Purchaser, a buyer, a vendee; also the root of descent, from whom, under the (English) Inheritance Act, 1833, the descent was in every case to be traced, before 1926, and now, as to a limitation to the heir taking effect as purchaser (see previous title, and (English) L.P. Act, 1925, s. 132).
The statute enacts that in every case descent shall be traced from the purchaser; and to the intent that the pedigree may never be carried further back than the circumstances of the case and the nature of the title shall require, the person last entitled to the land (which expression extends to the last person who had a right thereto, whether he did or did not obtain the possession or the receipt of the rents and profits thereof (s. 1)), is, for the purposes of the Act, to be considered to have been the purchaser thereof, unless it shall be proved that he inherited the same, in which case the person from whom be inherited the same shall be considered to have been the purchaser, unless it shall be proved that the inherited the same; and, in like manner, the last person from whom the land shall be proved to have been inherited will in every case be considered to have been the purchaser, unless it shall be proved that he inherited the same (s. 2), Sugd. Real Property Stat. 256.
For various meanings of the word 'purchaser,' see the diseenting judgement of Buckley, L.J., in I. R. C. v. Gribble, (1913) 3 KB 218, in which the majority of the Court held that the word 'purchase' in s. 14 (1) of the Finance (1909-10) Act, 1910, meant 'buy' in the ordinary commercial sense: and the same meaning was attributed to in s. 27 of the (English) Law of Property Amendment Act, 1859; Re Lawley, (1911) 2 Ch 530.
Under the (English) Law of Property Act, 1925, s. 205, 'purchaser' means a purchaser in good faith for valuable consideration and includes a lessee, mortgagee or other person who for valuable consideration acquires an interest in property except that in Part I. (ss. 1 to 39) of the Act, purchaser only means a person who acquires an interest in or charge on property for money or money' worth. Valuable consideration includes marriage but does not include a nominal consideration in money. On the other hand, the Land Charges Act, 1925, does not import 'good faith' in the word purchaser, and a distinction between purchaser and purchaser for money or money's worth is made (see ss. 13 and 14, ibid.).