--- >>The legal historians state that primogeniture was the rule in colonial New >>York, while in New England children shared equally in the real property of >>parents who died intestate. Does anyone have any experience or thoughts >>regarding primogeniture in the 1600s in Long Island? > > >I don't know about application of English common law to Long Island, >but I have found the following sites bearing on the issue: > >Dower of 1/3 to the wife has apparently been around since time >immemorial in English common law. My observation is that dower was >usually explicitly observed in wills of midwestern states in the >1800's, but I rarely see reference to it in New York wills. Various >discussions of specific cases of primogeniture also included in the >first link below: > > >http://vi.uh.edu/pages/bob/elhone/rules.html > > >English Legal History Materials: > >http://vi.uh.edu/pages/bob/elhone/elhmat.html > >Interent Medieval Legal History: > >http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook-law.html > > Thought this might be of intrest to some folks > > > > >