[A partial translation of the Anglo-French tenure en Burgh Engloys, tenure in (an) English borough: according to Blackstone so called because prevailing in certain boroughs, and because it was English as distinguished from French.]
A custom or tenure in some parts of England, by which the youngest son inherits all the lands and tenements.
1327. Year Bk. 1 Edw. III., 12, pl. 38 (ed. 1679). Il ad en Notingham deux tenures, s. Burgh Engloys and Burgh Frauncoyes … toutes les tenements dont launcestre morust seisi en Burgh Engloyes devient descender a le puisne fitz.
1531. Dial. Laws of Eng., I. xx. (1638), 35. In Burghenglish the younger sonne shall enjoy the inheritance, and that in conscience.
1656. in Blount.
1667. E. Chamberlayne, St. Gt. Brit., I. III. v. (1743), 181. In other [places] the youngest son inherits all the Land by a Custom called Borough-English.
1862. Sat. Rev., 5 July, 13. The extraordinary scene that would ensue if Parliament should, in one of its idle moments, suddenly enact that the custom of Borough-English should prevail through the realm.
1882. F. Pollock, in Macm. Mag., XLVI. 360, note. The custom of borough-English abounds in Kent, Sussex, Surrey, the neighbourhood of London, and Somerset. In the midlands it is rare, and north of the Humber … it does not seem to occur.
