Ante f 13. 1 Inf. 15 a. Rep. 35 b. 18. 1916. Stringer v. New, 9 Mod. 303. For an entry being impoffible, the alienation of a remainder or reversion for a certain time, is allowed to be fufficient to change the defcent; because fuch alienation being formerly always attended with attornment, was deemed equal, in point of notoriety, to an entry on a descent. § 16. Thus Lord Coke, after ftating the case of a fon's endowing his father's widow, fays, "But if the "eldeft fon had made a leafe for life, and the leffee "had endowed the wife of the father, and tenant in "dower had died, the daughter fhould have had the "reverfion, because the reverfion was changed and "altered by the lease for life, and the reversion is now "expectant on a new eftate for life." In another place, his Lordfhip fays, "for many times "the change of the freehold makes an alteration or "change of the reverfion." This doctrine has been confirmed by Lord Hardwicke in the following cafe. § 17. A. being tenant for life, remainder to trustees to preserve contingent remainders, remainder to his first and other fons in tail male, remainder to the heirs of his own body, remainder to the right heirs of his father; had a fifter of the half-blood, and alfo a fifter of the whole blood. A. con A. conveyed the estate to B. by leafe and release, in truft for payment of debts, and levied a fine thereof. Lord Hardwicke.—The question is, whether A. had made any alteration as to the defcent of the reverfion in fee? if he had not, it would defcend to the fister of the half-blood, who was the elder daughter, and equally heir to the father with the other daughter. But if he had altered it, and given it to himself, it would defcend to the fifter of the whole blood, who claimed as heir to her brother who was laft actually feifed. But then it is certain that must be an actual poffeffion; fo that it is argued in this cafe, that this being an estate for life in A., with a remainder in tail and a revesion in fee expectant, this is not such a poffeffion as will entitle the younger daughter to take under a poffeffio fratris. What was infifted upon on the other hand, in order to have altered the course of descent, and given it to the heirs of A. instead of the heirs of the father, was the conveyance made by A. by leafe and release and fine; and the question is, whether his fine has changed the reverfion in fee, and thereby altered the descent? His Lordship declared his opinion that it did alter the reversion, and therefore the estate would go to the right heirs of A.; and fcunded his opinion on the two paffages stated in a former fection from Coke on Littleton, 15 a. and 191 b., from which it appeared, that in confequence of fuch change in the reverfion, it fhould Hh3 Vide Tit. 35° fhould defcend to the heir of the fon, and therefore entitle the younger fifter of the whole blood to claim as heir to him, by a poffefio fratris. The conveyance was by leafe and releafe to B. to pay debts, &c. and furely this was a great alteration, for this amounted to a grant of his eftate for life, and it likewife paffed the reverfion in fee. For as he was right heir of his father, he had a reverfion to grant, though it would defcend to the right heirs of the father without fuch an alteration, and though the estate was fubject to redemption on payment of the debts, &c. yet it would follow the heirs of the fon, because the fon had changed it, and made it his own by a plain alteration. His Lordship then faid, he fhould confider what would be the effect of the fine, fuppofing the leafe and releafe out of the cafe: that fine would certainly have barred the remainder in tail to himself, for he was feifed for life, with remainder to the heirs of his own body; fo that the fine barred the eftate, and would have amounted to a grant of the reverfion in fee, if to a ftranger. Now, this reverfion in fee, instead of being expectant on the eftate tail, as it originally was, does now depend on an eftate in contingency. Therefore, on this cafe, whether the reverfion being thus changed should alter the descent of it fo as to go to the heirs of the fon, his Lordfhip was clearly of opinion, that it was literally within what was laid down in in Co. Lit. 191 b. that if the elder brother change the freehold, it fhall alter the reverfion likewife, and fhall caufe a poffeffio fratris. In this cafe, both the conveyances changed the reverfion, and therefore the estate defcended to the heir of the whole blood to the brother. TITLE XXIX, DESCENT. Defcent of CHAP. V. Of Defcent by Statute and Cuftem. 1. Defcent of Eflates tail. 11. Defcent in Gavelkind. Section 1. BESIDE the descent of lands in fee fimple, there are two other modes of defcent, of which it will be proper to give fome account. The firft of these is the descent of eftates tail, which is regulated by the ftatute De Donis Conditionalibus, and is therefore called descent by statute. § 2. The defcent of an estate tail refembles that of a feudum novum, for the perfon to whom an estate tail is originally given or limited, is the first purchaser of it ; and none but those who are lineally defcended from him can make a title to it by defcent. § 3. In fome cafes the defcent of an eftate tail is not only confined to the lineal defcendants of the first purchaser or original donee, but is fometimes re *The Defcent of Dignities has been already difcuffed in title 26; and the Defcent of Eftates held by Prefcription will be noticed in title 31. ftrained |