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- Title
Family Settlement and the "Rise of Great Estates".
- Authors
English, Barbara; Saville, John
- Abstract
This article comments on author Lloyd Bonfield's article about marriage settlements of landed families in Great Britain. This note was not concerned with the general argument surrounding author Sir John Habakkuk's thesis where by strict settlement contributed to the accumulation, as well as the preservation, of great estates or with the criticisms that have been levied against it. The primary aim was defining as clearly and briefly as possible the relevant parts of the law or custom relating to strict settlement that apply to Bonfield's argument. The central core of Bonfield's analysis is mistaken, and the conclusions cannot be accepted. Bonfield studied in detail the marriage settlements of landed families in Kent and Northamptonshire during the period 160 1-1740. His whole argument rests upon an identification of the strict settlement with the marriage settlement. His line of reasoning is by that the last quarter of the seventeenth century the strict settlement had become the most frequently employed conveyancing precedent in the arrangements of those landowning families who wished to keep their estates intact. There is no disagreement in this matter. Estates were resettled at the time of marriage of the eldest son, marriage settlement equaled strict settlement.
- Subjects
UNITED Kingdom; MARRIAGE settlements; INHERITANCE &; succession; LAND titles; BONFIELD, Lloyd; LANDOWNERS; FAMILIES
- Publication
Economic History Review, 1980, Vol 33, Issue 4, p556
- ISSN
0013-0117
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.2307/2594803