ENTAIL' (OF., Fr. entailler, It. intagliare, to cut in, from ML. to cut in. from Lat. in, in ML. taliare, to cut, from Lat. talea, cut ting, rod). Any settlement or conveyance of an estate of inheritance whereby the legal course of succession is 'cut off,' one or more of the heirs at law being excluded or postponed, and the set tlement of land made upon a particular heir or series of heirs. The first distinct trace of the existence of entails is to be found in the Roman law. The Greeks, indeed, permitted persons to name successors to their estates, and to appoint a substitute who should take the estate on the failure of him first named. The substitute, as appointed, was permitted to succeed on the death of the institute (as he was called) without leav ing issue or without alienating the estate. But this limited right fell far short of the power of entailing which has since prevailed in various countries. At Rome, under the later emperors, the practice of settlinu land upon a series of heirs by means of fidci co/amiss(' (q.v.) grew op, and was sanctioned by the State. These deeds, which were originally simply a trust re posed in the honor of a friend, to whom the property was conveyed, to carry out the will of the grantor, by degrees received the sanction of the law. In their early form they contained
merely a substitution of heirs. But by the later law, a much fuller form of settlement was ad mitted, whereby the estate was protected from every sort of alienation. It, is impossible to doubt that this Roman form must have been adopted by the Scottish lawyers in framing their deeds of entail. There are, however, two points in which the Roman law differed from that which prevailed for many years in Scotland—viz., that the former did not recognize the right of primogeniture, and that the limitation of the deed was restricted to four generations. For the right of primogeniture. as recognized in deeds of entail. we are indebted to the feudal law. That system did not, in its original form, fecognize the right of a holder of land to alienate his feudal benefice. But the right of the eldest son to represent his father, both in the duties and privileges of the fief, if not an original principle of the system, was universally recognized in the days of its greatest influence and extent. For a further treatment, see FEE TAIL. Consult the authorities referred to under REAL PROPERTY.