THE ANCESTOR 253 several sisters claims the whole of her dead brother's land, " quia ilia est de sergenteria." ' ^ In the case before us, it is quite clear, a third alternative was adopted. The actual serjeanty or office was assigned to the eldest sister alone, while the whole of the land held by its discharge was divided in equal shares between the three younger sisters. It is somewhat difficult to understand the principle on which this was done, unless it was parallel, in some degree, to the practice by which, according to Bracton, the eldest sister, when taking a casde or 'caput' of a barony, 'accounted for its value in the division of the rest of the inheritance.' ^ For the readers of Ancestor^ however, it will be m.ore interesting to learn how the ' Partition of the lands ' of this 'tenant of the King by serjeanty' was effected (March 16, 13 13). The eldest daughter Amice, with her husband William de Bogeleigh, received, as I have said, her father's office, which we find thus described. The custody and bailiwick of the forest of Gillyngham and the demesne, wood and park as the forester's fee, as their freehold, to be held in chief by serjeanty, by homage to be made therefor, and William is to have in the forest, wood, and park, the croppings and bark of all wood given by the King, Queen, and justices, and of all wood felled for the King's or Queen's use, except what is felled for the Court or barton of Gillingham, and to have all trees and branches blown down by the wind unless they are blown down with the roots, and to have his swine therein without stint in pannage time quit of pannage, and to have eight oxen and eight cows and eight bullocks and two horses in the park and forest and wood. He is also to have the right shoulder of every beast taken in the forest. This office, at a later time, was held by the Lords Stourton tiU the eighth lord was hanged for murder in 1557, when it passed into the hands of the Crown, being then valued as worth a year. The eldest sister's share was worth 40 per cent more than that of each of the younger ones whose ' purparties ' were carefully made equal to a penny. If there was but one house in the inheritance, ' the house itself was physically divided,' ^ and this was the case here. The lands, rents, and services were all separately divided, but the house was partitioned thus : to John de Rondes and Michaela his wife were ' as- signed a third of the chief messuage, to wit all the hall from the haU-door with the chambers adjoining the hall on the ^ Histoj-y of English Law, i. 270. ^ Ibid. ii. 273. ^ Ibid. ii. 273.
