i.] DISTRIBUTION OF LAND IN ENGLAND. 83 



to the sale or division of his real estate, would, for 

 the most part, deprecate no less strongly than sale or 

 division, the exclusion of all members of his family 

 except an eldest son, from any interest in his free- 

 hold property. In old times the widow could not be 

 deprived of her dower, a life interest in ooe-third of 

 the lands, held in fee-simple or fee-tail, of her 

 husband, without her own consent, and the cum- 

 brous procedure in the Court of Common Pleas 

 called a fine ; but as this state of the law was found 

 inconvenient, in case it became desirable to sell the 

 land during the joint lives of the husband and wife, 

 conveyancers introduced a provision into purchase 

 deeds, which had the effect of depriving the wife of 

 her right to dower out of the purchased land ; and 

 they appear to have continued a similar practice, 

 although the Dower Act of 1834 rendered it wholly 

 unnecessary, because the sale of the land by the 

 husband was, by virtue of the Act, sufficient to dis- 

 place the right of the wife ; and thus the provision 

 which the law made for the widow, and which, of 

 course, often became a temporary provision for 

 younger children also, was needlessly swept away. 

 So that, on an intestacy taking place, the eldest son 

 generally excludes, not only the other children, but 

 the widow also, from all interest whatever in the 

 freehold property of his father, if the father has been 

 the purchaser; although if he has inherited it, only 

 the younger children are entirely excluded. 



G 2 



