Harvard Law School Library
Bracton Online -- English
Previous   Volume 3, Page 279  Next    

Go to Volume:      Page:    



[001] to the heir, in demesne or in service, since the reason why he was called heir now
 [002] does not exist. Where one first engenders a daughter she may be called the nearer
 [003] heir; if a male is born she ceases to be heir. Where a daughter is an only heir and other
 [004] daughters are born, she will no longer be such by herself but with the others in common.
 [005] Some heirs are near with nearer heirs, as the brother and sister of the father or
 [006] mother with the sons and daughters of the father and mother. The sons and daughters
 [007] are nearer heirs than the brothers or sisters in the transverse line because they
 [008] are in the right line descending from the father or mother, for all heirs in the descending
 [009] right line exclude all transverse claimants from the succession.1 There are
 [010] near and nearer heirs in the right line descending, as where he from whom the inheritance
 [011] descends has several sons; all are near heirs, but the eldest the nearer
 [012] because of his age.2 If there is one son and several daughters, [or] several sons and
 [013] one daughter, or [several sons and] several daughters, the males will always be near
 [014] heirs with the eldest son, the daughters remote heirs.3 If there is no male with the
 [015] eldest son, only a daughter or daughters, the daughters will then be near heirs with
 [016] the male and the male nearer heir to his ancestor because of his sex.4 If there are
 [017] several sons and the descending inheritance is partible, all are nearer heirs by reason
 [018] of the inheritance,5 which is capable of division, and if there are daughters they are
 [019] near heirs. But if there are none, then the ancestor's brother or sister is a near heir.
 [020] If there are several daughters, though the inheritance is not of itself partible, it is
 [021] divided nevertheless, because of the daughters, who are, so to speak, a single heir,6
 [022] and here each of them is a nearer heir of the ancestor, the ancestor's brother and sister
 [023] near heirs. Just as heirs are near and nearer, so they are remote and more remote.
 [024] Remote heirs come after near, for example, after brothers and sisters, uncles and
 [025] aunts, [after sons and daughters] their sons and7 daughters, that is grandsons and
 [026] granddaughters. More remote heirs are their sons and daughters, as greatgrandsons
 [027] and greatgranddaughters, and so on, their sons and daughters ad infinitum.8

Who is a nearer heir and why.9


 [029] It is clear that either sex, age, line, a partible inheritance or a plurality of females
 [030] makes heirs nearer heirs, [and the right of succession not the right of blood, as will be
 [031] explained below,]10 both with respect to the right and to seisin, because seisin ought
 [032] always to follow the right.11 If he who is nearer heir to the ancestor dies, whether he is
 [033] nearer by himself or with another, without an heir of his body, his next oldest brother
 [034] begins to be nearer heir to the ancestor who is in seisin of the inheritance,12 from
 [035] whom the right descends to him.

Notes

1. Supra ii, 188, infra 280

2. Supra ii, 189, infra 280, 312

3. Supra ii, 189

4. Supra ii, 190

5. Supra ii, 194

6. Supra ii, 194

7. ‘et’

8. Supra ii, 189

9. Rubric; om: ‘Et sic . . . poterit’

10. Supra ii, 190

11. Supra ii, 24, 184, 195, iii, 271

12. ‘est hereditatis’

Contact: specialc@law.harvard.edu
Page last reviewed April 2003.
© 2003 The President and Fellows of Harvard College