In general it is advantageous for the joint-tenants to diſſolve the jointure; ſince thereby the right of ſurvivorſhip is taken away, and each may tranſmit his own part to his own heirs. Sometimes however it is diſadvantageous to diſſolve the joint-eſtate: as if there be joint-tenants for life, and they make partition, this diſſolves the jointure; and, though before they each of them had an eſtate in the whole for their own lives and the life of their companion, now they have an eſtate in a moiety only for their own lives merely; and, on the death of either, the reverſioner ſhall enter on his moiety[1]. And therefore, if there be two joint-tenants for life, and one grants away his part for the life of his companion, it is a forfeiture[2]: for, in the firſt place, by the ſeverance of the jointure he has given himſelf in his own moiety only an eſtate for his own life; and then he grants the ſame land for the life of another: which grant, by a tenant for his own life merely, is a forfeiture of his eſtate[3]; for it is creating an eſtate which may by poſſibility laſt longer than that which he is legally entitled to.
III. An eſtate held in coparcenary is where lands of inheritance deſcend from the anceſtor to two or more perſons. It ariſes either by common law, or particular cuſtom. By common law: as where a perſon ſeiſed in fee-ſimple or in fee-tail dies, and his next heirs are two or more females, his daughters, ſiſters, aunts, couſins, or their repreſentatives; in this caſe they ſhall all inherit, as will be more fully ſhewn, when we treat of deſcents hereafter: and theſe co-heirs are then called coparceners; or, for brevity, parceners only[4]. Parceners by particular cuſtom are where lands deſcend, as in gavelkind, to all the males in equal degree, as ſons, brothers, uncles, &c[5]. And, in either of theſe caſes, all the parceners put together make but one heir; and have but one eſtate among them[6].
