A mortgage, or a conveyance in the nature of a mortgage, of lands or tenements shall have priority according to the time of recording it in the proper office, without respect to the time of its being sealed and delivered, and shall be a lien from the time of recording it and not before.

Code 1852, § 1632; Code 1915, § 3222; Code 1935, § 3684; 25 Del. C. 1953, § 2106