Joint tenants are distinguished from tenants in common by Littleton thus: "Joint-tenants are, as if a man be seised of certain lands or tenements, etc., and thereof enfeoffeth two, or three, or four, or more, to have and to hold to them (and to their heirs, or letteth to them) for term of their lives, or for term of another's life; by force of which feoffment or lease they are seised, such are joint-tenants. … And it is to be understood, that the nature of joint-tenancy is, that he that surviveth shall have solely the entire tenancy, according to such estate as he hath, …" "Tenants in common are they that have lands or tenements in fee-simple, fee-tail, or for term of life, etc., the which have such lands and tenements by several title, and not by joint title, and neither of them knoweth thereof his severalty, but they ought by the law to occupy such lands or tenements in common pro indiviso [undivided], to take the profits in common. …As if a man enfeoff two joint-tenants in fee, and the one of them alien that which to him belongeth to another in fee, now the other joint-tenant and the alienee are tenants in common, because they are in such tenements by several titles, …"
There are legal maxims and customs of ancient origin which have become well established and known though not written down as statutes. Some delineated by Christopher St. Germain in "Doctor and Student" in 1518 are:
1. The spouse of a deceased person takes all personal and real chattels of the deceased.
2. For inheritance of land, if there are no descendant children, the brothers and sisters take alike, and if there are none, the next blood kin of the whole blood take, and if none, the land escheats to the lord. Land may never ascend from a son to his father or mother.
3. A child born before espousals is a bastard and may not inherit, even if his father is the husband.
3. If a middle brother purchases lands in fee and dies without heirs of his body, his eldest brother takes his lands and not the younger brother. The next possible heir in line is the younger brother, and the next after him, the father's brother.
4. For lands held in socage, if the heir is under 14, the
next friend to the heir, to whom inheritance may not
descend, shall have the ward of his body and lands until the
heir is 14, at which time the heir may enter.
5. For lands held by knight's service, if the heir is under
14, then the lord shall have the ward and marriage of the
heir until the heir is 21, if male, or 14 (changed to 16 in
1285), if female. When of age, the heir shall pay relief.
6. A lease for a term of years is a real chattel rather than
a free tenement, and may pass without livery of seisin.
7. He who has possession of land, though it is by disseisin,
has right against all men but against him who has right.