Definition
A general tail is a form of fee tail (also called an estate tail) in which the grant limits inheritance to the lineal descendants of a specified grantee, without restricting the identity of the other parent from whom those descendants must also descend. The estate passes to the bodily heirs of the named tenant generally — that is, to any and all children and their descendants in the direct line, regardless of which spouse or partner produced them.
Example: A grant "to A and the heirs of his body" creates a general tail. Any legitimate lineal descendant of A inherits in succession. No particular marriage or second parent is specified.
This stands in contrast to a special tail, where the grant names both parents (e.g., "to A and the heirs of his body begotten on B"), confining inheritance to issue of that specific union.
Common Confusion
GENERAL TAIL vs. SPECIAL TAIL: These two subtypes of fee tail are frequently conflated in older sources, which often discuss "tail general" and "tail special" interchangeably with the parent concepts. The operative distinction is parental specification: general tail names one parent only; special tail names both. In historical land records and conveyancing documents, a grant running simply "to A and the heirs of his body" is presumptively a general tail unless a second parent is expressly identified.
GENERAL TAIL vs. FEE SIMPLE: Modern readers sometimes misread tail language as creating a fee simple (absolute inheritance). The critical difference is that a fee tail constrains alienability and limits succession to lineal descendants; a fee simple places no such restrictions. In jurisdictions that have abolished fee tail by statute, a grant in tail language is typically converted by operation of law into a fee simple.
Recognized Forms
/SUBTYPES
Within the broader category of estate tail, general tail divides further by sex:
- Tail male general: Descent restricted to male lineal heirs of the named grantee, without specifying the mother.
- Tail female general: Descent restricted to female lineal heirs of the named grantee, without specifying the father.
These sex-specific variants appear with some frequency in English feudal grants and older American colonial deeds.
Why It Matters in Research
The fee tail family — including general tail — was abolished or converted by statute in most American jurisdictions beginning in the eighteenth century, and it survives today only in vestigial form in a small number of states. Researchers working in pre-twentieth-century deed records, colonial land grants, and chancery pleadings will encounter tail language regularly and must understand whether the jurisdiction had, at the relevant time, a Statute of De Donis (preserving tail) or a local statute converting tail to fee simple or fee simple conditional.
The distinction between general and special tail has direct significance for chain-of-title research: if the creating instrument is a general tail, any lineal descendant of the grantee may have had a claim; if special tail, only issue of the named pairing qualified. Misreading one for the other can produce gaps or spurious links in a title chain.
In corpus research, Bouvier's redirects entirely to FEE-TAIL, meaning researchers using Bouvier's as a starting point must follow the cross-reference before finding substantive treatment. Black's and Rapalje & Lawrence treat general tail as a discrete entry, though Rapalje & Lawrence's surviving text is fragmentary.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary provides the clearest working definition in the source corpus: an estate tail where "one parent only is specified, whence the issue must be derived" — illustrated by the canonical formulation "to A and the heirs of his body." This definition aligns with Coke and Littleton's classical treatment of the distinction between tail general and tail special, which Black's implicitly tracks.
Rapalje & Lawrence's entry is incomplete in the available text, but its framing ("an estate tail where —") suggests it followed the same Littletonian framework. The truncation makes it unreliable as a standalone source for this entry.
Bouvier's decision to redirect to FEE-TAIL reflects Bouvier's organizational preference for treating the tail family together under the parent concept. This is editorially coherent but practically inconvenient for a researcher looking up "general tail" directly; the substantive content must be retrieved from the FEE-TAIL entry.
No significant divergence exists among the historical dictionaries on the core meaning. All three operate within the same English common-law framework derived from the Statute of De Donis Conditionalibus (1285) and its reception in American law.
Jurisdictional Note
Fee tail, including general tail, has been abolished by statute in most U.S. states; jurisdictions typically convert tail language into either a fee simple or a fee simple conditional. Maine, Massachusetts, and a small number of other states historically retained modified forms longer than most. English law formally abolished fee tail under the Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996. Researchers must identify the controlling statute in the relevant jurisdiction and its effective date before interpreting tail language in historical instruments.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
Note: The Law Mind Insurance Law Encyclopedia contains an entry on tail coverage in the insurance context (Policy Period, Retroactive Dates, and Extended Reporting Periods — insurance_13). That entry addresses a wholly distinct concept: extended reporting periods under claims-made liability policies. The word "tail" is coincidental. No Law Mind Encyclopedia entry on fee tail or estates in land is identified in the available index; researchers should consult the property law materials directly.