Gavelkind was a system of land tenure

Land tenure

Land tenure is the name given, particularly in common law systems, to the legal regime in which land is owned by an individual, who is said to "hold" the land . The sovereign monarch, known as The Crown, held land in its own right. All private owners are either its tenants or sub-tenants...

 associated chiefly with the county of Kent

Kent

Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...

, but found also in other parts of England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. Its inheritance pattern bears resemblance to Salic patrimony

Salic patrimony

Salic patrimony or inheritance or land property refers to clan-based possession of real estate property, particularly in Germanic context...

 and as such might testify in favour of a wider, probably ancient Germanic tradition.

It was legally abolished in Britain in 1925.

Gavelkind in Kent

In Kent all land was presumed to be held by this tenure until the contrary is proved, but some lands have been disgavelled by particular statutes. It is more correctly described as socage

Socage

Socage was one of the feudal duties and hence land tenure forms in the feudal system. A farmer, for example, held the land in exchange for a clearly defined, fixed payment to be made at specified intervals to his feudal lord, who in turn had his own feudal obligations, to the farmer and to the Crown...

 tenure, subject to the custom of gavelkind. The chief peculiarities of the custom were the following:

1. A tenant
   Land tenure
   Land tenure is the name given, particularly in common law systems, to the legal regime in which land is owned by an individual, who is said to "hold" the land . The sovereign monarch, known as The Crown, held land in its own right. All private owners are either its tenants or sub-tenants...
   
    could pass on part or all of his lands as a fiefdom
   Fiefdom
   A fee was the central element of feudalism and consisted of heritable lands granted under one of several varieties of feudal tenure by an overlord to a vassal who held it in fealty in return for a form of feudal allegiance and service, usually given by the...
   
    from fifteen years of age.
2. On conviction for a felony
   Felony
   A felony is a serious crime in the common law countries. The term originates from English common law where felonies were originally crimes which involved the confiscation of a convicted person's land and goods; other crimes were called misdemeanors...
   
   , the lands were not confiscated by The Crown
   The Crown
   The Crown is a corporation sole that in the Commonwealth realms and any provincial or state sub-divisions thereof represents the legal embodiment of governance, whether executive, legislative, or judicial...
   
   .
3. Generally the tenant could always dispose of his lands in his will
   Will (law)
   A will or testament is a legal declaration by which a person, the testator, names one or more persons to manage his/her estate and provides for the transfer of his/her property at death...
   
   .
4. In case of intestacy
   Intestacy
   Intestacy is the condition of the estate of a person who dies owning property greater than the sum of their enforceable debts and funeral expenses without having made a valid will or other binding declaration; alternatively where such a will or declaration has been made, but only applies to part of...
   
   , the estate
   Estate (law)
   An estate is the net worth of a person at any point in time. It is the sum of a person's assets - legal rights, interests and entitlements to property of any kind - less all liabilities at that time. The issue is of special legal significance on a question of bankruptcy and death of the person...
   
    was passed on to all the sons, or their representatives, in equal shares, leaving all the sons equally a gentleman. Although females claiming in their own right were given second preference, they could still inherit through representation.
5. A dowager
   Dowager
   A dowager is a widow who holds a title or property, or dower, derived from her deceased husband. As an adjective, "Dowager" usually appears in association with monarchical and aristocratic titles....
   
    was entitled to one half of the land.
6. A widow may be tenant by courtesy
   Curtesy
   Curtesy tenure is the legal term denoting the life interest which a widower may claim in the lands of his deceased wife, under certain conditions...
   
   , without having had any issue, of one-half, but only so long as she remains unmarried. An act for commuting manorial rights in respect of lands of copyhold
   Copyhold
   At its origin in medieval England, copyhold tenure was tenure of land according to the custom of the manor, the "title deeds" being a copy of the record of the manorial court....
   
    and customary tenure contained a clause specially exempting from the operation of the act the custom of gavelkind as the same now exists and prevails in the county of Kent.

Gavelkind, an example of customary law

Custom (law)

Custom in law is the established pattern of behavior that can be objectively verified within a particular social setting. A claim can be carried out in defense of "what has always been done and accepted by law." Customary law exists where:...

 in England, was, previous to the Conquest, the general custom of the realm, but was then superseded by the feudal law of primogeniture

Primogeniture

Primogeniture is the right, by law or custom, of the firstborn to inherit the entire estate, to the exclusion of younger siblings . Historically, the term implied male primogeniture, to the exclusion of females...

. Its survival in this instance in one part of the country is regarded as a concession extorted from the Conqueror

William I of England

William I , also known as William the Conqueror , was the first Norman King of England from Christmas 1066 until his death. He was also Duke of Normandy from 3 July 1035 until his death, under the name William II...

 by the people of Kent.

Gavelkind in Wales

Under Welsh law

Welsh law

Welsh law was the system of law practised in Wales before the 16th century. According to tradition it was first codified by Hywel Dda during the period between 942 and 950 when he was king of most of Wales; as such it is usually called Cyfraith Hywel, the Law of Hywel, in Welsh...

 on a landowner's death the land would be divided equally among all his sons, including illegitimate sons. The equal division amongst children of an inheritance in land is of common occurrence outside the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

.

The ultimately infinite division of ever smaller pieces of land by successive generations of sons has been blamed for the comparative weakness of the Welsh polity as opposed to the system of primogeniture in England where the entire patrimony was received intact by the eldest son. The Welsh historian Philip Yorke summarised the situation clearly;

"Our laws of gavelkind, had ill effect, applied to the succession as the freedom of the State; it balanced the power and raised the competition of the younger branches against the elder; a Theban war of Welsh brethren ending in family blood, and national destruction." The Royal Tribes of Wales by Philip Yorke (1799) p.46

Gavelkind in Ireland

This was a species of tribal succession, by which the land, instead of being divided at the death of the holder amongst his sons, was thrown again into the common stock, and redivided among the surviving members of the sept

Sept (social)

A sept is an English word for a division of a family, especially a division of a clan. The word might have its origin from Latin saeptum "enclosure, fold", or it can be an alteration of sect.The term is found in both Ireland and Scotland...

.
Main article Gavelkind in Ireland

Gavelkind in Ireland

Under Brehon Law Gavelkind, also known as partible inheritance, was a species of tribal succession, by which the land was divided at the death of the holder amongst his sons.Sons of concubines, but not daughters, were included in the division...

Under Brehon Law land was divided at the death of the holder amongst his sons. The Normans gave this Irish inheritance law the name Gavelkind due to its apparent similarity to Saxon Gavelkind inheritance in Kent.