PRIMOGENITURE, the right of the first-born. This right seems to be an unjust prerogative, and contrary to the natural right: for since it is birth alone that gives children a title to the paternal succession, the chance of primogeniture should not throw any inequality among them. It was not till the race of Hugh Capet, that the prerogative to the succession of the crown was appropriated to the first born. By the ancient custom of gavel-kind, still preserved in some parts of our island, primogeniture is of no account, the paternal estate being equally shared among the sons.