Partible inheritance is a system of
inheritance
Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Offici ...
in which property is apportioned among
heirs. It contrasts in particular with
primogeniture, which was common in
feudal society and requires that the whole or most of the inheritance passes to the eldest son, and with
agnatic seniority, which requires the succession to pass to next senior male.
Partible inheritance systems are common ones to be found in legal systems based on both
common law
In law, common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law created by judges and similar quasi-judicial tribunals by virtue of being stated in written opinions."The common law is not a brooding omniprese ...
and the
Napoleonic Code. In the latter case, there may be a further requirement implying division according to a scheme, such as equal shares for legitimate children.
Partible inheritance has been common in ancient
Celtic and
Germanic tribal societies, an example of the latter pattern is the so-called
Salic patrimony.
Historically speaking, non-partible inheritance has been associated with
monarchies and the wish for landed
estates
Estate or The Estate may refer to:
Law
* Estate (law), a term in common law for a person's property, entitlements and obligations
* Estates of the realm, a broad social category in the histories of certain countries.
** The Estates, representa ...
to be kept together as units. In the
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...
, the partible inheritance systems, for example, of the
Merovingian dynasty, the
Carolingian Empire
The Carolingian Empire (800–888) was a large Frankish-dominated empire in western and central Europe during the Early Middle Ages. It was ruled by the Carolingian dynasty, which had ruled as kings of the Franks since 751 and as kings of the ...
and the
Kievan Rus had the effect of dividing kingdoms into princely states, and are often thought to be responsible for their gradual decline in power.
Partible inheritance was the generally-accepted form of inheritance adopted in New England in the 18th century. The southern colonies adopted a system of
male primogeniture in cases of
intestacy, and the northern colonies adopted a system of partible inheritance in cases of intestacy, with the eldest son receiving a double portion of the estate. In practice, a strong
bequest motive in the colonies adopting multigeniture reduced the variability in demographic experiences across colonies with different inheritance systems.
See also
*
Gavelkind
Gavelkind () was a system of land tenure chiefly associated with the Celtic law in Ireland and Wales and with the legal traditions of the English county of Kent.
The word may have originated from the Old Irish phrases ''Gabhaltas-cinne'' or ...
*
Gavelkind in Ireland
References
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Partible Inheritance
Inheritance
Legal terminology
Sibling