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primogeniture|praɪməʊˈdʒɛnɪtjʊə(r)|
[ad. med.L. prīmogenitūra, f. L. prīmō adv., first + genitūra geniture; after prīmōgenitus. So. F. primogéniture (13–14th c. in Hatz.-Darm.).]
1. The fact or condition of being the first-born of the children of the same parents.
[c1225William Britto Philipis iv. 2 Lege patrum veteri Richardum, patre sepulto, Efficit Anglorum primogenitura monarcham. 1594Parsons Confer. Success i. vi. 128 That primogenitura or eldership of birth..was greatly respected by God.] 1605Bacon Adv. Learn. i. v. §7 These were the Arts which had a kinde of Primo geniture with them seuerally. 1626T. H. Caussin's Holy Crt. 121 Al those, say with Esau:..To what vse, will this goodly prerogatiue of primogeniture serue me? a1715Burnet Own Time (1766) II. 238 If primogeniture from Noah was the ground settled by God for monarchy, then all the Princes now in the world were Usurpers. 1867Freeman Norm. Conq. I. v. 291 Though primogeniture gave no positive right.
b. esp. in right of primogeniture (also † primogeniture-right), the right (of succession, etc.) of the first-born: see 2.
1602W. Fulbecke Pandectes 16 The right of Primogeniture, or elder-brothership is fenced, supported, and defended against this last decree of the Millanasses, and that first of the Persians. 1612Selden Illustr. Drayton's Poly-olb. xvii. 269 Claiming his Primogeniture-right, & therby the kingdom. 1683Brit. Spec. 162 That his present Majesty of Great Britain is by Right of Primogeniture the next and undoubted Heir to Cadwalladar, will manifestly appear. 1766Blackstone Comm. II. i. 13 In the division of personal estates, the females of equal degree are admitted together with the males, and no right of primogeniture is allowed. 1865Kingsley Herew. ix, The rights of primogeniture..were not respected.
2. The right of succession or inheritance belonging to the first-born; the principle, custom, or law by which the property or title descends to the eldest son (or eldest child); spec. the feudal rule of inheritance by which the whole of the real estate of an intestate passes to the eldest son. (Introduced into England at the Norman Conquest, and still prevailing in most places in a modified form: but cf. Borough-English, gavelkind.) Also fig.
a1631Donne Serm. xxxiv. (1640) 340 Heires of heaven, which is not a Gavel-kinde, every Son, every man alike: but it is an universall primogeniture, every man full, so full, as that every man hath all. 1726De Foe Hist. Devil i. ix. (1840) 108 Abel had broken the laws of primogeniture. 1788Gibbon Decl. & F. (1869) II. xliv. 654 The insolent prerogative of primogeniture was unknown. 1875Maine Hist. Inst. vii. 199 When the Teutonic races spread over Western Europe they did not bring with them Primogeniture as their ordinary rule of succession. 1876Freeman Norm. Conq. V. xxiv. 491 Under the working of the new feudal doctrines, the custom of primogeniture gradually supplanted the Old-English custom of equal partition of lands. |