University of Virginia Library

4383. LAND, Allodial and Feudal tenures.—[continued].

The opinion that our
lands were Allodial possessions is one which
I have very long held, and had in my eye during
a pretty considerable part of my law reading
which, I found, always strengthened it.
* * * This opinion I have thought and still
think to prove if ever I should have time to
look into books again. But this is only meant
with respect to the English law as transplanted
here. How far our acts of Assembly, or acceptance
of grants, may have converted lands
which were Allodial into Feuds, I have never
considered. This matter is now become a mere
speculative point; and we have it in our power
to make it what it ought to be for the public
good.—
To—. Ford ed., ii, 78.
(Pa., 1776)