ABSTRACT

The rules of descent of freehold and copyhold land in cases of intestacy naturally give rise to the assumption that in wills too boys were preferred in the distribution of the family land. If the different patterns in Yorkshire and more southern counties cannot be explained by the local economy and manorial customs of inheritance, they may result from a more widespread regional tradition. Land may have been more commonly given to daughters throughout England in the middle ages. If girls with brothers were not normally given land in their fathers' wills, it is important to bear in mind that girls did inherit land, but through more circuitous routes than boys. Even where land was devised it may not have been the principal holding; often it was smaller pieces acquired for younger sons or daughters. Land was rarely described by its acreage, and almost never by the manner in which it was held.