“[T]he statute de donis of 13 Edw. I…. was intended to check the judicial construction, that had, in a great degree, discharged the conditional fee from the limitation imposed by the grant. Under that statute, fees conditional were changed into estates tail ….” 4 James Kent, Commentaries on American Law *444 (George Comstock ed., 11th ed. 1866).
“[A]fter De Donis, the formula ‘to A and the heirs of his body’ gave to A an estate known as an estate in fee tail. Because A had no power to transfer an estate in fee simple absolute, it became theoretically possible for persons like O to tie up the ownership of land in a single family for hundreds of years. We say theoretically possible because by 1472 a way would be found for the tenant in tail (as A was called) to transfer an estate in fee simple absolute despite De Donis.” Thomas F. Bergin & Paul G. Haskell, Preface to Estates in Land and Future Interests 29 (2d ed. 1984).
