ENTAIL, the settlement of an estate so that it shall pass according to a certain rule of descent. In England after the Norman Con quest estates were frequently granted to a man and the heirs of his body, but in time the law courts interpreted such grants as conferring a fee-simple conditional, so that when the condi tion, namely, the begetting of an heir, was ful filled, the estate became a fee-simple absolute and could be alienated by the grantee. The statute "De Donis Conditionalibus," passed in 1285, declared that this interpretation was con trary to the intention of the grantors, and en acted that in all future grants of this nature the grantee should have no power to alienate the estate, and that on the failure of issue the land should revert to the grantor. The effect of this statute was to prevent the free conveyance of land, but gradually the lawyers created a series of proceedings known as fines and recoveries, by means of which a tenant in possession could bar the entail and convert his estate-tail into a fee-simple, that is, into his absolute property.
(See FEE). These remedies created by the courts were abolished by the Fines and Recoveries Act, passed in 1833, and a direct means of barring entails was introduced. This statute enacts that every actual tenant-in-tail shall have full power to dispose of, for an estate in fee-simple abso lute, or for any less estate, the lands entailed; but a tenant-in-tail in remainder, expectant on an estate of freehold, cannot bar the entail, though he may bar his own issue, without the consent of the ((protector of the settlement,' who is usually the tenant for life.