Duchy of Lancaster Act 1787

C1 Preamble reciting 19 Geo.III, Cap. 45. Whereas by the Duchy of Lancaster Act 1779 it was (amongst other things) enacted, that it should be lawful to and for the Chancellor and Council of the Duchy of Lancaster, for the time being, to sell and dispose, and thereupon to grant and assure, in the Name of the King’s Majesty, His Heirs and Successors, under the Seal of the said Duchy, unto or to the use of the respective purchasers thereof, and to Their Heirs for ever, all and singular Fee-Farm Rents, Rents-service, Rents-seck or Dry-rents, Chantry-rents, Guild-rents, and other Rents due and payable to the King’s Majesty, as parcel of the possessions of His said Duchy, and then being within the Survey and Receipt of the said Duchy, and the Officers of the same, at and for such considerations in money as the said Chancellor and Council should think fit, not being less than after the rate of twenty-five years purchase of the gross amount of any such Rent or Rents: And it was thereby also provided and enacted, that the immediate Owner of the lands and hereditaments, whereout any of the aforesaid Rents were due, payable, or issuing, should be preferred in the purchase thereof respectively before any other, so that such immediate owner should pay and discharge all arrears of Rent due from him or her, and tender himself or herself in person, or by his or her agent, to the said Chancellor and Council, to contract for the purchase thereof, and should perfect his or her contract, and pay the purchase money into the hands of the Receiver-General of the Revenues of the said Duchy, on or before the Sixth Day of November One thousand seven hundred and eighty, at such rate as should be agreed upon, not being less than after the rate of twenty-five years purchase, as aforesaid: And it was by the said Act further enacted, That all the monies to arise by sale of the said Rents, or by the enfranchisement and discharging of any copyhold or customary messuages, lands, tenements, or hereditaments, under or by virtue of the said Act, should be paid into the hands of the Receiver-General of the Revenues of the Duchy of Lancaster for the time being, and that the said monies should, from time to time, as the same should be paid in and received, be laid out by the Order of the said Chancellor and Council in the purchase of Three per Centum Bank Consolidated Annuities, or in any of the Publick funds transferrable at the Bank of England, in the Name of the Duchy of Lancaster; and that all the Annuities, Fund, or Stock, to be so purchased, should remain in the Name of the Duchy of Lancaster, and should not be transferred or transferrable without the Authority of Parliament, but that all the interest of the said Annuities, Fund, and Stock, should be, from time to time, paid unto the Receiver-General of the said Duchy for the time being, as Parcel of the Revenues of the said Duchy: And whereas, in pursuance of the said Act, some few of the said Rents were sold and disposed of, and some copyhold or customary tenements have been enfranchised, and the money arising by such sales and enfranchisements has been laid out and invested in the purchase of four thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine pounds twelve shillings and three-pence, Three per Centum Bank Consolidated Annuities, in the Name of the Duchy of Lancaster, according to the directions of the said Act: And whereas the greater part of the Rents, by the said Act authorised to be sold, still remain undisposed of, and from the general objection made to the rate of purchase limited by the said Act, it is apprehended that unless such rate of purchase be moderated and reduced, the intent of the said Act, with respect to the sale of the said Rents, will be in a great measure defeated: