Doctoral theses often have curious origins. The one which has been revised and is presented here had its genesis in a seminar on the ‘Problems of the aristocracy in France and England in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries’ in the University of Iowa when Professors Henry Horwitz and Ralph Giesey found that they had a law student amongst their aspiring historians. It became my task to explain the workings of the strict settlement to my colleagues, and to compare the English system of inheritance with the French. I have lived with this curious device ever since.

It is a pleasure to acknowledge gratefully the kindness which scholars have shown me. Foremost, I should like to thank Professor Sir John Habakkuk who graciously entertained me at the Lodge in Jesus College, Oxford, and unearthed boxes of notes which embodied the research of his seminal works on landownership and marriage settlements. Although I may at times call into question some of his conclusions, all legal and economic historians are indebted to him for his pioneering work on these topics. Mr David Yale supervised the thesis and edited the text for the Cambridge Studies in English Legal History. For his tireless labours, and his friendship, I warmly thank him. Professor Donald Coleman and various members of the Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure, in particular Dr Peter Laslett, helped me to see the economic and social dimensions of the study.