Language In Clarissa, Evelina And Pride And Prejudice

studies focusing on the economy or the law of the
eighteenth century have produced fine critical analyses
of economic and legal events during the period. The
purpose of this study is not to adopt such economic or
legal detail, but to show the confluence of these ideas
and their effects on the eighteenth-century novel. This
study does depend, however, on several recent studies to
provide foundation for its objectives. For the purposes
of this study, an explanation of primogeniture and strict
settlement is necessary.
Primogeniture dominated English inheritance practice
from the time of the Norman Conquest until early in the
twentieth century. Its usage varied widely through the
ages, but, by the eighteenth century, primogeniture had
generally come to mean that the eldest male child of a
family would inherit all realty within that family.
Realty included all land, or real property. Personalty
included money, chattel, stocks and bonds, the ephemeral
wealth of an estate. Under primogeniture, a common law
practice, a female could inherit an estate if there was
no male heir. If this should occur, a family estate
would pass to another family through a daughterf s
marriage. Further, if there was no male heir, or if a