HEIR-Loom (formed of heir and the Saxon loom, de-
VOL. X. Part I.
noting limb or members) in our law-books, signifies such goods and personal chattels as are not inventoried after the owner's decease, but necessarily come to the heir along with the house.
Heir-loom comprehends divers implements; as tables, presses, cupboards, bedsteads, furnaces, wainscot, and such like; which in some countries have belonged to a house for certain descents, and are never inventoried after the decease of the owner, as chattels are, but accrue by custom, not by common law, to the heir, with the house itself. The ancient jewels of the crown are held to be heir-loom, and are not devisable by will, but descend to the next successor.