dences to be safflie kepte under twoo locks and kyes in my studye at Helssington, and at the full aige of my sonnes to be divided accordinge to their rights.’[1]
The customs relating to the widow’s dower that prevailed in South Westmoreland and North Lancashire are varied. In the Barony of Kendal the widow of a customary tenant was entitled to the whole of her husband’s customary estate during widowhood.[2] In some other parts of the south of Westmoreland she received half the estate. Similarly, at Much Urswick, Kirkby Irleth, Lowick,[3] and Nevill Hall in Furness, the widow was entitled to half the estate during widowhood. By the old common law of the country she was entitled to only a third share, and at Clitheroe to a fourth, as was the custom among the ancient Lombards. The Kendal dower custom is the same as existed so largely in Sussex and on manors elsewhere, as in the vale of Taunton, where junior inheritance prevailed. The half dower custom is the same as that of Kent, and points to settlements of Goths or Jutes.
The north of Lancashire and south of Westmoreland were included in the West Riding at the time of the Domesday Survey, and apparently had been considered a part of the kingdom of Deira, or Yorkshire, since the seventh century. In 685 ‘the land called Cartmel and all the Britons there’ was given to Cuthbert by one of the early Kings, from which record it may be considered certain that Celtic people survived there among the early Teutonic settlers. The early church dedications to St. Wilfrid at Standish, Preston, and Ribchester, and to St. Cuthbert at Kirkby Irleth, were received from their Yorkshire connection.[4] The colonists
