Editing Primogeniture (section)

====United States and Canada====
In [[British North America]], the colonies followed English primogeniture laws. Carole Shammas argues that issues of primogeniture, dower, curtesy, strict family settlements in equity, collateral kin, and unilateral division of real and personal property were fully developed in the colonial courts. The Americans differed little from English policies regarding the status of widow, widower, and lineal descendants.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Shammas |first1=Carole |year=1987 |title=English inheritance law and its transfer to the colonies |journal=American Journal of Legal History |volume=31 |issue= 2|pages=145–163 |doi=10.2307/845880|jstor=845880 }}</ref> The primogeniture laws were repealed at the time of the [[American Revolution]]. Thomas Jefferson took the lead in repealing the law in Virginia, where nearly three-fourths of Tidewater land and perhaps a majority of western lands were entailed.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Brewer |first1=Holly |year=1997 |title=Entailing Aristocracy in Colonial Virginia: 'Ancient Feudal Restraints' and Revolutionary Reform |journal=William and Mary Quarterly |volume=54 |issue=2 |pages=307–346 |jstor=2953276|doi=10.2307/2953276 }}</ref> Canada had the same law but repealed it in 1851.<ref>Gerald Hallowell, ed., ''The Oxford Companion to Canadian History'' (2004), p 502.</ref>

When [[Winston Churchill]] and [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] met at Placentia Bay in August 1941, Roosevelt said he could not understand the British aristocracy's concept of primogeniture, and he intended to divide his estate equally between his five children; Churchill explained that an equal distribution was nicknamed the ''Spanish Curse'' by the British upper classes: "We give everything to the eldest and the others strive to duplicate it and found empires. While the oldest, having it all, marries for beauty. Which accounts, Mr President, for my good looks". But as Churchill's father was a younger son, there may have been more modesty than mock-vanity than Roosevelt realised.<ref>{{cite book | last = Roberts | first = Andrew | author-link = Andrew Roberts (historian) | title = Masters and Commanders: The Military Geniuses who Led the West to Victory in World War II | publisher = Penguin | date = 2009 | location = London | page = 53 | isbn = 978-0-141-02926-9 }}</ref>