Relating to or involving the restriction of the inheritance of property, typically land, to a specific line of descent, preventing its sale, transfer, or division outside that lineage. This practice, historically prevalent in aristocratic societies, aimed to preserve family wealth and power across generations. Entailments often created legal complexities, ensuring control of assets but potentially hindering economic flexibility and social mobility. They represent a deliberate mechanism to dictate the future of an estate and its resources, often limiting the choices of future generations regarding their inheritance. The duration could be in perpetuity or over a term of years.
Entailable meaning with examples
- The old manor house and surrounding acres were entailable, ensuring that only his eldest son, and subsequently their male descendants, could inherit them, preventing fragmentation of the family's legacy. This carefully crafted arrangement was designed to keep the family's ancestral lands intact and powerful, generation after generation.
- Driven by his family's long history of wealth and power, Lord Ashworth sought to make his vast estate entailable, so no outside buyer could take it away. He desired to guarantee that his descendants would always be landed gentry and retain their place in society; he saw this measure as vital for his family's future.
- In the complicated will, the vast art collection was made entailable, a way to secure the continued ownership of these precious paintings by his family line. He was committed to maintaining the estate in that form. He specified that the collection could not be sold or dispersed under any circumstance.
- During the legal proceedings, it was determined the family farm had been entailable for generations, binding the inheritors to keep it producing or else lose their rights. This resulted in the loss of many opportunities, but the family felt tied to its tradition.
- The family business was carefully entailable, meaning the voting shares could only be transferred through the bloodline. This was done to prevent an outside takeover or influence.