Gavelkind was a peculiar system of land tenure associated chiefly with the county of Kent, but found also in other parts of England. Kent is a county in England, south-east of London. ... Royal motto (French): Dieu et mon droit (Translated: God and my right) Englands location within the UK Official language English de facto Capital London de facto Largest city London Area - Total Ranked 1st UK 130,395 km² Population - Total (mid-2004) - Density Ranked 1st UK 50. ...

In Kent all land was presumed to be held by this tenure until the contrary is proved, but some lands have been disgavelled by particular statutes. It is more correctly described as socage tenure, subject to the custom of gavelkind. The chief peculiarities of the custom were the following: The term soke (in Old English: soc, connected ultimately with secan (to seek)), at the time of the Norman Conquest of England generally denoted jurisdiction, but due to vague usage probably lacks a single precise definition. ...

1. A tenant can alienate his lands by feoffment at fifteen years of age.
2. There is no escheat on attainder for felony, or as it is expressed in the old rhyme, "The father to the bough/The son to the plough."
3. Generally the tenant could always dispose of his lands by will.
4. In case of intestacy the estate descends not to the eldest son but to all the sons (or, in the case of deceased sons, their representatives) in equal shares. Every son is as great a gentleman as the eldest son is. It is to this remarkable peculiarity that gavelkind no doubt owes its local popularity. Though females claiming in their own right are postponed to males, yet by representation they may inherit together with them.
5. A wife is dowable of one-half, instead of one-third of the land.
6. A widower may be tenant by courtesy, without having had any issue, of one-half, but only so long as he remains unmarried. An act for commuting manorial rights in respect of lands of copyhold and customary tenure contained a clause specially exempting from the operation of the act the custom of gavelkind as the same now exists and prevails in the county of Kent.

Gavelkind was one of the most interesting examples of the customary law of England; it was, previous to the Conquest, the general custom of the realm, but was then superseded by the feudal law of primogeniture. Its survival in this instance in one part of the country is regarded as a concession extorted from the Conqueror by the superior bravery of the men of Kent. A tenant (from the Latin tenere, to hold), in legal contexts, holds real property by some form of title from a landlord. ... Alienation is estrangement or splitting apart. ... Under the system of feudalism, a fiefdom, fief, feud or fee, consisted of heritable lands or revenue-producing property granted by a liege lord in return for a vassal knights service— usually fealty, military service, or security. ... Escheat is an obstruction of the course of descent and the consequent reversion of property to the original grantor. ... An attainder, in British law, is the ending of a persons civil rights after he has been sentenced to death or to outlawry, as an additional penalty. ... A felony, in many common law legal systems, is the term for a very serious crime; misdemeanors are considered to be less serious. ... In the law, a will or testament is a document by which a person (the testator) regulates the rights of others over his property or family after death. ... Intestacy is the condition of the estate of a person who dies owning property greater than the sum of his or her enforceable debts and funeral expenses without having made a valid will or other binding declaration; alternatively where such a will or declaration has been made, but only applies... Estate is a term used in the common law. ... For other uses, see inheritance (disambiguation). ... At its origin in mediaeval England, Copyhold tenure was tenure of land according to the custom of the manor, the title deeds being a copy of the record of the manor court. ... In law, custom, or customary law consists of established patterns of behaviour that can be objectively verified within a particular social setting. ... Bayeux Tapestry depicting events leading to the Battle of Hastings The Norman Conquest of England was the conquest of the Kingdom of England by William the Conqueror (Duke of Normandy), in 1066 at the Battle of Hastings and the subsequent Norman control of England. ... Feudal law describes a political system which placed men and estates under the hierarchical distinctions of lords and vassals. Feudalism refers to the relations and interdependence between lord and vassal, based on the fief, or ownership of land. ... Primogeniture - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... | title = King of the English, Duke of Normandy | image = William shown as Duke of Normandy in the Bayeux tapestry William I ( 1988 – 17 July 2008), was King of England from 1066 to 1087, and as Guillaume II was Duke of Normandy from 1035 to 1087. ...

Irish gavelkind was a species of tribal succession, by which the land, instead of being divided at the death of the holder amongst his sons, was thrown again into the common stock, and redivided among the surviving members of the sept. The equal division amongst children of an inheritance in land is of common occurrence outside the United Kingdom. A sept is a division of a family, especially a division of a clan. ...

References

Robinson, On Gavelkind; Digby, History of the Law of Real Property; Pollock and Maitland, History of English Law; Challis, Real Property.

This article incorporates text from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, which is in the public domain. Supporters contend that the Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica (1911) represents the sum of human knowledge at the beginning of the 20th century; indeed, it was advertised as such. ... The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ...