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gavelkind

   Also found in: Dictionary/thesaurus, Legal, Wikipedia, Hutchinson 0.02 sec.
gavelkind (găv`əlkīnd) [M.E.,=family tenure], custom of inheritance of lands held in socage tenure tenure, in law, manner in which property in land is held. The nature of tenure has long been of great importance, both in law and in the broader economic and political context.
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, whereby all the sons of a holder of an estate in land share equally in such lands upon the death of the father. Most of the lands in England were held in gavelkind tenure prior to the Norman Conquest in 1066, and the custom of dividing lands among the male heirs is still preserved in parts of England, notably the county of Kent. This system of inheritance of lands is to be contrasted with borough-English borough-English, a custom of inheritance in parts of England whereby land passed typically to the youngest son in preference to his older brothers. Of Anglo-Saxon origin, the custom was abolished by law in 1925.
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 and primogeniture primogeniture, in law, the rule of inheritance whereby land descends to the oldest son. Under the feudal system of medieval Europe, primogeniture generally governed the inheritance of land held in military tenure (see knight).
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They asserted that Henry's claim to the lands trumped hers because of the custom of gavelkind, an ancient form of land tenure that still survived mainly in Kent.
 
 
 
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