estate tail was given, tenant in tail might, so soon as he came of age, by this process give to another an estate in fee simple, which by arrangement might then be re-conveyed to himself, and thus he was enabled to cut off, bar, or defeat the expectations of his own issue, and the interests of all persons claiming after him in remainder or reversion. After a statute passed in the reign of Henry VIII. the same result might have been effected by a fine.

By the above-mentioned statute (3 and 4 Will. IV., c. 74) fines and recoveries were abolished, and tenant in tail may now, by a deed enrolled in the Chancery Division of the High Court of Justice, alienate his lands for any estate in fee-simple or otherwise, and thus defeat the expectations of his own issue and of all remaindermen and reversioners.

The only additional restriction imposed upon the alienation of an estate tail is that the consent of the person who is called the Protector of the settlement is necessary to its being effectually barred. Alienation by tenant in tail without this consent binds his own issue, but not remaindermen or reversioners, and creates what is called a "base fee." The Protector of the settlement is usually the tenant for life in possession; but the settlor of the lands may appoint in his place any number of persons, not exceeding three, to be together Protector during the continuance of the estates preceding the estate tail. The practical effect, therefore, of an estate tail at the present day is to prevent the alienation of lands for a valid estate of inheritance in all cases till tenant in tail comes of age. After this his power of disposing of the lands differs from that of tenant in fee-simple only in the mode in which it is exercised, and in the necessity, where the estate is not in possession, for the consent of the Pro

tector.

SUG. GILB., USES, 33. A fine or recovery by an equitable tenant in tail has precisely the same operation as a fine or recovery by a legal tenant in tail, but no greater (1 Ch. Cas. 213); although it was once thought that a recovery would

not bar the remainders over. 1 Ch. Cas. 68. In later times it was held that equitable estates tail, with the remainders over, might be barred by a common conveyance (1 Vern. 440; 2 Vern. 131; id. 344; Prec. Ch. 81); or even by will (Prec. Ch. 228); but at this day it is well settled that a fine or recovery is as essential to bar an equitable as a legal entail in a freehold estate. I P. Wms. 87. . . It is also settled as a general rule that a recovery of an equitable estate must in all respects imitate a legal recovery; and therefore the person suffering an equitable recovery must have such an equitable estate as, had it been a legal estate, would have enabled him to suffer a legal recovery.Sugden's note.

(c) Fee Tail in the United States.

4 KENT COM., 14. Estates tail were introduced into this country with the other parts of the English jurisprudence, and they subsisted in full force before our revolution, subject equally to the power of being barred by a fine or common recovery. But the doctrine of estates tail, and the complex and multifarious learning connected with it, have become quite obsolete in most parts of the United States. In Virginia, estates tail were abolished as early as 1776; in New Jersey, estates tail were not abolished until 1820; and in New York, as early as 1782, and all estates tail were turned into estates in fee simple absolute. So, in North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Georgia, estates tail have been abolished, by being converted by statute into estates in fee simple. In the States of Vermont, South Carolina, and Louisiana, they do not appear to be known to their laws, or ever to have existed; but in several of the other States they are partially tolerated, and exist in a qualified degree.1

'Estates tail exist in Maine, Massachusetts, Delaware and Pennsyl

N. Y. REAL PROP. LAW, § 22. Estates tail have been abolished; and every estate which would be adjudged a feetail, according to the law of this State, as it existed before the twelfth day of July, seventeen hundred and eighty-two, shall be deemed a fee simple; and if no valid remainder be limited thereon, a fee simple absolute. Where a remainder in fee shall be limited on any estate which would be a fee tail, according to the law of this State, as it existed previous to such date, such remainder shall be valid, as a contingent limitation on a fee, and shall vest in possession on the death of the first taker, without issue living at the time of such death.

N. J. DESCENT ACT, § 11. That from and after the passing of this act where any conveyance or devise shall be made, whereby the grantee or devisee shall become seised in law or equity of such estate in any lands or tenements as under the statute of the thirteenth of Edward the first (called the Statute of Entails), would have been held an estate in fee tail, every such conveyance or devise shall vest an estate for life only, in such grantee or devisee, who shall possess and have the same power over, and right in, such premises, and no other, as a tenant for life thereof would have by law; and upon the death of such grantee or devisee the said lands and tenements shall go to and be vested in the children of such grantee or devisee, equally to be divided between them as tenants in common in fee, but if there be only one child, then to that one in fee; and if any child be dead, the part which would have come to him or her shall go to his or her issue in like manner; provided that the vania, subject, nevertheless, to be barred by deed, and by common recovery, and in two of these States by will.—Kent,

"In Pennsylvania, by the Act of Assembly of April 27, 1855, it was provided that whenever hereafter, by any gift, conveyance or devise, an interest in fee tail would be created according to the existing laws of the State, it shall be taken and construed to be an estate in fee simple, and as such shall be inheritable and freely alienable.”—Sharswood's note to 2 Bl. Com. 119.

widow of any such grantee or devisee of such estate shall have her dower in the premises in like manner as if the said grantee or devisee had died seized thereof in fee simple; and provided also, that where any person shall marry a woman being a grantee or devisee and seized of such estate, the said husband, after the death of his said wife, shall have his curtesy in the said lands and tenements, if there be issue of the marriage, in like manner as if said wife had died seized of an estate of inheritance in fee tail of the premises.

MASS. PUB. STAT., 1882, c. 120, § 15. A person actually seised of lands as tenant in tail may convey such lands in fee simple by a deed in common form, in like manner as if he were seised thereof in fee simple; and such conveyance shall bar the estate tail and all remainders and reversions expectant thereon.

§ 17. Equitable estates tail, in possession or remainder, and all remainders and reversions expectant thereon, may be barred in the same manner as legal estates tail and the remainders and reversions expectant thereon.

CONN. GEN. L., § 2952. No estate in fee simple, fee tail, or any less estate, shall be given by deed or will, to any persons but such as are, at the time of making such deed or will, in being, or to their immediate issue or descendants, and every estate given in fee tail shall be an absolute estate in fee simple, to the issue of the first donee in tail.

CHAPTER IV.

ESTATES FOR LIFE.

(a) Conventional Life Estates.

LIT., § 56. Tenant for term of life is where a man letteth lands or tenements to another for terme of the life of the lessee, or for terme of the life of another man. In this case the lessee is tenant for terme of life. But by common speech he which holdeth for terme of his owne life, is called tenant for terme of his life; and he which holdeth for terme of another's life, is called tenant for terme of another man's life (pur terme d'auter vie).

§ 57. And it is to be understood, that there is feoffor and feoffee, donor and donee, lessor and lessee. Feoffor is properly where a man enfeoffes another in any lands or tenements in fee simple, he which maketh the feoffment is called the feoffor, and he to whom the feoffment is made is called the feoffee. And the donor is properly where a man giveth certaine lands or tenements to another in taile, he which maketh the gift is called the donor, and he to whom the gift is made is called the donee. And the lessor is properly where a man letteth to another lands or tenements for terme of life, or for terme of years, or to hold at will, he which maketh the lease is called lessor and he to whom the lease is made is called lessee. And every one which hath an estate in any lands or tenements for terme of his owne or another man's life, is called tenant of freehold, and none other of a lesser estate can have a freehold; but they of a greater estate have a freehold; for he in fee simple hath a freehold, and tenant in taile hath a freehold, &c.