Note 462 — Book XIII.
John Beames translation
We may conjecture, that this Law was corroborative of the particular Customs of certain Cities and Boroughs, under which the Citizens and Burgesses could make a Will of Lands.
Where such Customs prevailed, it was an idle thing to inquire whether the Ancestor died seised. It seems, London and Oxford enjoyed these Customs. (Bracton fo. 272.) Mr. Somner conceives, that the utility aimed at by the Law in question and the foundation of it was, the good of the Commonwealth, by the maintenance of traffic, which was much encouraged by the liberty of a free devise, though this is somewhat darkly pointed at, as he says, by Glanville in the present passage. (Somner on Gavelkynd, p. 97.)