Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/298

 Chap. VIII. OF MANCHE:U'E K. #J ; them in due fubordiination to the Pen-cen$d1, the head of the' family or manour, and the eldeft legitimate line of the barony 5 % this common law of inheritances was coeval undoubtedly with the commencement bf the Britifh feuds, as ic refulted evidently from the fame military precautions with them. Thus if the furyivor of a feudatory could not immediately execute the fer- vices due to the king for the fee, it was regularly retained in the king's pofleflion till he was abfolutely able ". Thus if the pof* £bflbr of a fyd left one fon perfect and another imperfect in his bodily functions, the former, whither he was legitimate or illegi* timate, became thef proprietor of the patrimony, becaufe (as the law exprefsly fubjdins) Hie latter could not execute the fervrrad due to the ibvereign for the fee in the foruifc and in the field. Founded upon theie firft fixed principles of the feudal fyftem* gavelkind continued univerfel in Wiles and in Ireland evfen nearly to the preftfnt period. In Ireland, the uiage was iini~. formly obferved to the very recent and very ftgnari; epochal in its civil hiftory,. the regular fetttement of the whole frame- of the Englifh polity in Ireland by the prudence and authority of Jfltnes the firft., In Wales, a ftatute of the rath of Edward the firft peh&frteu thd aritient'ftem to continue rowed iii its,n2k tive foiU but lopped its fwo principal branches away, the ad* million of baftards to the inheritance and die prfccfeifion of females from it. And a ftatute of the 34th — 35thof Henry the eighth forever levelled the reverend trunk to the ground, all the lands in Waiea being' then required t£be holcfen " as Engltih temitfc to ail in- " tents according" to; the common laws of this' reilm .of Bag* " tend;" ' > : . Thd law of gavelkind was confined merely to the defcent of private inheritances,, It did not motjnt up to the xhrorie. it cdulcl riot. TJte whole defign of the inftitutio» being; the better difcWge'o£'rtfe military duties 1 to the crown, the inherited of the king. cofolil 'not ffoffibly be affe^ed by it. And accordingly; in dir.e& contradiction to a fundamental principle of gafcdkind, 1 have ppeviotrfty - fhewn one of the royal' family to Jtwe r$g.u* t larl^fjicfceedetf itiithe thrpne-hy a peenliar and esteiwfiye pshrit " M m a lege; / /