being joint-partners in the land. If the daughters are dead, leaving issue, such issue shall inherit the land; the eldest son of each taking his mother's share; or if no son, their daughters equally. As for example: if a man has three daughters, all of whom die in his life-time, the first leaving two sons, the second leaving two daughters, and the third a daughter and a son, the son being the youngest, his land shall be divided thus: onethird part to the eldest son of the first daughter, one other third part between the two daughters of the second daughter, as coparceners, and the remaining one-third to the son of the third daughter; it being another rule of law, relative to descents, that males are always to be preferred to females. Hale's Hist. of Com. Law, 235; 2 Bla. Comm. 213, et seq.

There are two estates, however, which prevent for a time (until they are determined) the descent of the whole estate to the heir immediately on the death of the ancestor, viz. tenancy by the curtesy, and tenancy in dower. A tenancy by the curtesy arises, where a man marries a woman seised of an estate, in fee-simple or fee-tail, and has issue by her. To make a tenancy by the curtesy, by which a man is entitled to remain in possession of the receipt of the rents and profits of the lands of which his wife died seised, these four requisites are necessary: 1, a canonical and legal marriage;

2, an actual seising and possession of the wife, and not a bare right to possess; 3, birth of the issue during the life of the mother; for, if the mother dies in labour, and the cæsarean operation is performed, the husband, in this case, cannot be tenant by the curtesy; and, 4, the death of the wife. Ibid. 127.

By a tenancy in dower, a woman is, during her life, and whether she has children by her husband or not, entitled to one-third part of all such lands as her husband was, at any time during the marriage, seised in fee-simple or fee-tail general: for, of an estate in land, held in fee-tail special, which is, where land is limited to descend to the issue of the father by some particular wife only, no other wife whatever, than the wife whose issue is to inherit, can be endowed. But to entitle a woman to dower, she must be the wife of the party at the time of his decease; and, therefore, if she is divorced a vinculo matrimonii, (from the band of marriage,) she has lost her right to dower. But a divorce a mensâ et thoro, or from bed and board only, does not destroy the dower; not even if it is for adultery itself, by the common law. And if a woman elopes from her husband, and lives in adultery, she forfeits her dower, unless her husband is voluntarily reconciled to her. The widows of aliens, and of persons attainted of treason, are also barred of their dower; but it is otherwise

with the widows of felons, and persons attainted of offences relating to the coin. 2 Ibid. 130.

If a man dies without any issue, the lands descend to his eldest brother of the whole blood, or his issue, in the order above prescribed, with respect to the issue of the owner of the land; or, in case of the death of his eldest brother without issue, then to his second, third, or other whole brothers, respectively, in order of birth, or to their issue. If he has no brothers, then to his sisters of the whole blood all together, or to their issue, subject to the same rules as above-mentioned, with respect to his daughters. If he has neither son nor daughter, brother nor sister, the land then goes to his eldest uncle, being the brother of his father, or his issue; and for want of such, to his other uncles by the father's side, or to their issue. In defect of all these, to his aunts on the father's side, equally among them all, in like manner as to his daughters or sisters. Ibid. 126.

But though land can ascend collaterally, as to uncles and aunts, yet it can never lineally ascend; that is, it can never go to the father or mother, grandfather or grandmother of the person dying, but shall rather escheat and become the property of the king, or the lord of the fee, for default of heirs. But it is to be remarked, in case the person dying was not himself the purchaser of the land, but that the estate, in fact, descended to him from

his father or mother, or any other ancestor, that the blood of that line of ancestors from whom the land did not descend, can never inherit. Thus, if the land descended from the father, the mother's relations, as such, can never inherit it; and, in like manner, the father's relations can never inherit land descended from the mother. Ibid. 218.

In the descent of lands, relations of the half blood only can never inherit, but are entirely deprived of any title whatsoever to the land by descent. Thus, if a man has two sons by different wives, and dies, and his first son takes the land, as heir to him, and dies without issue, the son by the other mother, being only his half brother, shall never inherit the land as heir to his brother. But notwithstanding relations of the half blood cannot inherit from each other, yet, if a man, possessed of fee-simple, dies, leaving a brother, and two sons by different wives, and that on the death of such elder son without issue, it descends to his uncle; in such case, if the uncle die without issue, the land shall from him descend to his nephew, the half brother of the son from whom it came to the uncle; to whom the nephew was heir of the whole blood, notwithstanding he could not inherit the land, as heir to his elder brother. Hale's H. C. L. 238; Bla. Comm. 227.

The above is the descent of estates according to the general law of the land. But particular places

are indulged with the privilege of customs of their own, which prevail in contradistinction to the rest of the nation at large. Of these customs is that of gavel-kind, chiefly subsisting in Kent, though it is to be found in other parts of the kingdom. By this custom, all the sons succeed alike to the inheritance; and though the ancestor may have been attainted and hanged, yet the heir shall succeed to the estate without any escheat to the lord. 1 Bla. Comm. 74; 2 Ibid. 84. And by this custom, the husband shall be tenant by the curtesy, without having any issue. Yet, curtesy by the custom of gavel-kind is subject to several disadvantages; for it is only of a moiety of the wife's lands, and it ceases if the husband marries again. Co. Lit. 30, n. Another of these customs is, that called borough-English, which prevails in many ancient boroughs; whereby the youngest son is entitled to inherit the land in preference to his elder brothers. And there are customs in other boroughs, that a widow shall be endowed of all her husband's lands. 1 Bla. Comm. 75.

2dly, As to Personal Estate.

Originally, the personal estate of every person dying intestate, passed by a kind of descent to his children; afterwards, by a Saxon law, the wife had her part. But, by degrees, during the reign of Henry I., John, and Henry III., the relations of the deceased, nay even his creditors, were excluded,