three-fourths of which army were composed of Dutchmen, Hanoverians, Hessians, Danes, and Prussians; and his plans were in almost every enterprise thwarted and marred by the timidity or obstinacy of the Dutch deputies.
The descendants of Sir George Villiers, of Brookesley, by his first wife, and the descendants of the same Sir George Villiers by his second wife, were kinsmen only of the half-blood. And by the old law of England, "the heir need not be the nearest kinsman absolutely, but only sub modo; that is, he must be the nearest kinsman of the whole-blood; for if there be a much nearer kinsman of the half-blood a distant kinsman of the whole-blood shall be admitted, and the other entirely excluded; nay, the estate shall escheat to the lord, sooner than the half-blood shall inherit.[1]
So that by the old law of England, the Duke of Buckingham, and the other children of Sir George Villiers of Brookesley by his second wife, could not have succeeded their half-brothers in the estate of Brookesley which remained in the line of the family of Villiers represented by Edward Villiers, created Earl of Jersey in 1697. The law of descent
- ↑ 2 Bl. Comm., 227.
