DESCENT. 
= third rule of defcent is, *' that where there are 
ore males in equal degree. the e'deft only fhall in- 
bere: ; = the females alt together.”? The right of primo- 
oo in males feems anciently only to a obtained 
the Jews, in whofe conftitution the eldeft fon had a 
double portion of the inheritance e Greeks, Romans, 
Britons, Saxons, and even originally the fendifts, divided 
oe 
ll ba 
neal defcendents, in es of any fon deceafed, thall 
d in the fame ha as aes 
Margaret 
lotte, and Margaret dies. leaving (ix daughters; and then 
John Stiles tne father of the two aie dies, without other 
iffue: thefe fix daughters fhall take among them exadly 
the fame as their mother sek dale would have done, had fhe 
of the lands of John Stiles 
if the land 
fifter {hall tive "fix, and her fix nieces, the daugh ters of Mar- 
This is called fucceflion in flirpes, ac- 
; fince all the branches inherit the fame 
they reprefent, would have 
The jase (ucceffion was direGed in the fame man- 
man fomewhat differed from it. This rule 
of the blood of the firft purchafer ; fubje& to the preceding 
rules.”? This rule was entirely unknown among the Jews, 
f Normandy is the 
Greeks, and Romans; but the ) 
fame with our’s in as refpe&t ; both being derived 
fame feodal origin 
from the 
eftate hath really defcended i ina 
oi the feodal law is obferved ; 
the heirs of thofe through whom the inheritance hath paffed ; 
for all others have demonftrably none of the blood of the 
firft purchafer in them, and therefore fhall never fucceed. 
As, if lands come to John Stiles by defcent from his mother - 
Lucy Baker, no relation of his father (as fuch) thall ever 
be his heir ‘of thefe lands; and, vice verfd, if they defcended 
his ae Geoffrey Stiles, no relation of his mother (as 
ver be admitted thereto; for his father’s kin- 
relations an i. fha: 
eftate defcended from his father’s father, George Stiles, 
“thofe anceftors, from whom ye ed to-the 
late propricter, But os eek length of time, . it can 
trace it no further 3 or if it be not known whether his 
that his grandfather was the fir gran 
the general law) asa feud of indetimte antiquity ; in cither 
of thefe cafes the law adinits the defcendants of any ancef- 
tor of George Stiles, either paternal or maternal, to be in 
their due order the heirs to John Stules of this eftate; bee 
caufe in the firft cafe it is really uncertain, and in the fecond 
cafe it is fuppofed to be uncertain, whether the grandfather 
of ccurfe, to the mother, or any other real or see 
chafing anceftor) ‘ fhall alfo be heir to the fon ;’? a maxim 
that will hold univerfally, except in the cafe of ‘ brother op 
fifter of the half-blood, which exception depends upon very- 
{pecial grounds. 
The fixth rule is, ‘ that the collateral heir of the perfon 
laft feifed muft be his next collateral kinfman, of the whole: 
ee of epee press a in a hae law on th 
n the canon and c n the other. 
an confangu nt se ie with refpe& to fucceflion, 
and therein very naturally confiders a the perfon deceafed, 
whom the relati lai 
ati herefore counts the 
degrees of kindred according to fh number of perfons 
ough whom the claim muit be derived from 3 an 
ey 
reckoning the degrees from him; fo that the great nephew 
is related in the third canonical “degree to the. perfon pro- 
pofed, and the firft coufin in es fecond ; 
es from the 
propofttus himfelf, being each of them diftant only two de- 
grees from the common anceltor (the grandfather of each) 
a therefore having one-half of each of thefe bloods the 
e common law regards sires principally 
with ‘refpea to dicots: and having therein € obje& 
= 
" 
i) 
ao) 
a 
7 
ed 
e fame end (thou ve degrees will be. differently nume- 
bered) whichever pales of computation we {uppofe the 
law: 
- 
