from
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856)
DECLARATION OF TRUST. The act by which an individual acknowledges that a
property, the title of which he holds, does in fact belong to another, for
whose use he holds the same. The instrument in which the acknowledgment is
made, is also called a declaration of trust; but such a declaration is not
always in writing, though it is highly proper it should be so. Will. on
Trust, 49, note y; Sudg. on Pow. 200. See Merl. Rep. Declaration au profit
d'un tiers.