If at the time when there shall be a tenant in tail of lands under a settlement, there shall be subsisting in the same lands or any of them, under the same settlement, any estate for years determinable on the dropping of a life or lives, or any greater estate (not being an estate for years), prior to the estate tail, then the person who shall be the owner of the prior estate, or the first of such prior estates if more than one, then subsisting under the same settlement, or who would have been so if no absolute disposition thereof had been made, (the first of such prior estate, if more than one, being for all the purposes of this Act deemed the prior estate,) shall be the protector of the settlement so far as regards the lands in which such prior estate shall be subsisting, and shall for all the purposes of this Act be deemed the owner of such prior estate, although the same may have been charged or incumbered either by the owner thereof or by the settlor, or otherwise howsoever, and although the whole of the rents and profits be exhausted or required for the payment of the charges and incumbrances on such prior estate, and although such prior estate may have been absolutely disposed of by the owner thereof, or by or in consequence of the bankruptcy or insolvency of such owner, or by any other act or default of such owner; and that an estate by the curtesy, in respect of the estate tail, or of any prior estate created by the same settlement, shall be deemed a prior estate under the same settlement within the meaning of this clause; and that an estate by way of resulting use or trust to or for the settlor shall be deemed an estate under the same settlement within the meaning of this clause.