lar eſtate in poſſeſſion, ſufficient to ſupport the remainders depending in contingency. This method is ſaid to have been invented by ſir Orlando Bridgman, ſir Geoffery Palmer, and other eminent council, who betook themſelves to conveyancing during the time of the civil wars; in order thereby to ſecure in family ſettlements a proviſion for the future children of an intended marriage, who before were uſually left at the mercy of the particular tenant for life[1]: and when, after the reſtoration, thoſe gentlemen came to fill the firſt offices of the law, they ſupported this invention within reaſonable and proper bounds, and introduced it into general uſe.
Thus the ſtudent will obſerve how much nicety is required in creating and ſecuring a remainder; and I truſt he will in ſome meaſure ſee the general reaſons, upon which this nicety is founded. It were endleſs to attempt to enter upon the particular ſubtilties and refinements, into which this doctrine, by the variety of caſes which have occurred in the courſe of many centuries, has been ſpun out and ſubdivided: neither are they conſonant to the deſign of theſe elementary diſquiſitions. I muſt not however omit, that in deviſes by laſt will and teſtament, (which, being often drawn up when the party is inops concilii, are always more favoured in conſtruction than formal deeds, which are preſumed to be made with great caution, fore-thought, and advice) in theſe deviſes, I ſay, remainders may be created in ſome meaſure contrary to the rules before laid down: though our lawyers will not allow ſuch diſpoſitions to be ſtrictly remainders; but call them by another name, that of executory deviſes, or deviſes hereafter to be executed.
An executory deviſe of lands is ſuch a diſpoſition of them by will, that thereby no eſtate veſts at the death of the deviſor, but only on ſome future contingency. It differs from a remainder in three very material points: 1. That it needs not any particular
- ↑ See Moor. 486. 2 Roll. Abr. 797. pl. 12. 2 Sid. 159. 2 Chan. Rep. 170.
