4 - Grants in marriage, limited fee and fee tail

Summary

A grantor who wished to ensure that the property he granted would descend only to a child or children of the grantee could choose between two courses. He could either grant the property expressly to the grantee and the heirs of his body, or his heirs by a particular wife or by any wife, or he could grant the property to the grantee in fee, that is, to him and his heirs, on condition that the grantee had heirs of his body. A grant of the first type, which Bracton called a grant in fee subject to a modus, will hereafter be called a limited fee. A grant of the second type, which he called a grant in fee subject to a condicio, will be called a conditional fee. In both types of grant there might be an express stipulation for a reversion to the grantor and his heirs, or for a remainder to another person, if the issue of the grantee were to fail. Bracton said that in the case of a limited fee, the grantee would have only a life interest until issue of the requisite class was born, whereupon the grantee would hold in fee, but if the issue died in the lifetime of the grantee, the latter's interest would sink again to be a life interest. If no issue were born, the grantee's interest would never be more than a life interest.