Through the years, English law has been unable to make up its mind about the registration of land ownership, whether by deed, title or any other method. The accounts that exist concerning land in the early English records came about because of court appeals, such as feet of fines which was a result of the judgement of ownership by the Court of Common Pleas, or other government acts such as royal grants of land as found in the Chancery Court Rolls. The Chancery Court also investigated existing rights to land.

In the middle ages, English landowners saw the need for some incontrovertible official record of land dealings and in 1536 the first bill to register land was sent to Parliament but the bill was rejected. During the next 300 years, at least 25 land bills were introduced in Parliament but were never passed. There was no national compulsory registering of deeds or titles or any compulsory registration of land until 1925.

As Yorkshire grew into the center for the manufacturing of cloth, traders and factory owners, who were mostly freeholders, would borrow on their freehold to expand their business. It became increasingly difficult to satisfy the money-lenders as to their security. This led to a demand for some sort of registration of deeds or title to their property.

An Act of Parliament in 1704 provided for a public registry of deeds, conveyances, wills, etc. to be established in Yorkshire and Middlesex. It was to be an experimental local system and it was to register any document dealing with a legal estate. In 1875, parliament provided for a voluntary registration of title, and in 1895 it was made compulsory in the London County Council area. In 1925, compulsory registration of title became law but the law was applied sparingly at first in Middlesex, Surrey, Eastbourne, Hastings, Oxford, Oldham, Leicester, and parts of Kent.

The Registry of Deeds was opened on 29 Sep 1704 in Wakefield in the West Riding of Yorkshire because Wakefield was nearest to the center to the trading district. The Registrar was subject to election by the freeholders of West Riding. The Registry of Deeds in the East Riding of Yorkshire dates from 1712 and the North Riding of Yorkshire Registry dates from 1736. The Registry is not a register of deeds as such, nor was the registration of deeds compulsory.

Any document dealing with the legal estate could be entered in the registry. Memorials of deeds or wills (in some cases) as well as some original deeds are to be found in the registry. Depending on the of memorial or deed, it is possible to find details about relatives and their land. It is also possible to construct family relationships by looking at all references to a particular surname.

At the Family History Library (or its Centers located around the world), you can find the film numbers for the Yorkshire Registry of Deeds in the catalog by looking under Great Britain - Registry of Deeds (North Riding, East Riding, West Riding) or in the locality section under Yorkshire - Land and Property.

The following terms are used in the Registry of Deeds:

Even though only two counties recorded deeds, other counties have land transaction records. Unfortunately, these records are largely unindexed. The records may be at the Public Record Office in London or in county record offices.

Fitz-Hugh, Terrick V. H. The Dictionary of Genealogy. FHL Ref 942 D26f 1991

Richardson, John. The Local Historian's Encyclopedia. FHL Ref 942 H2rjo 1986

Bevan, Amanda and Andrea Duncan. Tracing Your Ancestors in the Public Record Office. FHL Ref 942 A5p no. 19 1990

You may wish to search through the guides to the record offices in your particular counties for listings of the land records they hold.