In this case
several individuals together continued the persona of their
ancestor. But it was always laid down that they were but one
heir. /1/ For the purpose of working out this result, not only
was one person identified with another, but several persons were
reduced to one, that they might sustain a single persona.
What was the persona? It was not the sum of all the rights and
duties of the ancestor. It has been seen that for many centuries
his general status, the sum of all his rights and duties except
those connected with real property, has been taken up by the
executor or administrator. The persona continued by the heir was
from an early day confined to real estate in its technical sense;
that is, to property subject to feudal principles, as
distinguished from chattels, which, as Blackstone tells us, /2/
include whatever was not a feud.
But the heir's persona was not even the sum of all the ancestor's
rights and duties in connection with real estate. It has been
said already that every fee descends specifically, and not as
incident to a larger universitas. This appears not so much from
the fact that the rules of descent governing different parcels
might be different, /3/ so that the same person would not be heir
to both, as from the very nature of feudal property.
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