Coparceners

Coparceners, Coparcenary. An estate held in coparcenary is where lands of inheritance descend from the ancestor to two or more persons. It arises either by Common Law or by particular custom. (1) By Common Law, as where a person seised in fee simple or in fee tail dies and his next heirs are two or more females - his daughters, sisters, aunts, female cousins, or their representatives - in this case they all inherit, and these coheirs are termed coparceners or, for brevity, parceners only, though in some points of view the law treats them as making together only one heir. (2) Parceners by particular custom are where lands descend, as in gavelkind, to all the males in equal degree as sons, brothers, uncles, etc.