But the transfer was to the next of kin. /3/
The house-lot or family curtilage at first devolved strictly
within the limits of the family. Here again, at least in England,
freedom of alienation seems to have grown up by gradually
increased latitude in the choice of successors. If we may trust
the order of development to be noticed in the early charters,
which it is hard to believe [358] accidental, although the
charters are few, royal grants at first permitted an election of
heirs among the kindred, and then extended it beyond them. In a
deed of the year 679, the language is, "as it is granted so do
you hold it and your posterity." One a century later reads,
"which let him always possess, and after his death leave to which
of his heirs he will." Another, "and after him with free power
(of choice) leave to the man of his kin to whom he wishes to"
(leave it). A somewhat earlier charter of 736 goes a step
further: "So that as long as he lives he shall have the power of
holding and possessing (and) of leaving it to whomsoever he
choose, either in his lifetime, or certainly after his death." At
the beginning of the ninth century the donee has power to leave
the property to whomsoever he will, or, in still broader terms,
to exchange or grant in his lifetime, and after his death to
leave it to whom he chooses,--or to sell, exchange, and leave to
whatsoever heir he chooses.
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