Strict Settlement - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition strict-settlement

Definition :

Strict settlement, a settlement of land, the object of which was, usually, to keep the estates as far as possible in the male line, the eldest son taking in fee or in tail with successive limitations in tail to the exclusion of the younger children, who are pro-vided for by means of portions charged on the property. The limitations vary according to the circumstances of each particular case, but the following may be taken as usual limitations in the case of an ordinary settlement on marriage before 1926: To the use of the husband for life, remainder, subject to a jointure rent-charge to the wife and a term for raising portions for younger children, to the first and other sons in tail-male, remainder to the first and other sons in tail general, remainder to the daughters as tenants in common in tail with cross remainders between them, remainder to the husband in fee. Where the estate also comprised copyholds and leaseholds, these were conveyed to trustees upon trusts to correspond with the uses declared concerning the freeholds. Trustees were appointed for the purposes of the Settled Land acts, and provision was made for the application of rents during minorities by reference to the Conveyancing Act, 1881; and such other powers and provisions are inserted as the case might have required. For the modern method of strict settlement, see SETTLED LAND. Consult Key and Elphinstone or Prideaux Conveyancing Precedents.