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Glamorgan, not therein before devised, should be devised and settled to the uses therein after mentioned; (all this being still but a recital of his intention by way of preamble,) he therefore declares it to be his will, intent, and meaning, (which words have an imperative import,) that in case his said sons William and Edward Morgan, or any other son or sons of him thereafter to be born as aforesaid, should happen to die respectively without any issue male, etc. and in such case, if it should so happen, then (he adds) I give and devise (which words are meant to be operative, and to pass to the devisees what is intended for them) the remainder of all and singular my manors, messuages, etc. in the said counties of Monmouth and Glamorgan, not hereinbefore devised, and the reversion and reversions, etc. to my brother, etc.

Now it was plain that the words which came subsequent to the word forasmuch, so far as that part of the clause extended, were used by the testator by way of introduction only, and as a key whereby to open and expound his intention; and the devise itself, under which the estate and interest were intended to pass and be transmitted, stood upon the subsequent or latter part of the same clause, which contained the words, and in case, if it shall so happen, then I give and devise, etc. It was here, and here only, that the lands in the counties of Monmouth and Glamorgan, were given to the brother Thomas and his sons.—Thus much was said, to clear the way for finding out the true meaning of the testator. Now the subject matter upon which the devise contained in this clause was to operate, was all the rest and residue of all the lands and hereditaments, in the counties of Monmouth and Glamorgan, to which the testator was at that time entitled in possession, reversion, or remainder; other than those which fell within the description of being lands, etc. purchased since the marriage, and those customary or copyhold estates in the county of Monmouth, which the testator directed his son Edward to surrender to his son William and his heirs. But as to the lands which had been comprised in the testator's marriage settlement, the subject matter of the devise was the ultimate reversion in fee of those lands, in which by that settlement there had been reserved to the testator an estate for life in possession, with remainder (subject to a jointure of £2000 per ann. for the wife, and portions for younger children) to the first and other sons of the marriage, successfully in tail male. Immediately after the marriage, this ultimate reversion in fee became a fixed, certain, and settled estate, divided from the possession, and capable of being devised, transferred, aliened, settled, conveyed, and disposed of, like any other kind of real property in lands; but it was necessary that every such conveyance, devise, transfer, alienation, and disposition, should be framed according to the established forms and rules of law. Here the testator had at-[349]-tempted by his will, to make a disposition of this reversion in fee in these premises; but then that disposition was conceived in words which sounded futurely, and declared that it should not take effect otherwise than upon the happening of certain contingencies therein specified; viz. the events of certain persons dying without issue male.

Now every limitation, either by grant or devise, of any estate or interest in lands, to take effect in futuro, must be so penned as to be made to pass either by way of express remainder, or by way of future or springing use or trust, or by way of executory devise.

As a reversion or remainder in fee, where it is subsisting and vested under some prior settlement or other act, is a fixed and settled interest, it must be transferred, aliened, and disposed of much in the same way as lands in possession; and though such reversion wears the aspect of being an interest or estate to commence futurely, yet in fact it is a present and actual interest; as appears from the old law, which made the attornment of the tenant in possession a necessary circumstance to render the grant of the reversion valid and effectual. In limiting remainders by grant or devise of lands, no grant or devise of such remainders can be good, unless there is a precedent particular estate capable of supporting such a remainder, and unless the remainder is created at the same time with such particular estate. It is the same with respect to reversions. For it has been held, that where a reversion in fee, expectant upon the determination of several precedent estates of inheritance, was granted by lease and release, habendum to the releases and their heirs from and after the determination of the several precedent uses and estates, such habendum will be too remote; and that the law will not suspend such reversion from taking effect, for so long a time as during the continuance of the several precedent estates, where some of them are estates of inheritance; there cannot therefore be a remainder created of a reversion in fee, without a precedent particular estate created of that reversion capable of supporting it, and with-