DEVISE (same as &Tice: OF., 'Er. derisc, from :MI,. (firisa, judgment, contrivance. will). Strictly speaking. a testamentary gift of real property. As a verb, the term is frequently, though improperly. employed interchangeably with bequeath (properly, to make a legacy, or testamentary gift of personal property). as Haying any disposition of real or personal prop erty by will. The person making the devise is known as the devisor, or. more generally. the testator: the person to whom the devise is made is called the derisee. The power to dispose of one's estate by last will and testament is fully reco,mized in all systems of law of which we have any record. hut the peculiar conditions. due to the feudal system. under which our land law developed created a curious exception to this general rule in the case of freehold estates in land. While the common law fully recognized the right of testament. as applied to personal property of all kinds. including leasehold inter ests in land. it did not admit the corresponding right of disposing by will of freehold interests in land.
'rile invention of the system of uses, whereby lands were conveyed on a passive trust. to one man 'to the use' and for the benefit of another, "Plied the door to an evasion of this feudal re strum ion. 'flu' right of the beneficiary of such a trtrst, caned the e'slui Ind being a legal estate and so not cognizable by the courts of e01111111111 law. was by the Chan cellor as a eonsvientious claim against the nominal trustee. in whom the bare legal title to the land was Vested. The que axe was thus• by the grace of the Chancellor. permitted to make dispositions of his beneficial a. it was termed, which were denied by the coninion law to the legal tenant of freehold lands, and among thent to make death-bed or mentary dispositions thereof. See Tausr: USE.
This practice of du\ ising the use of lands be came so common that. upon the abolition of .13(11 equitable interests by the statute of Uses (27 lien. 1'111. c. 10) in 1535, the demand for a con %•inem and legalized method of disposing of free hold interests in land Ily testament became ire resistible, and re•ulted five years later in the passing 1if the first Statute of 1Nills (32 Ilea. VI II. e. 1). This statute was the origin of de• vises of lands, as we understand the term, and granted and free liberty. power, and au
to dispose IT last will and testament in writing of all lands, tenements, lieredita• mnts. saving only one-third of all lands Kell by the tenure of knight'. service. This restriction was removed by subsequent legislation, and in 1837 a comprehensive statute, the presen't Act 47 Wm. IV. and 1 Viet. e. 26), was enacted, IT which all devises of land. in England have since been regulated.
The earliest -1merieaft statutes were modeled upon the statute of 32 Alen- excepting the restriction upon the devising of lands held by knight's service, which, its that tenure never existed on this side of the .1tlantie. had no application in this country. Everywhere in the United States freehold interests in lands may now- be devised 14y last will and testament in sub slant billy the same manner as personal property, the matter being regulated by statutes of the several States. See \Vim..
the general assimilation of the process of disposing of lands to that of be queathing personal property by will, devises re tain mauv 14 the distinctive Characteristics im pressed upon them by their origin and early his tory in chancery. They are subject to peculiar rules of interpretation and they have, under the title of executory devises. contributed a large and important body of doctrine to the law of future estates. Sc ExECt•TORY DEVISE: l'•Tt'RE EST.VIE; a:1(1 the authorities referred to those titles.
DEVIZES, 41:4-vrz,z. A iminieipal borough and market-town of 1Viltshire. England. near the Avon and Kennet Canal. 22 miles north-north west of Salisbury- 1 11:11): E 51. It has twn ancient Norman churches and a spacious corn the town being an important grain market. There are also manufactures of snuff and malt. The town its gas and water supply. Population. in 11101, 6500. Po w:in household god: and coins have been found here. The name of the town is to have lawn derived from Itirisa•, signifying the bound ary between three parishes. Its first charter was granted Iv Queen 'Matilda when it was called 110 Lies. It grew lip nround a castle built by lIoger, Bishop of Salisbury, in the time of 'Henry 1. Thi: ensile was repeatedly captured during the wars of Stephen and Matilda and taken by Cromwell in 1613. From the ti111• of ]leery till about 1820. Devizes was the seat of extensive 4.144111 m•tilifaelures.