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« on: Thursday 28 May 15 14:04 BST (UK) »
I have been looking at an old grant in which it looks like a father grants land to his son in law on condition of knight service, but then the son in law grants it back to the father in law and his son and heirs in perpetuity unless the son has no heirs in which case the land reverts back to the son in law's heirs! As an example say we have:-
father = William Bigg
son = John Bigg
daughter = Elizabeth Worth nee Bigg
son in law = Robert Worth
so
1) William Bigg has made a grant of his land to Robert Worth and his heirs and
2) Robert Worth grants the land back to William Bigg and his son's Johns heirs with the exception that if John's heirs runs out the lands revert back to Robert Worth's heirs
Does this sound right? Has anyone seen examples like this? Perhaps it was a way to prevent your lands from being confiscated by the crown as normally if you left land to your eldest son and his line ran out the crown would confiscate the land and it would not get passed to any cousins like the Worths.
Hope this makes sense!