Five forms of derivative conveyances were also recognized: release, confirmation, surrender, assignment, and defeasance.

1 Warvelle on Real Property, page 319.

2 See Chapter I on this subject, and also subject of Legal History, Vol. I of this series.

A derivative conveyance was one which operates in connection with some former conveyance. A release was used by a party with an interest in land, but not the present possessor, to give up his interest to the person in possession. A surrender was to a certain extent the reverse of this, being used by the tenant in possession to give up his estate to the remainder-man. A confirmation was a deed used to perfect a former imperfect grant. A defeasance was a deed used in connection with some other deed, and provided that under certain circumstances it should become void. An assignment is used by a person to transfer his interest under a deed to another.