Thomas William Shore

“ Nothing is more remarkable in the history of mankind than the attachment of people of all races to the customs which have been handed down to them from their forefathers. That junior right was preserved in the boroughs and manors in which it survived through all the period of the Middle Ages, when the tendency was one ever growing stronger in favour of primogeniture, is remarkable testimony to its vitality, and the attachment to it of those who lived under it. ”

“ If an unfree man was accused of any crime, the oaths of his brothers, uncles, and cousins were not acceptable as evidence of his innocence, for by remote tribal custom, which prevailed for centuries after the early Anglo-Saxon settlement, such relatives had not the privileges of a free kindred. If a man was made a freeman he was still by tribal custom without kindred to answer for him, and the lord had to do this until after several generations his descendants had become a kindred. ”

“ The rural primogeniture such as survives now in Norway so clearly resembles the old rural primogeniture of which traces remain in the North of England, especially in that it secures the succession to the eldest daughter in default of sons, that it cannot reasonably be doubted they had a common origin among the early tribes of Norway or adjacent parts of Scandinavia. It is unreasonable to suppose that a body of colonists, whether in ancient or modern time, would settle in any particular locality and afterwards proceed to invent their customs. ”

“ The primary element of organization in Russia—the village community, or mir, [16] under which the youngest son has a preference—is a survival of the old tenure of village communities that at one time must have been widely prevalent in Europe. When first we meet with the Slavs in history, we find them living in communities. Having all these facts in mind, we may reasonably look eastward of Germany for the origin of the custom by which the youngest son inherits. Nowhere else in Europe, except among the Slavs, can it be traced, so far as is known, in an early code of laws. ”

“ Those who have gone to the wars, or have become successful colonists, have been among the ablest of the race. England, during the centuries in which her settlement went on, received and absorbed into the Anglo-Saxon stock immigrants from probably almost all the tribes of Northern Europe. As the newer and greater Anglo-Saxon stock in Britain, America, and the British colonies is at the present time constantly absorbing into itself people of all European races, so during the centuries of its growth tribal elements were constantly becoming blended and assimilated in the old English nation. ”

“ THE settlers in Kent are of special interest from several points of view. Known as Jutes since the beginning of our history, they can, without much difficulty, be traced as regards their origin to more than one of the ancient nations or tribes of Northern Europe, and as they alone of all the early colonists in the South of England adopted as the name of their kingdom its name in the Romano-British period, Cantium or Kent, we may reasonably look among them for a survival of some people from the Roman time. ”

“ When we leave the consideration of the Goths and Frisians, and turn our attention to the remarkable customs which have come down from time immemorial on the south and west of the city, we are met by circumstances of another kind. Inheritance by the youngest son instead of the eldest, as in common law, prevailed unto within living memory on the manors of Kennington, Walworth, Vauxhall, Peckham Rye, Wandsworth, Battersea, Lambeth, Streatham, Croydon, Barnes, Shene or Richmond, and Petersham. On the north of the Thames it existed at Edmonton, Tottenham, Ealing, Acton, Isleworth, and Earl’s Court. ”

“ The name Franklins of Kent has found a place in our literature, and all the native-born men of London, or those who had resided in it for a year and a day, were similarly accounted freemen. Kentish people, when they migrated, carried with them some, at least, of their own laws and customs, certainly their personal freedom.
The very remarkable custom of Kentish gavelkind may be considered in reference to the customs in and around London. Its nature has already been discussed. Its chief privilege was partible inheritance among the sons, and, failing sons, among the daughters. ”

“ The custom of dividing the inheritance is one which may easily have arisen spontaneously from its fairness.
We search in vain for any ancient exclusive examples of junior succession on a large scale among the purely Teutonic nations. In Germany partible inheritance prevailed among both nobles and peasants, and even as late as the Middle Ages asserted its ancient right over primogeniture. The partible tendency in Germany resulted in the Middle Ages in a division of the principalities, which has left its mark on that country to the present day. ”

“ And I will that every child be his father’s heir after his father’s day. And I will not suffer that any man do you wrong. And God you keep.’ As every child was to be his father’s heir (not his or her father’s) , it is clear that the custom referred to was the old Kentish custom of partible inheritance among sons. This custom of dividing the property among the sons was also the custom of the ancient manors of Stepney, Hackney, Canonbury or Canbury, Newington Barrow or Highbury, Hornsey, and Islington. ”

“ Personal names derived from those of tribes are older than those derived from countries or districts in which tribes settled. To call a man after the name of his tribe or clan in the time before the tribal wanderings of the German and Northern people had ceased was the most natural way of distinguishing him. The occurrence of so many names of people called Hun and Hune, or compounds of them, in Anglo-Saxon literature points to tribal people at that name having taken part in the settlement of England. ”

“ When sailing into the Baltic, Othere, the Scandinavian mariner, told the King that he had Denmark on his left, and Zealand and many islands on his right. This was the kingdom whose capital was Lund in Skane, in the south-east of what is now Sweden, and it must have been from that country that many of those settlers came who have left their traces in some old Danish place-names that still cling to their English homes, such as the Domesday Scen and Scan names, which are only found in England in the Danish settled districts. ”

“ There can be no doubt about the important influence which the old Wendish race has had in the north-eastern parts of Germany in transmitting to their descendants a more brunette complexion than prevails among the people of Hanover, Holstein, and Westphalia, of more pure Teutonic descent. We cannot reasonably doubt that, in view of such a survival of brown people as we find at the present time in the provinces of North Holland, Drenthe and Overijssel, which form the hinterland of the ancient Frisian country, numerous brunettes must have come into England among the Frisians. ”

“ On the other hand, it must be remembered that in the social life of our Old English forefathers no point is established by clearer evidence than the existence of people of all classes, from the great lord down to the slave who could be sold. Slavery was an Anglo-Saxon institution, and there are some early records relating to it. ”

“ From such a country as ancient Frisia was, emigration, as the population increased, was a necessity. The story of Hengist and the custom of the expulsion of a number of the young people of his country may have reasonably prevailed in Friesland. Whether they settled in England under the names Angles and Jutes, or under tribal names of their own, it is certain that large numbers of Frisians must have become English colonists under the Saxon name. The old chroniclers are, indeed, at a loss whether to make Hengist a Frisian or a Saxon. ”

“ Another circumstance which points to the later wealth of Saxon London is that the laws of Æthelstan relating to the city are much concerned with regulations for the capture and punishment of thieves. It is clear that opportunities for thieves would be greater in a rich city filled with merchandise than in other parts of the country. We read of London first as a city controlled by Æthelbert, King of Kent. Whether it was or was not part of the kingdom of the East Saxons at that time is uncertain, but in any case Æthelbert was their overlord. ”

“ We have no evidence that the neighbourhood of London was originally settled by people from Essex. Some may have come westward through the great forest, if the eastern part of Essex was occupied by Saxons at that time. On the other hand, there is considerable evidence pointing to this settlement around London having been made by people of the same races as the people of Kent—viz., Goths and Frisians, with probably some Wends. It is most improbable that the Anglo-Saxon people who conquered London could have been any other than those of the Kentish race. ”

“ The ancient Goths, one of the noblest of the old European races, have long since disappeared. Their identity has been almost entirely lost in the birth of new nations. If we seek for any remnants of the old stock, we shall find them, such as they are, in the Dalecarlians of Sweden, among whom the custom of partible inheritance still survives. The Goths were the people most advanced in civilization of the nations in the Scandian peninsula, and we must trace to the parent Gothic stock many of the qualities of the present races of Scandinavia and the northern parts of Germany. ”