§35-4-20. Conveyance required to be in writing; signature; attestation by witnesses.

Conveyances for the alienation of lands must be written or printed, or partly written and partly printed, on parchment or paper, and must be signed at their foot by the contracting party or his agent having a written authority; or, if he is not able to sign his name, then his name must be written for him, with the words "his mark" written against the same, or over it; the execution of such conveyance must be attested by one witness or, where the party cannot write, by two witnesses who are able to write and who must write their names as witnesses; or, if he can write his name but does not do so and his name is written for him by another, then the execution must be attested by two witnesses who can and do write their names.

(Code 1852, §1266; Code 1867, §1535; Code 1876, §2145; Code 1886, §1789; Code 1896, §982; Code 1907, §3335; Code 1923, §6838; Code 1940, T. 47, §22.)