from
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856)
SHELLEY'S CASE. This case, reported in 1 Rep. 93, contains a rule usually
known as the rule in Shelley's case, which has caused more commentaries
perhaps than any other case. It has been expressed with great precision,
though not with much elegance, to be "in any instrument, if a freehold be
limited to the ancestor for life, and the inheritance to his heirs, either
mediately or immediately, the first taker takes the whole estate; if it be
limited to the heirs of his body, he takes a fee tail; if to his heirs a fee
simple." Co. Litt. 376, b and Mr. Butler's note, 1; 3 Binn. R. 139 1 Day,
Rep. 299; 1 Prest. on Estates, ch. 3; 4 Kent, Com. 206; Cruise, Dig. tit.
32, c. 22; 2 Yeates, R. 410; 1 Hargr. Law Tracts, article "Observations
concerning the rule in Shelley's case, chiefly with a view to the
application of that rule in Last Wills;" 5 Ohio R. 465.