Fourth Estate

“ I will give you the law, briefly: descendible estates among us are of two kinds, estates in fee simple and estates in fee tail. Had your grandfather died without a will, his estate, which we suppose to be in fee simple, would have descended to you as the son of his eldest son, according to the fourth of the canons of descent in Blackstone. But with us fee simple estates are devisable, and Mr. Carvel was wholly within his right in cutting off the line of his eldest son. ”

“ Burke said there were Three Estates in Parliament; but, in the Reporters' Gallery yonder, there sat a Fourth Estate more important far than they all. ”

“ Concerning my worldly estate, my will must be anomalous and out of the common form, on account of the state of my affairs. I have two large real estates. By marriage settlement, Mrs. Webster is entitled to a life estate in each, and after her death they belong to my heirs. On the Franklin estate, so far as I know, there is no encumbrance except Mrs. Webster’s life-estate. On Marshfield, Mr. Samuel Frothingham has an unpaid balance of a mortgage, now amounting to twenty five hundred dollars. My great and leading wish is, to preserve Marshfield, if I can, in the blood and name of my own family. ”

“ The last and most important of these, the Settled Estates Act, passed in 1882, gives the tenant for life power to sell any portion of the estate except the family mansion, and thus thoroughly undermines the principle upon which primogeniture and entails are founded. Much land which has hitherto been so tied up that the limited owners were either unable or unwilling to develop it can now be sold and improved. ”

“ But in those distant provinces, where the same families inhabit the same houses from age to age, they transmit and recount the faults of a whole succession. I have been informed how every estate in the neighborhood was originally got, and find, if I may credit the accounts given me, that there is not a single acre in the hands of the right owner. ”

“ When I journied down to take possession, and planted foot on my own ground, the stately habits of the donor descended upon me, and I strode (shall I confess the vanity?) with larger paces over my allotment of three quarters of an acre, with its commodious mansion in the midst with the feeling of an English freeholder, that all betwixt sky and centre was my own. The estate has passed into more prudent hands, and nothing but an agrarian can restore it. ”

“ Your estates are likely to be forfeited, you will surely have heavy fines to pay, but beyond that, seeing that you are yourself in the king's service, and that you have never drawn sword against him, you will not suffer. What estates have you?"
"We have but one large estate," said Reginald, "and my father with his dying breath bade me return it either to its lawful heirs or to God's poor."
"Where is it?" asked the earl.
"Up north, in Westmorland," answered Reginald. "Newbolt Manor it is called now, but it was once De Lisle Abbey, and belonged to the De Lisles." ”

“ When the Crown, originally elective, became hereditary, the barons sought to have their possessions governed by the same rule, to remove them from the class of TERRAREGIS (FOLC-LAND) , and to convert them into chartered land. Being gifts from the monarch, he had the right to direct the descent, and all charters which gave land to a man and his heirs, made each of them only a tenant for life; the possessor was bound to hand over the estate undivided to the heir, and he could neither give, sell, nor bequeath it. ”

“ Such was the estate, and such the man who founded and enjoyed it sixty years ago; and many an equal estate, founded and occupied by equally valuable men, then existed, and still exist in all our older states; and if our private and public virtues are preserved, will ever exist in every state of our union. ”

“ At the expiration of the particular estate, the lands are to be 'inherited and equally divided' among the grandchildren, and 'in like manner' the stocks are to be 'equally divided' among them. The real estate and the personal property are clearly to go to the same persons and at the same time. The word 'inherited,' which is applied to the real estate only, implies taking immediately from the testator upon his death, as heirs take immediately from their ancestor upon his death. ”

“ Land could be held by an heir only if he could fight. The eldest son began to succeed to the whole of the lands in all military tenures. Actually, William and his sons insisted on undivided succession rather than a strict application of the primogeniture rule that the eldest son inherit.Younger sons of great houses became bishops. An heir of a tenant had to pay a heavy "relief" on succession to his estate. The relief replaced the heriot. If there was a delay in proving heirship or paying relief, the lord would hold the land and receive its income in the meantime, often a year. ”

“ In a devise of real and personal property, the law makes a distinction as to the two estates, in the construction of devisees; and, when technical language is used, the devisee takes an absolute estate in the personal, and a limited estate, or an estate tail, in the real property. ”

“ As heirs, in part, to the inheritance left by their lost friend, they find the fairest part of the domain ravaged, and the strong castle battered down; and do not think because the hedges have been a little trimmed up, and the gateway set in fashion, that the property has been improved—on the contrary, they think the estate is ruined. ”

“ Hence the perpetuity of property in England in the same families, notwithstanding the limited duration of entails; great numbers of estates being at this moment enjoyed by those whose ancestors acquired them at or soon after the Conquest. But in France such feelings are proscribed. Estates and families have there no abiding connexion; and at the demise of an individual who has a number of children, his estate can hardly escape being subdivided. And this effect of the law tends to imbue the proprietors with corresponding sentiments and feelings. ”

“ In the case of a Catholic possessing real or personal property, and all his children being Catholic, the estate was to be divided equally among all the children; but if the eldest son should conform within twelve months after the death of his father, or if under age, twelve months after coming of age, he might take the estate as heir at law. ”

“ That insignia of rank which this man profanes is never given to other than the rightful heir to a great estate. And then, not until he succeeds to his title. No younger member of any of our noble families has ever been allowed the coronet or the belt. Even many large landholders, such as I, do not have them. Those are reserved for the heads of the great houses, and there are few of them in existence. Certainly, no western Earl would desert his holdings to journey to far lands and to take service with another, not even one so highly placed as yourself. ”

“ The estate of the dead man was comparatively small—a city house on a fashionable street, Sunnyside, a large estate largely mortgaged, an insurance of fifty thousand dollars, and some personal property—this was all. ”

“ In the maps of the parish it has probably another name, but from being so long inhabited by the Lucketts it is always spoken of as Lucketts' Place.
The house itself and ninety acres of grass land have been their freehold for many generations; in fact, although there is no actual deed of entail, the property is as strictly preserved in the family and descends from heir to heir as regularly as the great estate and mansion adjacent. Old Hilary Luckett—though familiarly called 'old,' he is physically in the prime of life—is probably about the most independent man in the county. ”

“ It was ordained by the charter that, if the heir be a minor, he shall, immediately upon his majority, enter upon his estate, without paying any relief: the king shall not sell his wardship; he shall levy only reasonable profits upon the estate, without committing waste, or hurting the property: he shall uphold the castles, houses, mills, parks, and ponds, and if he commit the guardianship of the estate to the sheriff or any other, he shall previously oblige them to find surety to the same purpose. ”

“ The elements of the decree below were, 1. That the grantor, Eleanor Jenkins, was a young heir, and a woman, when she made the conveyance; that it was of her whole estate, without consideration, and to a parent of large wealth.
2. That she was an heir of an estate in reversion, which descended to her in tender infancy; and in regard to the possession and enjoyment of which she must be deemed and treated, in a court of chancery, as an expectant heir.
3. She conveyed to the adult tenant for life, who was her father and natural guardian, with whom she resided, and on whom she was dependent. ”

“ Estate after estate was sold for several generations, till, at last, my father found himself the heir to a half-ruined castle on the borders of the ocean, and a few thousand acres of unproductive land in the same neighbourhood. My mother, who is now a saint in heaven, was as much so as a mortal can be when on earth ”

“ Dear Sir,—We regret to inform you that we cannot raise the money. The shares in the mine you hold are of no value as security. The estate will therefore pass to Mr. Poltimore on Midsummer day.
"But surely," I cried, "it would be possible to find twenty thousand pounds in order to let you keep the property. To tell you the truth, Manners, I don't believe in that extraordinary document your father signed. At least, I should like to have a good look at it. The estate is entailed." ”

“ Property given by an intestate by way of advancement to an heir, shall be considered part of the estate so far as regards the division and distribution thereof, and shall be taken by such heir, towards his share of the estate at what it would now be worth if in the condition in which it was given to him. ”

“ One may create an estate which will descend in unbroken succession down the line of inheritance prescribed in the original gift as long as that line should last, instead of descending to all heirs. The successive occupants might draw the rents and cut the wood, but on the death of each, his heir would take possession of an unencumbered interest, unfettered by any liability for the debt of his ancestor or by any disposition made by him during his lifetime e.g. a wife's estate in dower or a husband's estate in courtesy. ”

“ The proviso is this: That should you not live to be seventy years of age, the estate, and all pertaining to it, shall pass away from you and yours at your death, and go to your cousin, the son of my brother Henry; or to his heirs, should he not be alive at the time. But should you overpass your seventieth birthday, though it be but by twelve short hours, the estate will remain yours, to will away to whom you please, or to dispose of as you may think best. ”

“ If an heir was still a minor or female, he or she passed into his lord's wardship, in which the lord had guardianship of the heir and possession of the estate, with all its profits. The mother was not made a minor's guardian. No longer was the estate protected by the minor's kin as his birthright. A female heir was expected to marry a man acceptable to the lord. The estate of an heiress and her land was generally sold to the highest bidder. If there were no heirs, the land escheated to the lord. If a tenant committed felony, his land escheated to his lord. ”

“ Every alienation or sale of landed property must be made in the shape of a feudal conveyance, and the party who acquires it holds thereby an absolute and perfect right of property in the fief, while he discharges the stipulations of the vassal, and, above all, pays the feu-duties. The vassal or tenant of the site of the smallest cottage holds his possession as absolutely as the proprietor, of whose large estate it is perhaps scarce a perceptible portion. ”

“ I greatly desire, as already stated, that my family shall remain as it now is, without change or modification or sale or valuation of the furniture or slaves until the said division of my estate, and that it shall until then be supported by the brick-kiln business, as though I were living; and as I believe the squares and lots of ground owned by my brother George and myself is now and will continue to increase in value, I desire, if possible, that said land may be kept unsold and undivided until as above stated, as it will thus be greatly to the advantage of my family ”

“ But, in general, the law looks upon this estate as equivalent to an estate for life only; and, as such, will permit this tenant to exchange his estate with a tenant for life; which exchange can only be made, as we shall see hereafter, of estates that are equal in their nature.
III. Tenant by the curtesy of England, is where a man marries a woman seised of lands or tenements in fee-simple or fee-tail; that is, of any estate of inheritance; and has by her issue, born alive, which was capable of inheriting her estate. ”

“ II. The rule in Massachusetts is, that although a devise to one and his heirs, and if he die without issue, then to another, will create an estate tail, with remainder over, yet that this construction will be controlled by other words, showing that the testator referred to a failure at the death of the first taker. ”

“ Recoveries were methods of disentailing an estate by means of a complicated series of fictions. They arose in this way:—Before 1285, when land was given to a man and the heirs of his body, the judges ruled that, the moment a son was born, the father [Pg 28] held the estate as a simple freehold, which he could sell or make away with very much as he chose. The great landowners were ill-content at this; they meant their tenants to enjoy their estates only as long as they rendered useful service in return, and if issue failed a man, they thought the land should revert to his lord on his death. ”