish, or shew forth in evidence any such "false and forged deed, charter, writing, court-roll, or will, as "true, knowing the same as false and forged, as is aforesaid, to "the intent above remembered (except, being an attorney, lawyer, "or counsellor, he shall for his client plead, shew forth, or give "in evidence such false and forged deed, &c. to the forging "whereof he was not party nor privy), and shall be thereof con"victed either upon action or actions of forgery or false deeds, "to be founded upon the said statute, at the suit of the party grieved, or otherwise according to the order and due course of "the laws of this realm, &c. shall pay unto the party grieved his Rex v. Marriot, "double costs and damages to be found or assessed in that court "where such conviction shall be, and also shall be set upon the "pillory in some open market town, or other open place, and "there have both his ears cut off, and also his nostrils slit and "cut, and seared with a hot iron, &c. and shall forfeit to the "king the whole issues and profits of his lands and tenements, "and suffer perpetual imprisonment, &c."

2 Show. 6.

Sect.

66

Sect. 13. And, by 5 Eliz. c. 14. s. 3. it is further ENACTED, "That if any person or persons, upon his or their own head or imagination, or by false conspiration or fraud had with any other, "shall wittingly, subtilly, and 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 a "term of years, of, in, or to any manors, lands, tenements, or ❝hereditaments, not being copyhold, or any annuity in fee "simple, fee tail, or for term of life, lives, or years, or 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 shall pronounce, publish, or give in " evidence (except as before excepted), any such false or 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 of the ways and means aforesaid, he shall pay unto the party grieved his dou

66

it

"ble costs and damages, to be found and assessed in such court,

"where the said conviction shall be had, and shall be also set Lutw. 190. upon the pillory in some open market town, or other open place, "and there have one of his ears cut off, and also shall suffer "imprisonment for one year, &c."

Sect. 14. By 5 Eliz. c. 14. s. 7 and 8. it is further ENACTED, A second of"that if any person or persons being convicted or condemned of fence felony without clergy. any of the offences aforesaid, by any of the ways and 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 "shall be adjudged felony without benefit of clergy, saving to all persons other than the said offenders, and such as claim to "their uses, all such rights, &c. which they shall have to any the " hereditaments of any such person, so as is aforesaid convicted "or attainted, at any time before, &c. saving also the dower " of such offender's wife, and the right of his heirs."

Sect. 15. By 5 Eliz. c. 14. s. 10." All justices of oyer and terminer, " and justices of assize, shall have power to inquire of, hear, and "determine the offences aforesaid."

66

Sect. 16. But by 5 Eliz. c. 14. s. 9. 12. and 16. it is provided, "That this act, or any thing therein contained, shall not extend "to any ordinary or his commissary, &c. for putting their seal of "office to any will to be exhibited unto them, not knowing the same to be false or forged, or for writing of the said will or probate of the same, nor to any proctor, &c. of any ecclesiasti"cal court, for the writing, setting forth, or pleading of any proxy "made according to the ecclesiastical law, &c. for the appearance "of any person being cited to appear in such court; nor to any "archdeacon, or official, for putting their authentic seal to the "said proxy or proxies, nor to any ecclesiastical judge for ad"mitting the same; nor to any person who shall plead or shew "forth any deed or writing exemplified under the great seal of England, or under the seal of any other authentic court of this realm;

66

66

1 Hale, 682.

Dyer, 322.
3 Leon. 108.

3 Inst. 17. Noy, 42.

Dyer, 30%.

3 Leon. 170.

3 Leon. 170.

1 Freeman, 398. 15 H. 7. 15.

2 R. Abr. 466.

"realm; nor to any person who shall cause any seal of any court "to be set to any such deed, charter, or writing enrolled, not "knowing the same to be false or forged."

In the construction of this statute the following points have been holden:

Sect. 17. FIRST, That a false customary of a copyhold manor, made in parchment under the seals of several tenants of the manor, and containing in it divers false customs, apparently to the disherison of the lord, and falsely pretending by its title to be set forth by the consent of all the tenants, and allowance of the lord, is within the first branch of forgery mentioned in the statute, as being a sealed writing made to the intent to molest the inheritance of the lord.

Sect. 18. SECONDLY, That the forgery of a lease for years, or of a grant of a rent charge for years, in the name of one who is seised of a freehold or inheritance, is also within the said first branch of the statute, because the said branch is penned in general words extending to any molestation whatsoever of such estate, without mentioning any estate or interest, in the claim whereof such molestation shall consist; and from this ground it follows, that those words in the second branch of forgery mentioned in the statute, "to the intent that any person shall claim any estate or interest for term of years, &c." are meant only of such forgeries which relate to such an estate or interest in esse before.

Sect. 19. THIRDLY, That the forgery of a will in writing of one possessed of such an estate, mentioning a bequest thereof, is within the said second branch of the statute, as being a false writing, made to the intent that some person may claim an estate for years, notwithstanding the said branch makes no express mention of a will, as the first doth.

Sect. 20. FOURTHLY, That the forgery of a lease of lands in Ireland is not within either of the branches of the statute.

Sect. 21. FIFTHLY, That the forgery of a deed containing a gift of mere personal chattels, is also no way within the statute, the words whereof to this purpose are, "If any person shall forge any obligation or bill obligatory, or any acquittance, release, or "other discharge of any debt, action, suit, demand, or other thing personal."

66

66

Sect. 22. SIXTHLY, That the forgery of a statute-merchant or of a recognizance in the nature of statute-staple, by acknowledgCon. 3 Inst.171. ing them in the nature of another, are within the statute, as being obligations, because they must have the seal of the party, by the express words of the statutes, which appoint in what manner such statute or recognizance shall be taken: but that the forgery of the statute-staple is no way within the statute, because it needeth not the seal of the party, but only the seal of the staple provided for it.

3 Inst. 171.

1 Hale, 685.

Sect. 23. SEVENTHLY, That he who is truly informed by another that a deed is forged, is in danger of the statute if he afterwards

publish