www.webtrust.com: The Origin of the Pure Trust

ROMAN EMPIRE
During the Roman Empire, about 800 AD, The Pure trust, from which the contractual company evolved, was developed. It became the preferred method of establishing ownership and management of property on the European Continent during the Middle Ages.

ENGLAND
When the English knights of the Round Table left for battle (or to join in the Crusades), they would entrust their legal title to lands and other property to a bishop of the church. The bishop would then manage the estate until the knight’s return or death. Upon his return, the assets reverted to the knight, and on his death it was transferred to his heirs and this would terminate the trust.
In England, many burdens and conditions fell upon the holder of feudal title to real estate. For example, the lord of the land was entitled to relief (certain payments of money) when the land was passed on to an heir of full age. The lord was given the right to claim also entitled to aid (money) to pay for the marriage of the deceased former owner's daughter or the knighting of his eldest son. In addition, the holder of the land was usually prohibited from selling the land or dividing it among his heirs. If the holder was convicted of a crime, all of his possessions at the time could be forfeited to the King (leaving his family destitute). These were the principal restrictions, but there were nearly 100 other taxes and limitations on the possessors of the land.

To avoid these restrictions under the law, the trust - a creation of Court of Chancery in England - was originally developed. It was designed to avoid the rigid laws relating to the succession of property by allowing the Trustor to vest legal title in a trustee on behalf of a wife, son or daughter or other person. It had many advances, including that it could be kept secret. The King did not have to know of the transfer of property to the trustees and by law, taxes and other limitations could be ignored.

Over the years, many version of pure trust were developed, but their basic goals remained to preserve English family estates and to keep them out of the hands of the King. Obviously, the ancient trust has evolved into a full body of rules governing the relationship between parties, the same goals, are desirable today.

An explanation of the legal aspects of the family estate trust, under common law, can be found in Smith vs. Anderson, 15 Chancery division 247 (1880). This continues to be the basis of these contracts in English common Law from 1880 to the present. The Smith decision has never been reversed, nor has it been nullified through negating statues in the United Kingdom or other common laws jurisdictions of the commonwealth.

AMERICA
Legislation and actions of the British government which ultimately brought about the American Revolution had their beginnings as far back as 1689, but the strong resistance of the American colonists was formally expressed in 1765 with the Declaration of Rights in the name of the Continental Congress. This was a time of resistance to indiscriminate taxation, because the King of England was engaging in it under the rules of Admiralty instead of Common Law and to finance the government of England and not that of America. This lead, of course to the Declaration of Rights of 1774, when that of 1765 was ignored, and then to the Declaration of Independence when the Declaration of 1774 failed to produce a solution. Finally, after a great war and some errors in self-government caused individual men to turn to the law for protection against government; we must again respond to the same kinds of pressure in a similar manner.
The present system of taxation in America has imposed upon the citizens of our country certain burdens and restriction which are comparable to the burdens and restriction which the citizens on ancient England suffered when trusts were developed there. The modern day trust, were developed by the ultra-rich banking families such as Rockefeller, Kuhn-Loeb Morgan, etc.,. while they were also instrumental in the introduction of the 16th Amendment, the Federal Reserve system and the I.R.S. Through these devices, they created a foundation for their almost unlimited power in government while they protect their own fortunes against the ravages of the tyranny they were developing. By reasserting the principle in law which under girds the existence of common law trust, and by writing the tax law exceptions which protect their own fortunes, they have made it almost impossible for government to deny you the same protection today - if you will simply learn to understand and follow the path which they have pioneered for you.

CONCLUSION
There are many advantages flowing out of the introduction of one or more trust into the financial life of your family or business. In the case of the common law trust, its existence does not depend on privilege or statutes of government, for its source is the individual sovereignty of we the people. This fact and recognized statutes are helpful as well, however, because the benefits extended by law to statutory trust often reinforce the rights of common law trusts as well.
To some, this may be a difficult concept to grasp because, for most of our lives government has made every effort to persuade us that it, not we, is sovereign and that we, as its citizens, are subject to its (government’s) authority in every regard. For this purpose, try to understand that a government is nothing more than a common law trust with we the people have created for our own benefit, and that the Constitution which our founding father created, is simply the trust indenture of that trust.

Try also to realize that government officials (from kings on down) are simply servants of the people and not their masters. When such officials gain power to impose their will on the people, they are called tyrants or dictators and the trust (i.e., the government organization) becomes a tyranny or dictatorship. It is during such times that people are driven to create individual common law trust to protect their own interests and freedoms.

Familiarize yourself thoroughly with everything concerning these trusts. The indenture are the constitutions of these mini-governments and the trust minutes are the statutory laws created by their legislator (board of trustees). Thus, a highly standardized trust can become a highly specialized individualized organization by action of the Board of Trustees; but the Constitution (indenture) cannot be overruled by the Board of Trustees, and therefore, you really should start out by knowing what the indentures, say.