Estates Tail Act 1853

If any person – being protector of a settlement shall be a convict as defined by the Criminal Code; or not being the owner of a prior estate under a settlement, shall be protector of such settlement, and shall be an infant, or it shall be uncertain whether such last-mentioned person be living or dead – the Court shall be the protector of such settlement in lieu of such person.

If any settlor entailing lands shall, in the settlement by which the lands shall be entailed, declare that the person who as owner of a prior estate under such settlement would be entitled to be protector of the settlement shall not be such protector, and shall not appoint any person to be protector in his stead, the Court shall, as the lands in which such prior estate shall be subsisting, be the protector of the settlement during the continuance of such estate.

If in any other case where there shall be subsisting under a settlement an estate prior to an estate tail under the same settlement, and such prior estate shall be sufficient to qualify the owner thereof to be protector of the settlement, and there shall happen at any time to be no protector of the settlement as to the lands in which the prior estate shall be subsisting, the Court shall, while there shall be no such protector, and the prior estate shall be subsisting, be the protector of the settlement as to such lands.