is said that Faeminae non participabunt cum Masculis The Females shall not diuide with the Males whiche is to be vnderstoode of such as be in equall degrée of kinred as Brother and Sisters c. For if a man haue issue thrée Sonnes the Eldest haue issue a daughter dye in the lyfe of his Father and the Father dyeth In this case it is holden that the daughter shall ioyne with the two other Brethren her Vncles for that she is not in equall degrée with them as her Father was whose heire she neuerthelesse must be of necessitie And nowe thus muche being spoken touching the name tenure nature generalitie necessitie reason and order of Gauelkinde it is woorthie the labour to shew of what qualitie the Rents Remainders Conditions Vouchers Actions and such other things of the which some be issuing out of these landes some be annexed vnto them and some be raised by reason of them shal be In whiche behalfe it may generally be said that some of them shal ensue the nature of the Land and some shal kéepe the same course that common Lawe hathe appointed But in particular it is to be vnderstoode that if a Rent be graunted in Fée out of Gauelkinde land it shal descend to all the Males as the land it self shall do And Ald. and Chart. in 7. E. 3. were of opinion that albeit a tenancie be of Gauelkinde nature yet the rent seruice by whiche that tenancie is holden might well be descendable at the common Lawe The like shal be of a Remainder of Gauelkinde land for if it be tayled to the Heires Males they altogether shall inherite it as Fitzherb Norwiche two Iustices thought 26. H. 8. 8. But that is to be vnderstoode of a discent only for if landes of Gauelkind nature be leassed for life the Remainder to the righte Heires of I. at Stile Which hath issue foure Sonnes dieth after the Leassée for life dieth nowe the Eldest Sonne onely of I. at Stile shall haue this land for he is right Heire and that is a good name of purchase 37. H. 8. Done. 42. en Maister Brook But if the lands had béen giuen to I. at Stile for life the remainder to his next Heire Male this had béen an estate taile in I. S. himselfe and then the Land as I take it should haue discended to all his Sonnes in so muche as in that case the wordes next Heire Male be not a name of purchase Howbeit it was greatly doubted 3. 4. Phil. Mariae as Iustice Dalison reporteth if a remainder be deuised by Testament Proximo haeredi masculo whether in that case the Eldest Brother only shall haue it in so muche as in the vnderstanding of the Lawe whiche is a Iudge ouer all Customes he is the next Heire Male and therefore inquire of it As touching Vouchers it appeareth 11. E. 3. that all the Heires in Gauelkind shal be vouched for the warrantie of their auncestour and not the eldest only But the opinion of Maister Litleton and of the Iustices 22. E. 4. is clearely that the Eldest Sonne only shal be rebutted or barred by the warrantie of the auncestour To be short the Eldest Sonne only shall entrée for the breach of a condition but the rest of the Brethren shal be ioyned with him in suing a writte of Attaint to refourme a false verdit or errour to reuerse an erronious iudgement And they all shal be charged for the debte of their auncestour if so be that they all haue Assetz in their handes But if the eldest only haue Assetz remaining and the residue haue aliened their partes then he only shal be charged after the minde of the Book 11. E. 3. Det. 7. And this also for this part at this time shal suffise Now a word or twain touching the trial of right in this Gauelkind land then forward to the rest of my purpose There be at the cōmō law two sorts of trial in a writ of Right by Battaile and by the Graund Assise of the which two this Custome excludeth the one altereth the other For Battail it admitteth not at al the Graund assise it receaueth not by the election of 4. Knights but of 4. Tenants in Gauelkind as it may be read in the auncient treatise of the Customes of this Countrie But whē I speake of the treatise of the Customes you must know I mean not the which was lately imprinted but an other with much more faith diligēce long since exemplified a Copie wherof you shal finde at the end of this Booke For not only in this part the wordes Ne soient prises per battail be cleane omitted in the imprinted Booke but in sundrie other places also the wordes be mangled the sentences be curtailed and the meaning is obscured as by conferrence of the variations it may to any skilfull reader moste easily appeare But all that I will referre to the sight and iudgement of suche as will searche and examine it and retourning to my purpose shewe you what belongeth to the Lorde of this Gauelkinde land by reason of this Custome And for bicause the Prince is chiefe Lorde of all the Realme as of whome all landes within the same be either mediatly or immediatly holden let vs first sée what right by reason of this custome belongeth vnto him If Tenant in Fée simple of Landes in Gauelkinde commit fellonie and suffer the iudgement of death therfore the Prince shall haue all his Chattels for a forfaiture But as touching the Land he shall neither haue the Eschete of it though it be immediatly holden of him self nor the Day Yeare and Wast if it be holden of any other For in that case the Heire notwithstanding the offence of his auncestour shall enter immediatly enioye the landes after the same Customes and seruices by whiche they were before holden in assurance whereof it is commonly saide The Father to the Boughe The Sonne to the Ploughe But this rule holdeth in case of Felonie and of murder only and in case not of treason at all And it holdeth also in case where the offendour is iustified by order of Law and not where he withdraweth himselfe after the faulte committed and will not abide his lawfull triall For if suche a one absent himselfe after proclamation made for him in the Countie and be outlawed or otherwise if he take Sanctuarie and doe abiure the Realme then shall his Heire reape no benefite by this Custome but the Prince or the Lorde shall take their forfaiture in suche degrée as if the Landes were at the common lawe Whiche thing is apparant both by the Booke 8. E. 2. abridged by Maister Fitzherbert in his title of prescription 50. And by 22. E. 3. fol. Where it is saide that this Custome shall not be construed by equitie but by a straight and literal interpretation And also by the plaine rehersal of the saide treatise of
confesseth of the Kentish poultrie Parkes of fallow Déere and games of gray Conyes it maynteyneth many the one for pleasure and the other for profit as it may wel appeare by this that within memorie almost the one halfe of the first sorte be disparked and the number of warreyns continueth if it do not increase dayly As for red Déere and blacke Conyes it nourisheth them not as hauing no great walkes of wast grounde for the one and not tarying the tyme to rayse the gaine by the other for blacke conyes are kept partly for their skins which haue their season in Winter and Kent by the nearnesse to London hath so quicke market of yong Rabbets that it killeth this game chiefly in Summer There is no Mineral or other profit digged out of the belly of the earth here saue only that in certeine places they haue Mynes of Iron quarreys of pauing stone and pits of fat Marle The Sea and fresh waters yéelde good and wholesome fishes competently but yet neyther so muche in quantitie nor suche in varietie as some other coastes of the Realme do afoorde And here let vs for a season leaue the Sea and the Soyle and cast our eyes vpon the men The people of this countrie consisteth chieflly as in other countries also of the Gentrie and the yeomanrie of which the first be for the most parte 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gouernours and the other altogether 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gouerned whose possessions also were at the first distinguished by the names of knight fee and Gauelkinde that former being propre to the warriour and this latter to the husbandman But as nothing is more inconstant thē the estate that wee haue in lands and liuing if at the least I may call that an estate whiche neuer standeth Euen so long since these tenures haue ben so indifferētly mixed confounded in the hands of eche sorte that there is not now any note of differēce to be gathered by them The gentlemen be not héere throughout of so auncient stockes as else where especially in the partes nearer to London from whiche citie as it were from a certeine riche and wealthy séedplot Courtiers Lawyers Marchants be cōtinually translated do become new plants amongst them Yet be their reuenues greater then any where else whiche thing groweth not so muche by the quantitie of their possession or by the fertilitie of their soyle as by the benefit of the situation of the countrie it selfe whiche hath al that good neighbourhood that Marc. Cato and other olde authors in husbandrie require to a wel placed graunge that is to say the Sea the Riuer a populous citie and a well traded highway by the cōmodities wherof the superfluous fruites of the grounde be dearly sold and consequently the land may yéeld a greater rent These gentlemen be also for the most parte acquainted with good letters and especially trayned in the knowledge of the lawes They vse to manure some large portion of their owne territories as well for the maintenance of their families as also for their better increase in wealth So that they be well employed both in the publique seruice and in their own particular do vse hanking hunting and other disports rather for their recreation then for an occupation or pastime The yeomanrie or commmon people for so they be called of the Saxon word gemen which signifieth common is no where more free and ioily then in this shyre for besides that they them selues say in a clayme made by them in the time of King Edwarde the first that the cōmunaltie of Kent was neuer vanquished by the Conquerour but yéelded it selfe by composition And besides that Geruasius affirmeth that the forward in al battels belongeth to them by a certein préeminence in right of their manhood It is agréed by all men that there were neuer any bondmē or villaines as the law calleth thē in Kent Neither be they here so muche bounden to the gentrie by Copyhold or custumarie tenures as the inhabitantes of the westerne countries of the Realme be nor at all indaūgered by the féeble holde of tenant right which is but a discent of a tenancie at wil as the cōmon people in the Northren parts be for Copyhold tenure is rare in Kent and tenant right not heard of at al But in place of these the custome of Gauelkind preuayling euery where in manner euery man is a freeholder and hath some part of his own to liue vpon And in this their estate they please them selues and ioy excéedingly in so much as a man may find sundry yeomē although otherwise for wealth comparable with many of the gentle sort that will not yet for all that chaūge their condition nor desire to be apparayled with the titles of Gentrie Neither is this any cause of disdain or of alienation of the good myndes of the one sort from the other for no where else in al this realme is the commō people more willingly gouerned To be short they be most commonly ciuil iust bountiful so that the estate of the old franklyns yeomen of England eyther yet liueth in Kent or else it is quite dead departed out of the realme for altogether As touching the artificers of this shire they be either such as labour in the artes that be handmaidens to husbandry or els workers in stone Iron woodfuel or else makers of coloured woollē clothes in which last feat they excell as from whome is drawne both sufficient stoare to furnishe the weare of the best sort of our owne nation at home and great plentie also to be trāsported to other forreine countries abroad Thus muche I had summarily to say of the condition of the countrie and countrie men Nowe therfore God assisting myne enterprise I will goe in hande with the hystorie Wée read in the first booke of Moses that after suche time as the order of nature was destroyed by the generall floude and repaired again by the mercy of almighty God the whole earth was ouerspred in processe of time by the propagation of mankinde that came of the loines of Sem Cham and Iaphet By which authoritie we are throughly certified that all the nations of the worlde must of necessitie deriue their Pedegrées from the cuntrie of Chaldee or some place nighe vnto it where the Arke of Noah rested And therfore I will not here eyther doubt or debate to and fro as Caesar Cornel. tacit Polydore and others doe whether the first inhabitantes of this Ilande were Aliunde aduecti and aduenae that is translated and brought out of some other countrie to dwell here or no Or yet affirme as the same Caesar doth that some or as Diodor. Siculus writeth that all the Britanes weare indigenae the naturall borne people of that countrie and that ab origine euen from the first beginning for to take the one way of these or the other would but leade vs to
Kent toward London should arriue and make his first step on land in Rumney Marshe he shall rather finde good grasse vnder foote then holesome Aire aboue the head againe if he step ouer the Hylles and come into the Weald he shall haue at once the commodities bothe Caeli Soli of the Aire and the Earth But if he leaue that and climbe the next step of hilles that are betwéene him and London he shall haue woode and corne for his wealthe and toward the increase of his healthe if he séeke he shal finde Famem in agro lapidoso a good stomake in the stonie field No marueile it is therefore if Rumney Marshe be not thicke peopled séeing most men be yet still of Porcius Cato his minde who helde them starke madde that would dwell in an vnholsome Aire were the soyle neuer so good and fertile And this thing being well vnderstood to the estates of the Realme they vsed in Parleamentes to allure men hither by exemption from paiment of Subsidies and suche like charges wherewith the inhabitants of other places be burdened Neshe called in Saxon Nesse vvhiche signifieth a Nebbe or nose of the land extended into the Sea. THis Cape lyeth in Walland Marshe Southe from Rumney and is of the number of those places that Earle Godwine aflicted in the time of his banishment from hence he passed toward Londō and there by the help of his confederates shewed suche an assemblie that the Bishops and Noble men for verie feare became suters to the King for his peace and in the ende procured it Before this Neshe lyeth a flatte into the Sea threatning great daunger to vnaduised Saylers And nowe hauing thus viewed suche places a long the Sea shoare as auncient Hystories haue put me in remembraunce of I might readely take occasion bothe to recommend vnto you the vigilant studie of our Auncestors in prouiding for the defence of the Sea Coastes and withall shewe you a President or two of theirs conteining the assesse of suche particular Watche and Warde as they vsed there in the Reigne of King Edward the third in whose time also it was first ordered that Beacons in this Countrie should haue their pitche pots and that they should be no longer made of wood-stackes or piles as they be yet in Wilshire and elsewhere But because those assesses were not permanent and alwaies alike as not growing by reason of any tenure but arbitrable from time to time at the discretion of suche as it liked the Prince to set ouer the Countrie in time of warres And for that also we at this day God be thanked therfore haue besides the like watchefull indeuour of our present gouernours sundrie standing platformes as you haue séene erected to the very end mainteined at the continual charge of the Prince I will not here stand vpō that matter but forsaking the shore betake me Northward to passe along the Riuer Rother whiche diuideth this Shyre from Sussex where after that I shall haue shewed you Apledore Stone Newenden I wil pearce through the Weald to Medwey and so laboure to perfourme the rest of my purpose Apledore in Saxon Apultre in Latine Malus that is an Apletree IN the time of King Alfred that great swarme of the Danes whiche annoyed this Realme and found not here wherwith to satisfie the hungrie gut of their rauenous appetite brake their companie into twaine whereof the one passed into Fraunce vnder the conducte of Hasten and the other remained here vnder the charge of Guthrune This Hasten with his company landed in Pontein ranged ouer al Picardie Normandie Angeon Poieton and passed ouer Loire euen to Orleance killing burning and spoiling whatsoeuer was in his way in so muche that besides the pitifull butcherie committed vpon the people and the inestimable bootie of their goods taken away he consumed to ashes aboue nine hundreth religious houses and Monasteries This done he sent away .250 of his ships laden with riche spoile whiche came hither againe entring into the Riuer of Rother thē called as Leland wéeneth Lymen at the mouth wherof olde Winchelsey sometime stoode and by soudaine surprise tooke a small Castle that was foure or fiue miles within the land at Apultre as some thinke whiche bycause it was not of sufficient strength for their defence and conuerture they abated to the ground and raised a newe either in the same place or els not farre from it Shortly after commethe Hasten himselfe also with eightie saile more and sailing vp the Riuer of Thamise he fortifieth at Middleton nowe Mylton ouer against the I le of Shepey Whiche thing when King Alfred vnderstoode he gathered his power with all haste and marchinge into Kent encamped betwéene the two hostes of his enemies and did so beare him selfe that in the end he constrained Hasten to desire peace to giue his owne othe and two of his Sonnes in hostage for obseruation of the same But howe soone after Hasten forgot his distresse and how litle he estéemed either his owne trouth plighted or the liues of his children so pledged it shall appeare when we come to fitte place for it In the meane while I let you know that the booke of Domesday speaking of Apuldore laieth it in the hundreth of Blackburne and describeth it to conteine eight Carnes or Ploughlandes Stone in the I le of Oxney called in Saxon Stana that is a stone or as the Northren men yet speake A Steane IN the dayes of King Etheldred whē almost al parts of the Realme felt the Danishe furie this place also was by them pitieousely spoyled and brent whiche done they departed to Sandwiche and did there as hathe alreadie appeared Newendene in Saxon Niƿeldene that is The lowe or deepe valley Leland calleth it Nouiodunum whiche worde is framed out of the Saxon Niƿandune soundeth as much as the Newe Hill. THE situation of Newendene is such as it maye likely enoughe take the name eyther of the déepe and bottome as I haue coniectured or of the Hill and highe grounde as Leland supposed For it standeth in the valley and yet clymeth the hill So that the termination of the name may be Dene or Dune of the valley or of the hill indifferently Howbeit I would easily yealde to Leland in this matter the rather bicause the common people of that quarter speak muche of a fayre Towne that sometime stoode vpon the hill Sauing that bothe many places there aboutes are vpon like reason termed Denes and that Iohn Bale who had seene an auncient hystorie of the house it selfe calleth it plainly Newendene It is a frontier and Marche Towne of this Shyre by reason that it lyeth vpon the Ryuer that diuideth Kent and Sussex in sunder whiche water Leland affirmeth to be the same that our auncient Chronicles call Lymene though nowe of the common sorte it is knowen by the name of Rother only It riseth sayth he at Argas hil in Sussex neare to Waterdowne Forrest and falleth
the thinges that I had to remember in Eltham And to make an end of all these be the places whereof I ment to make note in this my Xenagogie and perambulation of Kent the first and only Shyre that I haue described wherin although I haue not spoken of sundrie Towns not inferiour at this present in estimation to a greate many that I haue handled and happely equall with them in antiquitie also yet I think I haue neither pretermitted many that be much worthie of obseruation nor scarcely omitted any that be mentioned in such bookes of Hystorie as be easily to be had and obteined but as for the Feodaries and Tenures of land Genealogies Armes of men Ebbes Floudes Tides of the Sea and Riuers Flattes Barres Hauens such other things although somewhat might haue béen seuerally said concerning eache of them yet haue I wittingly and without touche lept ouer them all Partly for the incertentie partly that I scatter not any séede of dissention and enuie and partely least whilste by disclosing secretes I labour to serue the curiositie of some fewe I either offend many of the sadder sort or deserue euill of the whole estate Nowe therfore I will deliuer you and rest me wishing that some other man of greater profite in reading deapth in iudgement and dexteritie in penning would take in hand to amend the description of this and to adde the residue For as I at the first assayd it to proue my self to prouoke some and to pleasure and profite others So hauing nowe atchieued it according to my slender skill if any man shall like to take this my base metall drawne out of a fewe Sowze into many Sheetes as you sée shall hammar it to some further and finer fashion I wil not only not enuie it but most hartely thanke him and gratulate to our Countrie that so good a tourne benefite And as touching the description of the rest of the Realme knowing by the dealing in this one that it wil be harde for any one man and muche more for my selfe to accomplishe all I can but wishe in like sorte that some one in eache Shyre would make the enterprise for his owne Countrie to the end that by ioyning our pennes and conferring our labours as it were Ex symbolo wée may at the last by the vnion of many parts and papers compact a whole and perfect bodie and Booke of our English antiquities The Customes of Kent ALthough good order would haue borne the rehersall of the Auncient Customes of this Shyre in that generall discourse whiche we had in the beginning as touching the estate of this whole Countie the rather for that it was there shewed by what meanes and policie they were conserued yet least the recitall of the same being of themselues large and manyfolde might haue béene thought too great a Parenthesis or rather an interruption of the Hystorie wherein we were as then but newly entred I thought it better to reserue them for this place to the end that bothe the one and the other might appeare without breache or confusion These Customes therefore being for the most part discrepant from the common lawes of our Realme and annexed to suche landes within this Shyre as beare the name of Gauelkinde are commonly called Gauelkinde Customes for that they preuaile and haue place in landes of Gauelkinde nature In whiche respect it shall not be amisse to shewe for what reason those landes were at the first so termed and why they do yet hitherto continue the name Two coniectures I haue of the reason of this name the one grounded vpon the nature of the discent and inheritance of these landes themselues the other founded vpon the manner of the duetie and seruices that they yeald bothe whiche I will not sticke to recite and yet leaue to eache man frée choice to receaue either or to refuse bothe as it shall best lyke him I gather by Cornelius Tacitus and others that the auncient Germans whose ofspring we be suffred their landes to descend not to the Eldest Sonne alone but to the whole number of their male Children I finde in the 75. Chap. of Canutus law a King of this Realme before the Conquest that after the death of the father his heires shoulde diuide bothe his goods and his landes amongst them Nowe for as muche as all the nexte of the kinred did this inherite together I coniecture that therfore the land was called eyther Gauelkyn in meaning Giueall kyn bycause it was giuen to all the nexte in one line of kinred or Giue all kynd that is to all the male children for kynd in Dutche signifieth yet a male childe Besides this the Welshmen also who but now lately lost this custome doe in their language call this discent Gwele and in their Latine Recordes Lectus progenies gauella of their owne worde Gefeilled whiche signifieth Twyns or suche as be borne together bicause they doe all inherite together and make as it were but one heire and not many And here by the way I cannot omit to shew that they of this our Kentish cuntrey do yet cal their partition of land shifting euen by the very same worde that the lawe of Canutus many yeares since termed it namely Scyftan in Latine Herciscere that is to shift depart or diuide lande My other coniecture is raysed vpon the consideration of the rent and seruices going out of these landes for it is wel knowne that as Knights seruice lande required the presence of the tenant in warfare and battaile abroad So this lande being of Socage tenure cōmaunded his attendance at the ploughe and other the Lordes affaires of husbandry at home the one by manhoode defending his Lords life and person the other by industrie mainteining with rent corne and victuall his estate and familie This rent and customarie payment of works the Saxons called gafol and therof as I think they named the lande that yealded it gafolette or gafolcynd that is to saye lande Letten for rent or of the kinde to yealde rent In this sense I am sure that the rents customes and seruices whiche the tenantes of London pay to their land lords were wont and yet are to be recouered by a writ thereof called Gauellet as by an auncient statute made in the tenthe yeare of King Edward the second intituled Statutum de Gaueleto in London and by dayly experience there it may well appeare Thus much then as concerning the Etymon of this word Gauelkind being said let vs procéed further It hath already appeared how the Kentishmen immediatly after the Conquest obteined the continuation of their customes and it is very manyfest by auncient writers that the same for the more part haue bene in vre and exercise euer since For omitting that which Thomas Spot hath written concerning the same matter for as much as it is already recited at large Glanuile a learned man that flourished in the reigne of king Henrie the second in his
to his tenants any alteration of this olde custome and manner For as the pleading is Quod terrae praedictae sunt de tenura natura de Gauelkind euen so the trueth is that the present tenure onely guideth not the discent but that the tenure and the nature together do gouerne it And therefore as on the one side the custome can not attache or take holde of that which was not before in nature subiect to the custome that is to say accustomably departed So on the other side the practise of the custome long time cōtinued may not be interrupted by a bare alteration of the tenure And this is not my fantasie but the resolution of all the Iustices as Iudge Dalison him selfe hath left reported 4. 5. Philippi Mariae And also of the court 26. H. 8. 5. where it was affirmed that if a man being seised of Gauelkind lande holden in Socage make a gift in tayle create a tenure in Knights seruice that yet this land must descend after the custome as it did before the chaunge of the tenure Moreouer as the chaunge of the tenure can not preuaile against this custome So neither the continuance of a contrary vsage may alter this prescription For it is holden 16. E. 2. Praescription 52. in Fitzherbert that albeit the eldest sonne onely hath and that for manye discentes together entered into Gauelkynde lande and occupyed it without any contradiction of the younger brothers that yet the lande remayneth partible betwéene them when so euer they will put to theyr claime Againste whiche assertion that whiche is sayde 10. H. 3. in the title of Praescription 64. namely of the issue taken thus Si terra illa fuit partita nec ne is not greatly forceable For althoughe it be so that the lande were neuer departed in déede yet if it remayne partible in nature it may be departed when so euer occasion shall be ministred And therefore euen in the forme of pleading vsed at this day Quod terra illa a toto tempore c. partibilis fuit partita it is plainly taken that the worde partibilis onely is of substaunce and that the worde partita is but a word of forme and not materiall or trauersable at all Yea so inseparable is this custome from the lande in whiche it obteyneth that a contrarie discent continued in the case of the Crowne it selfe can not hinder but that after such time as the lande shall resorte agayne to a common person the former inueterate custome shall gouerne it As for the purpose Landes of Gauelkynde nature come to the Quéenes handes by purchase or by eschete as holden of her Manor of A. Nowe after her deathe all her sonnes shall inherite and diuide them But if they come to her by forfayture in Treason or by gifte in Parleament so that her grace is seised of them in Iure Coronae then her eldest sonne onely whiche shall be King after her shall inioye them In whiche case althoughe those landes whiche the eldest sonne being King did possesse doe come to his eldest sonne after him being King also and so from one to another by sundry discents Yet the opinion of Syr Anthonie Browne was 7. Elizab. that if at any time after the same landes be graunted to a common person they shall reuolte to their former nature of Gauelkynde and be partible amongst his heyres males notwithstanding that they haue runne a contrarie course in diuers the discentes of the Kings before But muche lesse maye the vnitie of possession in the Lorde frustrate the custome of Gauelkynde discent as it may appeare 14. H. 4. in the long Recordare Only therefore these two cases I doubt of concerning this point and therevpon iudge them méete to be inquired of That is to say first if a tenancie in Gauelkynd eschete to the Lord by reason of a Ceasser as hereafter it shall appeare that it may or if it be graunted vnto the Lord by the tenant without any reseruation which Lord holdeth ouer by fee of Haubert or by Serieancie both which I take to be Knights seruice whether now this tenancy be partible amongst the heires males of the Lord or no. For the auncient treatise of the Kentishe Customes so determineth but I wote not whether experience so alloweth The other dout is this if it be so that any whole towne or village in Kent hath not at any time that can be shewed bene acquainted with the exercise of Gauelkynde discent whether yet the custome of Gauelkinde shal haue place there or no. Towarde the resolution of which later ambiguitie it shal tende somwhat to shew how farre this custome extendeth it self within this our countrey It is commonly taken therefore that the custome of Gauelkind is generall and spreadeth it selfe throughout the whole Shyre into all landes subiect by auncient tenure vnto the same such places only excepted where it is altered by acte of Parleament And therfore 5. E. 4. 18. and. 14. H. 4. 8. it is sayd that the custome of Gauelkind is as it were a cōmon law in Kent And the booke 22. E. 4. 19. affirmeth that in demaunding Gauelkind lande a man shall not néede to prescribe in certeine and to shew That the Towne Borowe or Citie where the landes be is an auncient towne borowe or citie and that the custome hath bene there time out of mynd that the lands within the same towne borow or citie shuld descend to al the heires males c. But that is sufficient inoughe to shewe the custome at large and to say That the land lyeth in Kent and that all the landes there be of the nature of Gauelkynde For a writte of partition of Landes in Gauelkinde saithe Maister Litleton shal be as generall as if the landes were at the Common lawe although the declaration ought specially to conteine mention of the Custome of the Countrie This vniuersalitie therefore considered as also the straite bonde whereby the custome is so inseperably knit to the land as in manner nothing but an acte of Parleament can clearely disseuer them I sée not how any Citie Towne or Borowe can be exempted for the only default of putting the Custome in vre more then the Eldest Sonne in the case before may for the like reason prescribe against his yonger Brethren But here before I conclude this part I thinke good first to make Maister Litletons aunswere to suche as happely wil demaund what reason this custome of Gauelkinde discent hathe thus to diuide land amongst al the Males contrarie to the manner of the whole Realme besides The younger sonnes saith he be as good gentlemen as the Elder they being alike deare to theyr cōmon auncestor from whom they claim haue so much the more néede of their friendes helpe as through their minoritie they be lesse able then the elder Brother to help them selues secondly to put you in remembrance also of the statute of Praerogatina Regis Ca. 16. Where it