Entailed landed estate?

[Tamara]

Hello,
I have come across this term in my research and I'm having difficulty understanding the details of it. Does this mean that on the death of the original heir the estate passes to the next person named in the will? Can the original heir take the inheirtance and do what he wants with it or does it have to pass to the next person in line once the original heir is deceased. I am very new at wills and probate and find it extremely confusing. Any help would be appreciated.

Tamara

[Tolly]

entailment was a legal means of ensuring that the land could not be broken up when it was bequeathed and only passed down to defined heirs

paul

[Ladkyis]

It is my understanding that if land is entailed then there are very specific rules about who can inherit. Usually it is the eldest male heir so if the present owner dies his heir will be the eldest of his male children. If he has no children then it will go to his brother who is next eldest. If he has no brothers then it will go to a male child of a sister. After that my head hurts and my eyes go funny.
Basically the estate will go to the nearest male relative.
There is a wonderful series on TV here called Downton Abbey which examines this problem. It is a costume drama and totally fictitious but was written by the same man who wrote Gosford Park so the period details are good and the interaction between family members is realistic.
It begins with news of the sinking of the Titanic which claims the lives of the two male heirs to the estate (father and son) The present lord has three daughters who cannot inherit being "only" girls. a distant relative from a lowly branch of the family is the nearest male heir and the plot of the series revolves around how to keep the estate in one piece when the present lord pops his clogs while (as far as the dowager duchess is concerned) not letting the heir and his mother get hold of anything more than he is entitled to by law.
If it is ever shown in Canada do try and watch it.

[Tamara]

I find wills and probate to be very confusing because there is so much detail to keep in mind. Thanks for your replies because they have helped to make things a bit clearer. I have never heard of Downtown Abbey, but if it ever pops up in Canada, I will be sure to watch it!!

[Guy Etchells]

Before discussing entailment, one must have regard to the county or area the land was in.
In most parts of England the rule of primogeniture was in favour of the male line (tail-male) but in some parts of the country it was female primogeniture and the land went down the female line.

Primogeniture was devised by the thinking that real estate was part of the essence of a family and as with a coat of arms was not (really) owned by an individual but rather that individual had stewardship of it for his lifetime.

If the land was split into smaller and smaller parcels the family status would also wither to nothing.

The problem with the system was if the land or property was mortgaged and the then owner died, the heirs had no obligation to carry on paying the mortgage as the land or property automatically reverted to them.
This meant it could be difficult to raise money by mortgages.
Cheers
Guy

[v.wells]

I find wills and probate to be very confusing because there is so much detail to keep in mind. Thanks for your replies because they have helped to make things a bit clearer. I have never heard of Downtown Abbey, but if it ever pops up in Canada, I will be sure to watch it!!

"Downtown Abbey" will be on either TVO or BBC canada via satelite or cable which ever one you have a subscription to. I can't remember which station it is to be on but I did see it advertised on TVO when I watched the whole series "The Victorian Farmer" and "Victorian Farm Christmas" over Christmas. It looks to be a very interesting series.

[DorothySandra]

An entail is a Trust - there should be entail documents somewhere. It would be quite specific about who could inherit, and who would be trustees, and might well cut daughters out altogether. One entail wasn't necessarily the same as others, but they usually aimed at keeping an estate together forever, passing to the eldest son - hence the need for rich wives to provide for the daughters and younger sons! The entail wouldn't include property acquired after it was written - inherited from their mother's family, for example, or belonging to a spouse.

Downton is a bit muddled: I don't know why the wife's money would be lost when the Earl died, as it wouldn't have gone into the entailed part of the estate. Her family and/or trustees must have been a bit slack if they let her get married without her money being settled on her and her children. I suspect the writer ignored inconvenient legalities and probabilities to make a more dramatic storyline.

The inheritance of titles is different: they have to pass to the eldest legitimate male heir. Daughters are excluded - the crown is an exception. Occasionally the monarch will allow a title to go through a female, but this is done by bestowing the title on a new person when there is no male heir, and is virtually re-creating an extinct title. Illegitimate or adopted children are excluded from inheriting a title, and usually would be excluded from inheriting entailed land.