devis

DEVISE. A devise is a disposition of real property by a person's last will 
and testament, to tale effect after the testator's death. 
     2. Its form is immaterial, provided the instrument is to take effect 
after the death of the party; and a paper in the form of an indenture, which 
is to have that effect, is considered as a devise. Finch. 195 6 Watts, 522; 
3 Rawle, 15; 4 Desaus. 617, 313; 1 Mod. 117; 1 Black. R. 345. 
     3. The term devise, properly and technically, applies only to real 
estate the object of the devise must therefore be that kind of property. 1 
Hill. Ab. ch. 36, n. 62 to 74. Devise is also sometimes improperly applied 
to a bequest or legacy. (q.v.) Vide 2 Bouv. Inst. n. 2095, et seq; 4 Kent, 
Com. 489 8 Vin. Ab. 41 Com. Dig. Estates by Devise. 
     4. In the Year Book, 9 H. VI. 24, b. A. D. 1430, Babington says, the 
nature of a devise, when lands are devisable, is, that one can devise that 
his lands shall be sold by executors and this is good. And a devise in such 
form has always been in use. And so a man may have frank tenement of him who 
had nothing, in the same manner as one may have fire from a flint, and yet 
there is no fire in the flint. But it is to perform the last will of the 
devisor.