13S C O N 
For once, O heav’n! unfold thy adamantine hook ; 
If not thy firm, immutable decree, 
At lead the fecond page of great contingency, 
Such as confilt with wills originally free. Dry dm. 
CONTIN'GENT, adj. [contingent, Lat.] Falling out 
by chance ; accidental; not determinable by any certain 
rule.—Hazard naturally implies in it, firfi., fomething fu¬ 
ture • fecondly, fomething contingent. South. 
CONTIN'GENT, f. A thing in the hands of chance. 
•~By contingents we are to underhand thofe things which 
come to pals without any human forecaft. Grew. —A pro¬ 
portion that falls to any perfon upon a divilion : thus,' 
in time of war, each prince of Germany is to furnifh his 
contingent of men, money, and munition. 
CONTIN'GENT REMAIN'DER. In law, contin¬ 
gent or executory remainders (whereby no prelent inte- 
reft patfes) are where the eftate in remainder is limited 
to take effect, either to a dubious and uncertain perfon, 
or upon a dubious and uncertain event; fo that the par¬ 
ticular eftate may chance to be determined, and the re¬ 
mainder never take effedt. Thus, in a grant of a fee- 
fimple to J, it is necelfary to give it to A and his heirs ; 
of a fee-tail, to A and the heirs of his body ; for a grant 
to A, without any additional words, gives him only an 
eftate for life. Hence the word heirs in the firlt cafe, and 
the words heirs of the body in the fecond, are faid to be 
words of limitation, becaufe they limit or deferibe what 
,A takes' by the grant, viz. in one cafe, a fee-fimple, in 
the other a fee-tail : and the heirs in both inftances take 
no interefj any farther than as the anceftor may permit the 
eftatetb defeend to them. But if a remainder is granted, 
or eftate deviled to the heirs of A, where no eftate of 
freehold is''at the fame time given to A, the heir of A 
cannot take by defeent from A ; but he takes by purchafe, 
under the grant, in the fame manner as if the eftate had 
been given to him by his proper name. Here the word 
heirs is called a word-of purckafe. Having premifed the 
diilinttion between words of limitation and words of pur¬ 
chafe, we may obferve, that the much-talked of rule in 
Shelley’s cafe, i Co. 104, is this, viz. “ when the ancef¬ 
tor, by any gift or conveyance, takes an eftate of free¬ 
hold, and in the fame gift or conveyance an eftate is li¬ 
mited, either mediately or immediately, to his heirs in 
fee or in tail, that always in frith cafes the heirs are words 
of limitation, and not words of purchafe;” and the re¬ 
mainder.Vs faid to be executed in the anceftor, where there 
is no intermediate eftate ; or vejled, when an eftate for life 
or in tail intervenes. As if an eftate be given to A for 
life, and after his death, to the heirs of his body ; this 
remainder is executed in A, or it unites with his eftate 
for life; and the effedt is the fame as if the eftate had at 
once been given to A and the heirs of his body ; which 
expreftion limits an eftate tail to A, and the iffue have 
no indefeafible intereft conveyed to them, but can Only 
take by defeent from A., So alio if an eftate be given to 
A for life, with remainder to B for life or in tail, re¬ 
mainder to the heirs, or the heirs of the body, of A —• 
A takes an eftate for life, in this cafe, with a veiled re¬ 
mainder in fee or in tail; and his heir under this grant 
can only take by defeent at his death. Fearne, 21. But 
when the erate for life, and the remainder in tail or in 
fee unite and coaiefce, and heirs is a word of limitation, 
the two eftates muft be created by the fame inftrument, 
and muft be either both legal, or both truft eftates. . 
Doug. 490. 2 T. R. 444. The rule with regard to the 
execution or coalition of fuch eftates-, leems now to be 
the fame in equitable as in legal eftates. 1 Bro. 206. And 
in all thefe Cafes where a perfon has an eftate tail, or a 
veiled remainder in tail, he can cut off tire expectations 
or inheritance of his.iffue, by a fine or a recovery. Doug. 
323. In order therefore to fecure a certain provifton for 
children, the method was invented of granting the eftate 
to the father for life, and, after his death, to his firft and 
other Ions in tail; for the words fin or daughter Were 
CON 
held to be words of purchafe, and the remainder to them 
did not, like the remainder to heirs, unite with the prior 
eftate of freehold. But if the fon was unborn, the re¬ 
mainder was contingent, and might have been defeated 
by the alienation of the father by feoffment, fine, or re¬ 
covery: to prevent this, it was necelfary to interpole 
truftees, to whom the eftate is given upon fuch a deter-' 
mination of the life-eftate, and in whom it refts, till the 
contingent eftate, if at all, comes into exiftence ; and thus 
they are faid to lupport and preferve the contingent re¬ 
mainders. This is called a JlriEl fettlement, and is the only 
mode (executory devifes excepted) by which a certain 
and indefeafible provifton can be fecured to an unborn 
child. But in the cafe of articles or covenants before 
marriage, for making a fettlement upon the h-ulband and 
wife, and their offspring, if there be a limitation to the 
parents for life, with a remainder to the heirs of their 
bodies, the latter words are generally confidered aswvords 
of purchafe, and not of limitation ; and a court of equity 
will decree the articles to be executed in ftribt fettle- 
inent. Fearne, 124. It being the great objeft of fuch fet- 
tlements to fecure fortunes for the iffue of the marriage, 
it would be ulelefs to give the parents an eftate tail, of 
which they would almoft immediately have-the abl’olute 
difpofal. And therefore the courts of equity will decree 
the eftate. to be fettled upon the parent or parents for 
life; and upon the determination of that eftate by for¬ 
feiture, to truftees to fupport contingent remainders for 
their lives; and after their deceafe, to the firft and other 
fons fucceftively in tail, with remainder to all the daugh¬ 
ters in tail as tenants in common, with fubfequent re¬ 
mainders or provifions according to the occafions and in¬ 
tentions of the parties. In thefe ftrict fettlements, the 
eftate is unalienable till the firft fon attains the age of 
twenty-one, who, if his father is dead, 'has then, as te¬ 
nant in tail, full power over the eftate ; or if his father 
is living, he then can bar his own iflue, by a fine inde¬ 
pendent of the father. Cruifc, 161. But the father, and 
the fon at that age, can cut off all the fubfequent limita¬ 
tions, and difpofe of the eftate in any manner they pleafe 
by joining in a common recovery. This is the origin of 
the vulgar error, that a tenant of an eftate-tail muft have 
the content of his eldeft fon to enable him'to- cut off the 
intail; for that is necelfary where the father has,only a 
life-eftate, and his eldeft fon has the remainder in tail. 
But there is no method whatever of fecurirtg an eftate to- 
the grandchildren of a perfon, who is without children 
at the time of the fettlement; for the law will not admit 
of a perpetuity ; and lord Thurlow has defined a perpe¬ 
tuity to be “ any extenfion of an eftate beyond a life in 
being, and twenty-one years after.” 2 Bro. 30. Hence, 
where in a fettlement the father has a power to appoint 
an eftate to or amongft his children, he cannot afterwards 
give this to his children in ftridt fettlement, or give any 
of his fons an eftate for life, with a remainder in tail to 
his eldeft fon ; for if he could do this, a perpetuity w'ould 
be created by the original fettlement. 2 T. R. 241. Too 
much attention cannot be' paid by profeftional men to this 
abftmfe branch of legal knowledge; fince, in innumerable 
inftances,. from the ignorance of the perfons employed, 
family fettlements, particularly in wills, have proved 
abortive, and the intentions of parents and teftators have 
been unhappily difappointed.—See Chriftian’s edition 
of Blackftone’s Commentaries, and Fearne’s Contingent 
Remainders. 
CONTIN'GENTLY, adv. Accidentally; without any 
fettled rule.—It is digged out of the earth contingently, 
and indifferently, as the pyritas and agates. Woodward. 
.CONTIN'GENTNESS,/ Accidentalnefs. 
CONTI'NUAL, adj. £ continuus, Lat.] Inceffant; pro¬ 
ceeding without interruption; fuccefiive without any. 
fpace of time between. Continual is ufed of time, and 
continuous of place.—He that is of a merry heart, hath a 
continual feafl. Proverbs , xv. 
Other 
