Law. Forms as in COPARCENER, with -ere, -erie, -ery, -arie, -ary, -ory. [f. CO- + PARCENARY (a. OF. parçonerie partnership). The spelling in -ERY is more etymological.]
1. Joint share in an inheritance; joint heirship.
1503–4. Act 19 Hen. VII., c. 33 § 1. All the odre forsaid Castelles … to holde in coparcenere as coparceners.
1512. Act 4 Hen. VII., c. 13. Pream. [They] wer seased in ther demean as of Fee in Cooparcenery.
c. 1630. Risdon, Surv. Devon, § 75 (1810), 76. Cadleigh … at the conquest, was held by Thanes in Copercinary.
a. 1635. Sir W. Pole, Descr. Devon, III. (1791), 166. These lands … descended in coparcinory unto … his twoe eldest daughters.
1767. Blackstone, Comm., II. 187. An estate held in coparcenary is where lands of inheritance descend from the ancestor to two or more persons.
1871. Freeman, Hist. Ess., Ser. I. vii. 188. The notion of a great Frankish realm held in a sort of co-parcenary long survived.
1876. Digby, Real Prop., v. § 4. 242, note. An estate in coparcenary arises by devolution ab intestato to daughters, sisters, etc., or sons in gavelkind tenure.
2. Co-partnership: joint ownership. Also fig.
1593. Bilson, Govt. Christ’s Ch., 111. Pastours then which feede the flocke, haue coparcinerie with the Apostles.
a. 1617. Hieron, Wks., II. 10. God vvill haue all reserued to Himselfe, and vvill admit no coparcinory.
1650. Fuller, Pisgah, IV. vii. 132. This Idol was held in Coparcenary betwixt them, and the Ammonites.
1865. Spectator, 14 Jan., 37. A thousand workmen … associating themselves in a legal coparcenery.
