Hastings

Murray, C. J., and Bryan, J., concurred.

The only question necessary to be examined, is the exclusion from *318 the jury of the deed made by Cooper to his wife and children; the Court deciding that the deed was void, because, first, it was not executed with a seal by the grantor; second; that the record did not impart notice, for the want of the seal of the officer before whom it was acknowledged.

To these objections to the deed, the respondent adds, that the deed was not delivered.

In Connolly v. Goodwin & Co., July Term, 1855, we decided that an impression upon paper constituted a good seal. We see no good reason why such impression should not be made with a pen, as well as with what is technically a stamp. The object is to give character to the instrument, and enable it to be distinguished and recognized for that which it was intended to be. This is as well effected by a scrawl, with the word seal written within it, or with the initials L. S., a common mode resorted to in copying sealed instruments. The authorities cited to the contrary, we look upon as founded upon too purely technical reasons, and are unsound expositions of the common law.

In regard to the question of…