Tail in United Kingdom

Meaning of Tail

The following is an old definition of Tail [1]: Fee-tail, as descriptive of an estate in lands, was borrowed from the feudists, among whom it signified any mutilated or truncated inheritance from which the heirs general were “cut off.” Entail. 1, v. To restrict an inheritance to a class of issue or descendants. Opposed, disentail: to bar an estate in tail. 2, n. An estate iu tail; an estatertail. The words formerly employed in creating the estate were ” heirs (male or female) of the body ” of a particular person; but other expressions, such as “issue forever,” and “posterity,” have been held to be of not less extensive import. Where the estate is not recognized, language which, formerly, would have created it will be construed to create a fee-simple. Entailments are generally abolished in the United States; where retained, they may be barred, as, by a deed from the tenant. Our law favors free alienation, see, in this resource, the term In England the law has been so modified as to remove the more serious inconveniences that attended such estates. See further Fee, 1.

Resources

Notes and References

1. Concept of Tail provided by the Anderson Dictionary of Law (1889) (Dictionary of Law consisting of Judicial Definitions and Explanations of Words, Phrases and Maxims and an Exposition of the Principles of Law: Comprising a Dictionary and Compendium of American and English Jurisprudence; William C. Anderson; T. H. Flood and Company, Law Publishers, Chicago, United States)