TITHINGMAN. In Saxon Law. The head or chief of a decennary of ten families: he was to decide all lesser causes between neighbors. Now tithingmen and constables are the same thing. Jacob, Law Diet.
In New England, a parish officer to keep good order in church. Webster, Dict.
TITLE. Eatates. The means whereby Title. Eatates. The means whereby the owner of lands hath the just possession of his property. Coke, Litt. 345; 2 Black stone, Comm. 195. See 1 Ohio, 349. This is the definition of title to lands only.
A bad title is one which conveys no pro perty to the I urchase of an estate.
doubtfto title is one which the court does not consider to be so clear that it will enforce its acceptance by a purchaser, nor so defective as to declare it a bad title, but only gubject to so much doubt that a purchaser ought not to be compelled to accept it. I Jac. & W. Ch. 568; 9 Cow. N. Y. 344.
A good title is that which entitles a man by right to a property or estate, and to the lawful possession of the same.
A marketable title is one which a court of equity considers to be so clear that it will enforce its acceptance by a purchaser.
The ordinary acceptation of the term market able title would convey but a very imperfect notioa of its legal and technical import. To common rip. firehension, unfettered by the technical and c• n ventional distinction of lawyers, all titles being either good or bad, the former would be consideeed marketoble, the latter non-marketable. But ibis is not .the way they are regarded in court, of equity, the distinction taken there being, uot between a title which is absolntely good or abso lutely bad, but between a title which the court considers to be so clear that it will enforce its ac ceptance by a purchaser, and one which the court will not go so far as to declare a bad title, but only that it is subject to so much doubt that a purchaser ought not to be compelled to accept it. I Jac. lo
W. Ch. 568. In short, whatever may be the private opinion of the court as to the goodness of the title, yet if there be a reasonable doubt either as to a matter of law or foct involved in it, a pur chaser will not be compelled to complete his pur chase; and such a title, though it may be perfectly secure and unimpeachable as a holding title, is said, in the current language of the day, to be un marketable. Atkins, Tit. 2.
The doctrine of marketable titles is purely equi table and of modern origin. Id. 26. At law every title not bad is marketable. 5 Taunt. 625; 6 id. 263; I Marsh. 258. See 2 Penn. Law Journ. 17.
2. There are several stages or degrees re quisite to form a complete title to lands and tenements. The lowest and most imperfect degree of title is the mere possession, or actual occupation of the estate, without any appa rent right to hold or continue such possession : this happens when one man disseises another. The next step to a good and perfect title is the right of possession, which may reside in one inan while the actual possession is not in himself but in another. This right of possession is of two sorts: an apparent right of possession, which may be defeated by proving a better, and an actual right of pos session, which will stand the test against all opponents. The mere right of property, the jus proprietatis, without either possession or the right of possession. 2 Sharswood, Blackst. Comm. 195.
3. Title to real estate is acquired by two methods, namely, by descent and by purchase See these words.
Title to personal property may accrue in three different ways: by original acquisition; by transfer by act of law ; by transfer by act qf the parties.
Title by original acquisition is acquired.
by occupancy, see OCCUPANCY ; by accession, see ACCESSION ; by intellectual labor. See