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estate in fact came to him by descent from his father, mother, or any higher ancestor, there is this difference, that the blood of that line of ancestors, from which it did not descend, can never inherit, as was formerly fully explained.d And the like rule as is there exemplified will hold upon descents from any other

ancestors.

The student should also bear in mind, that, during this whole process, John Stiles is the person supposed to have been last actually seized of the estate; for if ever it comes to vest in any other person as heir to John Stiles, a new order of succession must be observed upon the death of such heir; since ne, by his own seizin, now becomes himself an ancestor, or stipes, and must be put in the place of John Stiles. The figures, therefore, denote the order in which the several classes would succeed to John Stiles, and not to each other; and before we search for an heir in any of the higher figures (as No. 8), we must be first assured that all the lower classes (from No. 1 to No. 7) were extinct at John Stiles's decease.13

d See page 236.

(43) The law of descent has been ited the same; and in like manner, the Descent materially altered by the stat. 3 & 4 last person from whom the land shall subsequent Will. IV., c. 106, which applies to all be proved to have been inherited shall to 1833 (3 & descents happening, and to all limita- in every case be considered to have 4 Will. IV., tions contained in assurances made, or been the purchaser, unless it shall be c. 106). in wills of persons dying, after the 31st proved that he inherited the same." of Dec., 1833, and to every kind of (Sect. 2.) property, and every estate and right In the interpretation clause with descendible to heirs, whether according which the act commences, the word to the common law of England, or by "purchaser" is defined to mean "the the custom of gavelkind, or Borough person who last acquired the land English, or any other custom (s. 1, 11, otherwise than by descent, or than by 22), the alterations being, in fact, of any escheat, partition, or inclosure, by such rules of law only as were equally the effect of which the land shall have applicable to common law and to cus- become part of or descendible in the tomary descents. same manner as other land acquired by descent."

Adopting the method of Blackstone, the canons of descent, according to the new law, may be thus stated:

And the same clause defines the person last entitled to be "the last person who had a right thereto, whether he 1. The descent shall be traced from did or did not obtain the possession or the last purchaser, or the last person the receipt of the rents and profits entitled to the land who can not be proved thereof." to have inherited it.

Thus, the effect of seizin in making The words are, "That in every case an heir the stock of descent is entirely descent shall be traced from the pur- abolished. But the hardship which chaser; and, to the intent that the ped- that rule occasionally gave rise to may igree may never be carried further back frequently (and especially in cases govthan the circumstances of the case and erned by the custom of gavelkind) be the nature of the title shall require, the replaced by another, which does not person last entitled to the land shall, for seem to have been foreseen by the legthe purposes of this act, be considered islature. The inconvenience alluded to to have been the purchaser thereof, un- may be thus illustrated: Suppose John less it shall be proved that he inherited Stiles to purchase an estate, and to die the same, in which case the person from leaving three daughters, Anne, Jane, whom he inherited the same shall be and Mary, his only issue. They will considered to have been the purchaser, take each one third. Then, suppose unless it shall be proved that he inher- Anne to die, without having disposed

4. That a relation of the whole blood, and his or her issue, shall be preferred to a relation of the same degree of the half blood, and his or her issue.

of her share, and leaving a son, James. sequence of there being no descendant Here the question is, Who is to inherit of such lineal ancestor; so that the fa the one third to which Anne was enti ther shall be preferred to a brother or tled? Under the old law, if Anne had sister, and a more remote lineal ances died seized, her son would have taken tor to any of his issue, other than a the whole, and this would accord with nearer lineal ancestor, or his issue." our common notions of justice and con- (Sect. 6.) venience. But now the descent is to be traced from the last purchaser, that is to say, the person or persons to inherit is the heir or heirs of the last purchaser, who, in the case supposed, are Jane, Mary, and James, the representatives of Anne; so that Jan.es, instead of inheriting his mother's estate, only gets one third of it, or one ninth of the original estate purchased by his grandfather. If James were now to die in the lifetime of his aunts, leaving a son, such son would take one twenty-seventh only of the original estate; and by other events which might easily happen, the estate would become divided in a very intricate manner.

The words are, "That any person related to the person from whom the descent is to be traced, by the half blood, shall be capable of being his heir, and the place in which any such relation by the half blood shall stand in the order of inheritance shall be next after any relation in the same degree of the whole blood and his issue, where the common ancestor shall be a male; and next after the common ancestor, where

blood, on the part of the father, shall inherit next after the sisters of the whole blood on the part of the father and their issue, and the brother of the half blood, on the part of the mother, shall inherit next after the mother." (Sect. 9.)

such common ancestor shall be a feAnother inconvenience which the male; so that the brother of the half new law may give occasion to, though, on account of the frequent settlements and sales of estates, it is not so likely to occur as the former, is the length of the pedigree required to establish an heirship, where an estate has descended through several generations, and the uncertainty which must exist as to the This clause is rendered obscure by an true heir, whenever the original pur- attempt at explanation or precision that chaser can not be ascertained. The would have been quite superfluous had Real Property Commissioners, upon the clause preceded instead of followwhose First Report this act was mainly ing the 7th and 8th sections, which founded, recommended that the de- place the collateral relations next after scent should be traced from the person the male ancestor from whom they delast entitled, whether his title arose by purchase or descent, and whether he had acquired a seizin or not; and it is to be regretted that this rule was not adopted.

2. That inheritances shall lineally descend to the issue of the last purchaser.

3. That on failure of issue of the last purchaser, the inheritance shall go to his nearest lineal ancestor, or his issue; the ancestor taking in preference to his issue, but so that a nearer lineal ancestor and his issue are to be preferred to a more remote lineal ancestor and his issue other than such nearer lineal ancestor or his issue.

The words are, "That every lineal ancestor shall be capable of being heir to any of his issue; and in every case where there shall be no issue of the purchaser, his nearest lineal ancestor shall be his heir, in preference to any person who would have been entitled to inherit, either by tracing his descent through such lineal ancestor, or in con

rive that relationship, and also provide
that the female ancestors are not to be
resorted to until the male line is ex-
hausted. By the 6th section, such fe-
male ancestor is to take in preference
to her issue; from which it follows, that
(as all the descendants of a female an-
cestor, who are of the whole blood to
the purchaser, are also descendants of
the male ancestor, and must therefore
have been already exhausted before the
female ancestor is resorted to) her de
scendants of the half blood, being the
only collateral relations left, must take
immediately after her. In other words
the collateral relations of the half blood
take after the common ancestor, wheth-
er male or female, by virtue of the ex-
press enactment in the 6th section; they
take, also, after the collateral relations
in the same degree of the whole blood
by the enactment in the 9th section;
and because before the female ancestor
can be resorted to there must be a fail-
ure of collateral relations of the whole
blood, they take immediately after her.
See the annexed table, numbers 15 and

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This Table exhibits the course of Descent prior to the year 1834.

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Grar

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20; 28 and 33; 12 and 25; 8, 9, and 38, 39; 42 and 55; 45 and 50; and 58 and 63.

5. Each male ancestor and his ancestors, whether male or female, and his and their issue, shall be preferred to all other female ancestors and their ancestors, whether male or female, and their issue. The words are, "That none of the maternal ancestors of the person from whom the descent is to be traced, nor any of their descendants, shall be capable of inheriting until all his paternal ancestors and their descendants shall have failed; and also, that no female paternal ancestor of such person, nor any of her descendants shall be capable of inheriting until all his male paternal ancestors and their descendants shall have failed; and that no female maternal ancestor of such person, nor any of her descendants, shall be capable of inheriting until all his male maternal ancestors and their descendants shall have failed." (Sect. 7.)

"That where there shall be a failure of male paternal ancestors of the person from whom the descent is to be traced, and their descendants, the mother of his more remote male paternal ancestor, or her descendants, shall be the heir or heirs of such person, in preference to the mother of a less remote male paternal ancestor or her descendants; and where there shall be a failure of male maternal ancestors of such person and their descendants, the mother of his more remote male maternal ancestor, and her descendants, shall be the heir or heirs of such person, in preference to the mother of a less remote male maternal ancestor and her descendants."

ute) by which a person taking property by descent may acquire a new estate therein by purchase, and thus, breaking the descent, as it was termed, make himself, for all purposes, the original root of descent. Thus, formerly, if a person taking an estate by descent from his mother did certain acts, and died without issue, his heir would have been sought among his paternal collateral relations; and now, if a parcener does certain acts, her son may inherit to the whole of her share; or, generally, if an heir does any of the acts referred to, or even acquires his estate originally in a certain manner, he makes himself the purchaser or person from whom the de scent is to be traced.

Before the recent statute, in order to break the descent in this manner, the heir must have lost his old estate, and acquired a new estate in the land; and if he merely conveyed away the whole fee, and limited back an estate to himself and his heirs, or to his heirs alone in fee-simple, either at common law, or by way of use, the descent was not changed; for so much as was limited back was the old reversion, and a man could not purchase of himself; à fortiori, if he simply disposed of a particular estate, leaving the reversion in himself. (Co. Litt., 22, b; 3 Lev., 406; 1 B. & Cr., 448; 2 P. Wms., 135.) But if he once allowed the legal inheritance to vest in another, though but for a single minute (unless as a mere release to uses), and subsequently acquired the estate by reconveyance, it was "otherwise. (Co. Litt., 12, b; 7 T. R., 103.) If rent was reserved upon a conveyance in fee, this was no part of the reversion, and descended as an estate by purchase; but when a reversion in the land was also reserved, the rent follow

6. That the male issue shall be admit- ed the reversion. (Co. Litt., 12, b.) ted before the female.

7. That when there are two or more males in equal degree, the eldest only shall inherit; but the females altogether.

8. That (subject to the third rule) a parent shall be preferred to his issue; but the issue in infinitum of any person deceased shall represent their ancestor; that is, shall stand in the same place as he would have done had he been living.

Under the old law, the heir must have been of the blood of the last purchaser; and under the new law, the person to take by descent is to be the heir of the last purchaser; but there always have been means (the list of which has been augmented by the recent stat.

If land inherited ex parte materna was conveyed in fee, with a condition that the grantor or his heirs might enter in certain events, this condition was said to descend to the heir ex parte paternâ, who alone could take advantage of it; but if he entered, it was for the benefit of the heir ex parte maternâ, who might enter upon him. (9 H. VII., 24, b; Co. Litt., 12, b; Plowd., 57.) And this doctrine (though questioned by Mr. Preston, 2 Abstr., 427) seems to be well established. In the same manner, upon a feoffment in fee of gavelkind land with a condition, the heir at common law alone could re-enter, but for the benefit of his coparceners. (Moor, 113.) So in the case put by Lord Coke of a feoffment on condition by the husband of tenant in fee. (1st Inst., 202, a.) But

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