GAV'ELKIND. Lappenberg. who, though a foreigner, when indorsed. by his trans lator Thorpe, may be considered as the very highest authority on the subject of English social antiquities, thus speaks of the custom of gavelkind: "A fact worthy of notice is the existence down to recent times of the old British law of succession in Wales, Kent, and some parts of Northumberland, called gavelkind. As far as we are enabled to understand it, in its mixture with Anglo-Saxon law, all the sons of the father in. herited, but the youngest possessed. the homestead; the eldest, or the next following capable of bearing arms, had the heriot—that is, the arms offensive and defensive of his father, and his horse. Even the son of an outlaw could not he deprived of the entire succession, but of the half only" (vol. i. p. 39). Though a Celtic origin is here, as by Blackstone (Stephen, iv. ,p. 648), probably with reason, ascribed to this tenure, it seems to be the general opinion of legal AutititOrieS (Selden, Analect. L 2, 'c. 7; Stephen, vol.
i. 213) that it prevailed over, the whole kingdom in Anglo-Saxon times, and that in Rent and elsewhere it was among the " liberties" which the people were permitted to retain at the conquest. Most of the many derivations which have been suggested for the word
are, moreover, Teutonic —of cal cyn, equivalent to Lord Coke's gave ad hinde, or the custom which gives to all children alike, being the most probable. In Wales, gavelkind obtained universally till the time of Henry VIII. (34 and 35 Henry VIII. c. 26), and in some parts of England it is not yet abolished. In Kent, all lands that have not been disgaveled by act of parliament, are held to be gavelkind—a fact which ought to be borne in mind in all transactions with Kentish property. In addition to the charac teristics of this tenure already noticed, Blackstone mentions the following; "1. The tenant is of age sufficient to alien his estate by feoffment at the age 2. The estate does not escheat in case of an attainder for felony; their maxim being, "the father to the bough, the son to the plough." * 3. In most places, the tenant had a power of devising lands by will before the statute authorizing the devise of lands generally was made."