754 
DESCENT. 
bles of Confanguinity and Defcent, fee x Infi. Blackfi. 
Comment, and Watkins's Treatife on Defcent. 
i. The perfon dying feifed. 
o- o 
Fil'd fon.- 
n 
p, o 
513 
3 2. 
ft -5 
-Second fon. 
Firft fon.-Second fon. 
or 
Two daughters. 
2. The perfon dying feifed. 
*7) 
e. o 
<T> 3 
o>^ 
2 % 
Fird daughter.—Second daughter.—Third daughter. 
*71 
p. O 
3 
o 
°> ^ 
3 2 
v °*0 
3 
Two daughters. 
id fon.—2d fon. 
A daughter.—A fon. 
King John, however, who kept his nephew Arthur from 
the throne, by difputing this right of reprefentation, 
did all in his power to abolidi it throughout the realm. 
Hale'H. C. L. 217, 229. But in the time of his fon Hen. III. 
the rule was indifputably fettled in the manner here laid 
down, Bra£l.\. 2. c. 30 ; and lo it has continued ever iince. 
The fifth rule is, that, on failure of lineal defeendants, 
or ilfue of the perfon lad feifed, the inheritance fhal 1 
defeend to his collateral relations, being of the blood of 
the fird purchafor, fubjeft to the three preceding rules. 
Thus, if A. purchafe land, and.it defeend to B. his fon, 
who dies feifed thereof without iffue; whoever fucceeds 
to this inheritance mud be of the blood of A. the fird 
purchafor of this family. Co. Lit. 1 2. The fird purchafor, 
perquifitor, is he who fird acquired the edate to his family, 
whether the fame was transferred to him by fale or by 
gift, or by any other method, except only that of defcent. 
This is a rule almod peculiar to our own laws, and thofe 
of a fimilar feudal original; and this rule or canon can¬ 
not otherwife be accounted for than by recurring to feu¬ 
dal principles, which did not originally permit the defcent 
of lands to any but one of the lineal defeendants of the 
fird purchafor, who, in the cafe of a feudurn novum, or edate 
purchafed by the ancedor himfelf, could only be his own 
offspring; fo that fuch edate could not defeend even to 
his brother. See the article Tenures. But when the 
feodal rigour was in part abated, a method was invented 
to let in the collateral relations of the grantee to the in¬ 
heritance, by granting him a feudum novum to hold ut-feu- 
dum antiquum ; that is, with all the qualities annexed of 
a feud derived from his ancedors; anti then the collate¬ 
ral relations were admitted to fucceed even in infinitum, 
becaufe they might have been of the blood of, that is, 
cklbended from, the fil'd imaginary purchafor. 
Of this nature are all the grants of fee-fimple edates 
of this kingdom; for there is now, in the law of England, 
no fuch thing as a grant of a feudum novum, to be held ut 
novum ; unlefs in the cafe of a fee-tail, and there this rule 
is ftriftly obferved, and none but the lineal defeendants 
of the fird donee (or purchafor) are admitted ; but every 
grant of lands in fee-fimple, is with us a feudum novum , 
to be held ut antiquum, as a feud wliofe antiquity is inde¬ 
finite : and therefore the collateral kindred of the grantee, 
or defeendants from any of his lineal ancedors, by whom 
the lands might podibly have been purchafed, are Capa¬ 
ble of being called to the inheritance. Yet, when ail 
edate hath really defeended in a courfe of inheritance to 
the perfon lad feifed, the drift rule of the feudal law is 
dill obferved ; and none are admitted, but the heirs of 
thofe through whom the inheritance hath palled; for all 
others have demondrably none of the blood of the fird 
purchafor in them, and therefore lhall never fucceed. 
As, if lands come to A. by defcent from his mother, no 
relation of his father (as fuch) diall ever be his heir of 
thefe lands; and, vice vetfa, if they defeended from his 
father, no relation of his mother (as fuch) fhal 1 ever 
be admitted thereto; for his father’s kindred have none 
of his mother’s blood; nor have his mother’s relations 
any diare of his father’s blood. And fo, if the efiate de¬ 
feended from his father’s father, the relations of his fa¬ 
ther’s mother (hall, for the fame reafon,' never be admit¬ 
ted, but only thofe of his father’s father. Hence the 
exprelfion heir at law mud always be tiled with reference 
to a fpecific efiate : for if an only child has taken by de¬ 
fcent an efiate from his father, and another from his mo¬ 
ther ; upon his death, without idue, thefe eftates will 
defeend to two different perfons. So alio, if his two 
grandfathers and two grandmothers had each an efiate, 
which delcended to his father or mother, being only 
children, then thefe four eftates will defeend to four dif¬ 
ferent heirs. 2 Comm. 222. inn. 
This then is the great and general principle upon 
which the law of collateral inheritances depends ; that, 
upon failure of ilfue in the laft proprietor, the efiate 
diall defeend to the blood of the fil'd: purchafor; or, that 
it diall refult back to the heirs of the body of that an- 
ceftor,' from whom it either really has, or is fuppofed by 
fiftion of law to have originally defeended : according to 
the rule laid down, “ That he who would have been 
heir to the father of the deceafed, (and of courfe to the 
mother, or any other real or fuppofed purchafing ancef- 
tor,) diall alfo be heir to the fon;” a maxim that will 
hold univerfally, except in the cafe of a brother or filter 
of the half-blood, which exception depends upon very 
fpecial grounds. 
The lixth rule, or canon, is, that the collateral heir 
of the perfon laft feifed, rnuft be his next collateral kinf- 
man, of the whole blood. Firft, he mud. be Ids next col¬ 
lateral kinfman, either perfonally, or jure reprefentationis ; 
which proximity is reckoned according to the canonical 
degrees of confanguinity. Therefore, the brother, being 
in the firft degree, he and his defeendants diall exclude 
the uncle and his ilfue, who is only in the fecond. And 
herein confifts the true reafon of the different methods of 
computing the degrees of confanguinity, in the civil law 
on the one hand, and in the canon and common laws on 
the other. When the paternal and maternal lines are 
both admitted to the inheritance, the moft remote colla¬ 
teral kinfman in the paternal line, will inherit before the 
neareft in the maternal. So that the exprelfion, that the 
collateral heir rauft be the next collateral kinfman, is 
qualified by the general rules of defcent, which prefer 
the male line to the female. The defignation of perfon, 
however, in feeking for the next of kin, will come to 
exaftly the fame end, (though the degrees will be diffe¬ 
rently numbered,) which ever method of computation 
we fuppofe the law of England to ufe ; fince the right of 
.reprefentation of the parent by the ilfue, is allowed to 
prevail 
