Page:Origin of the Anglo-Saxon Race.djvu/197

Rh primogeniture is the common law of succession in other parts of England, gavelkind, or partible inheritance, is the law in Kent. It has also been the custom to divide lands and other property in the same way as in Kent on a considerable number of large and small manors in other parts of the kingdom, but with this important difference: the custom is presumed by law to exist in all parts of Kent unless it is proved that the lands were disgavelled or changed in their tenure, while outside that county it must be proved to have existed as an ancient custom. The proof is not required in Kent, but is required outside of it. Relatively to the whole country, however, the custom prevails on comparatively few manors out of this county.

All the available evidence tends to show that Kent was settled chiefly by Goths and Frisians under the Jutish name. It is most probable that its peculiar customs were introduced into that part of England by the people who settled there, and were not a survival of old Celtic customs of the same kind. This could hardly have been the case, seeing that the word wealh, for a Welshman, does not occur in the ordinances of the Kentish Kings. Partible inheritance is a custom which was very widely spread in the ancient world, and it is only by considering the other customs which were incidental to it in any country or locality, and by a comparison of these incidental customs with those in other countries or localities, that its probable origin can be traced. As it existed in England, the custom was varied in many details. The partible inheritance or gavelkind of Kent, however, stands out distinct in some respects as the ‘custom of Kent.’ It differs from that which prevailed in Wales in three essential points: In Kent only legitimate sons were entitled to a share of the inheritance, in Wales all sons claimed their shares; in Kent daughters succeeded if there were no sons, in Wales they did not; in Kent the widow was entitled to