Teutonic tribes had left it and pushed on to the South and West, while Slavonic tribes had migrated into it from the East. In one instance a whole nation had come—the Slavic Czechs—who had in the fifth century driven out their predecessors, the Teutonic Marcomanni,[1] from Bohemia, as these had previously driven out the old Celtic Boii. The old name Boii, however, remained, and became the German designation for a new race. The Wilte had probably come into Frisia, and had settled around Utrecht[2] and in other districts in the Rhine valley. Migrations of Saxons and other races had also occurred.
The ancient custom of inheritance generally prevailing in Frisia was one under which all the children alike inherited. It is so described in a work on Frisian jurisprudence written in the sixteenth century.[3] In Holland at the present day we may look almost in vain for large landowners, for under the Dutch law all children share their father’s possessions.[4] Among the Frisians there were some communities, however, probably of mixed descent, who had apparently the custom of junior right already mentioned.
It may reasonably be conceded that where the Frisians settled in England they would be likely to take with them their own mode of inheritance. Similarly, we cannot doubt that those tribes which had a custom of junior right would continue it in the new land. One settlement may have had one custom, and the next another; but when, as was in some instances the case, a number of old settled villages became parts of one great lordship or manor, and a general custom for the whole manor or lordship was adopted, it may well have been a compromise between the two older customs, and in this way a system of partible
