![]() ![]() That either the Conqueror, or his Brother Odo brought it thither out of Normandy, and there planted it by the pattern and practice of his own Country with much reason adds, for had it been from thence transplanted, probably it would not have been confined to Kent, a corner onely of the King∣dom, but have spread it self rather over the whole, by the Conquerors means, whose inclinations and endeavours to propagate and implant here the Customs of his own Country, are too eminent and notorious to be doubted of. And after presently discoursing upon what by some Authors hath been affirmed, viz. treating of the custom of Gavelkind, a Te∣nure by which all the Sons, upon their Fathers de∣cease, do equally divide and share the Inheritance betwixt them saith, That he is contented to admit and agree, that Provincially, and particularly here in Kent, we had such a custom, both before and at the Conquest neither (saith he) am I against their opinion, who affirm the like Course and Custom current in those times throughout the King∣dom, &c. In the first place then we will discourseĬoncerning first Plantations, double Portion to the Eldest amongst the Jews, Partition Antiently and Modernly used by the Germans, the same custom among the French and Italians and all this in relation to the Subject of Partition. The Method I resolve upon is by Chapters, deduced into Discourses upon several Corrolaries of M r Somner's. Yet in it I will be as carefull as I can to shun them. upon the self-same Subject I have now before me and is that which the incomparable Camden, upon another Subject, not much unlike this of ours, used in an Epistle to Justus Lipsius: and earnestly request it may be taken (as it is) for my sincere protest That this writing of mine is not altercandi vel calumniandi studio (quod à nobis qui musis & modestiae litamus procul absit) sed cupiditate quâdam cognoscendi & veritatem si fieri potest ab injuriâ vindi∣candi: and if any thing beyond or besides this can be found in this following Tract, I shall willingly and readily stand corrected: onely before I begin, I beg the favour of the Reader, that he would not expect from me in this Work an exact Method, for in such Polemical Discourses it will prove a very hard task, even upon this ground, that the Foundation being erronious and irregular, it must of necessity follow, that the whole Superstructure be in disorder by which means the undertaker cannot avoid Tautologies. Which I formerly made use of to my most worthy friend D r T. This being by him most ingenuously urged, I will not Apologize any further onely de∣sire the favour to introduce that at this time to him, Yet lest that Learned Gentleman (whose Civilities to me I may not forget) may think me deservedly reprovable, for making this assault, after his elaborate Disquisition and ingenious Contention I shall onely Apologize in his own words, and desire the Candor of them may be a satisfaction to him, and a defence to me, in these my weak endeavours and they are those in which he expresseth himself in his 62 page, in these words Therefore appealing from the Vulgar, I shall apply my self to the more Literate and Judicious, by intendment not so tenacious of a specious Tradition, but that they can with patience hear it questioned, and, if occasion be, re∣futed: not unwilling to desert it, if, upon tryal, it may prove unsound and spurious and accounting it as thank∣worthy to discover an old Error, as to deliver a new Truth, especially since Truth is not more often, nor more easily lost by too much altercation, than Error is contracted and con∣tinued by too little. ![]() Laboriously evicted the common Etymologistical no∣tion thereof, and also Learnedly declared the nature of it: yet because I find a deviation in him, who hath discovered that we were in the wrong way I think it not only Charity, but Duty, to examine and que∣stion that path he hath shewed unto us, lest it should fail us in our Journey and labouring to avoid one error we fall into another by which it may also come to pass, that a mis-conception may pass to our Gene∣rations, by the like misfortune that befell our Fore∣fathers in the retention of that common construction so long since received and taken for granted. Somner, in his Treatise of Gavelkind, hath * though of their own Country, if done before their own time, all alike, from one as from another, without exami∣nation. This Fancy in people is not a Novelty, Thucydides complained of it in his time, saying, Men receive the report of things, TO restrain the propensity and violent current of things Natural, is no trivial or slight attempt: such another undertaking it is to go about to remove mistakes, when two or three Ages have received them without any dubitation: im∣pressions of the like nature will not easily be removed extirpation always carries a violence along with it and where there hath been a long irradication, there so much the more of force will be requisite. ![]()
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