The properties of parceners are in ſome reſpects like thoſe of joint-tenants; they having the ſame unities of intereſt, title, and poſſeſſion. They may ſue and be ſued jointly for matters relating to their own lands[1]: and the entry of one of them ſhall in ſome caſes enure as the entry of them all[2]. They cannot have an action of treſpaſs againſt each other: but herein they differ from joint-tenants, that they are alſo excluded from maintaining an action of waſte[3]; for coparceners could at all times put a ſtop to any waſte by a writ of partition, but till the ſtatute of Henry the eighth joint-tenants had no ſuch power. Parceners alſo differ materially from joint-tenants in four other points: 1. They always claim by deſcent, whereas joint-tenants always claim by purchaſe. Therefore if two ſiſters purchaſe lands, to hold to them and their heirs, they are not parceners, but joint-tenants[4]: and hence it likewiſe follows, that no lands can be held in coparcenary, but eſtates of inheritance, which are of a deſcendible nature; whereas not only eſtates in fee and in tail, but for life or years, may be held in joint-tenancy. 2. There is no unity of time neceſſary to an eſtate in coparcenary. For if a man hath two daughters, to whom his eſtate deſcends in coparcenary, and one dies before the other; the ſurviving daughter and the heir of the other, or, when both are dead, their two heirs, are ſtill parceners[5]; the eſtates veſting in each of them at different times, though it be the ſame quantity of intereſt, and held by the ſame title. 3. Parceners, though they have a unity, have not an entirety, of intereſt. They are properly intitled each to the whole of a diſtinct moiety[6]; and of courſe there is no jus accreſcendi, or ſurvivorſhip between them: for each part deſcends ſeverally to their reſpective heirs, though the unity of poſſeſſion continues. And as long as the lands continue in a courſe of deſcent, and united in poſſeſſion, ſo long are the tenants thereof, whether male or female, called parceners. But if the poſſeſſion be once ſevered
