are in their nature impartible. The manſion-houſe, common of eſtovers, common of piſcary uncertain, or any other common without ſtint, ſhall not be divided; but the eldeſt ſiſter, if ſhe pleaſes, ſhall have them, and make the others a reaſonable ſatiſfaction in other parts of the inheritance; or, if that cannot be, then they ſhall have the profits of the thing by turns, in the ſame manner as they take advowſon[1].
There is yet another conſideration attending the eſtate in coparcenary; that if one of the daughters has had an eſtate given with her in frankmarriage by her anceſtor (which we may remember was a ſpecies of eſtates-tail, freely given by a relation for advancement of his kinſwoman in marriage[2]) in this caſe, if lands deſcend from the ſame anceſtor to her and her ſiſters in fee-ſimple, ſhe or her heirs ſhall have no ſhare of them, unleſs they will agree to divide the lands ſo given in frankmarriage in equal proportion with the reſt of the lands deſcending[3]. This general diviſion was known in the law of the Lombards[4], which direct the woman ſo preferred in marriage, and claiming her ſhare of the inheritance, mittere in confuſum cum ſororibus, quantum pater aut frater et dederit, quando ambulaverit ad maritum. With us it is denominated bringing thoſe lands into hotchpot[5]; which term I ſhall explain in the very words of Littleton[6]: "it ſeemeth that this word, hotchpot, is in Engliſh, a pudding; for in a pudding is not commonly put one thing alone, but one thing with other things together." By this houſewifely metaphor our anceſtors meant to inform us[7], that the lands, both thoſe given in frankmarriage and thoſe deſcending in fee-ſimple, ſhould be mixed and blended together, and then divided in equal portions among all the daughters. But this was left to the choice of the donee in frankmarriage, and if ſhe did not chuſe to put her lands in hotchpot, ſhe was preſumed to be ſufficiently provi-
