As has been said, Borough English was in vogue all around London--at
Lambeth, Vauxhall, Croydon, Streatham, Leigham Court, Shene or Richmond,
Isleworth, Sion, Ealing, Acton, and Earl's Court. In some of these
places--Fulham, Wimbledon, Battersea, Wandsworth, Barnes and
Richmond--the "yonger holding" descended not only to males but to
females; and at Lambeth (and at Kirton-in-Lindsey, in Lincolnshire)
there existed the identical arrangement which has been found at
Braunton, in Devon. This equal division between daughters Mr. Shore
regards as an "intermediate stage between Borough English and
Gavelkind." The latter is distinctively the "custom of Kent," and
signifies that the land was "partible," and inherited by the sons in
equal shares, the youngest son retaining the homestead, and making
compensation to his brethren for this addition to his share. Borough
English and gavelkind, therefore, though not the same, are near akin;
and it is an interesting question which of the two was prior to the
other. It may be that gavelkind is the older, and that Borough English
is a remnant or distortion of what appears, on the face of it, a more
equitable condition of things. On the other hand, gavelkind may have
been, so to speak, grafted on a more simple usage which the community,
through change of circumstances, had outgrown, and had ceased to possess
the same justification as at first.
Why should the youngest son take the inheritance? One explanation is
that he was presumed to be least able to provide for himself.
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