GAVEL KIND (Gafoleund; Gaful-gecynd. Vinogradoff, Engl. Soc.). The tenure by which almost all lands in England were held prior to the Conquest, and which is still pre served in Kent.
All the sons of a tenant of gavelkind lands take equally, or their heirs male and female by representation. The wife of such tenant is dowable of one-half the lands. The hus band of such tenant has curtesy, whether Is sue be born or not, but only of one-half while without issue. Such lands do not escheat, except for treason or want of heirs. The heir of such lands may sell at fifteen years old, but must himself give livery, The rule as to division among brothers in default of sons is the same as among the sons. Digb. R. P. 46. The youngest son took the hearth. Vin ogradoff, Engl. Soc. 92.
Coke derives gavelkind from "gave all kinde ;" for this gave to all the sons alike ; 1 Co. Litt. 140 a; Lambard, from gavel, rent,—that Is, land of the kind that pays rent or customary husbandry work, in distinction from lands held by knight serv ice. Perambulations of Kent, 1656, p. 585.
There have been many suggested deriva tions of gavelkind. The true derivation con nects it with the old English WO, or gav el, which means rent or customary perform ance of agricultural services. The tenant was called gwvaman, and gavelkind, a com pound of gavel and gekynde (kind, quality), meant land of the kind which yielded rent, as distinguished from knight service land held by free military tenure. No doubt in earlier days It denoted land held by this particular tenure, but later it came to be used as the name for the custom by which lands in Kent are, in the absence of proof to the contrary, presumed to be affected, and sometimes in later law to express the fact that lands, in Kent or elsewhere, were divided between male heirs on the death of the ancestor. 3 Holdsw. Hist. E. L. 224. See Robinson, Gavelkind.
See Encyc. Brit.; Blount ; 1 Bla. Com. 74; 2 id. 84; 4 id. 408; 1 Poll. & Maiti. 165; 2 id. 269, 416.