If those Heirs, liable to be in Custody, have more Lords than one, the chief Lord, that is, the one to whom the Heir owes allegiance for his first Fee, shall have the Custody. But this is not to deprive the Lords of the other Fees of their Beliefs and rightful services; but the Custody shall remain to them entire, under the form before mentioned. Yet should it be observed, that when any one hold of the King _in Capite_, the Custody of him belongs exclusively to the King, whether the Heir has any other Lords or not; because the King[255] can have no equal, much less a superior.[256] But yet, by reason of Burgage Tenure,[257] the King is not preferred in the Custody to others. If the King should commit the Custody to another,[258] then, a distinction is to be made, whether it is unconditionally, and in such manner as not to render the person to whom it was committed accountable to the Exchequer, or whether it is under restrictions. If it is committed to him in such unconditional manner, then he can present to vacant Churches, and, generally, as far as consistent with Justice, manage the concerns of the Heir, as if they were his own. [Footnote 255: Bracton L. 1. c. 8. (Al. MS.)] [Footnote 256: Bracton fo. 5. b.] [Footnote 257: Or socage, says Bracton, fo. 87. a. See Co. Litt. 77. a.] [Footnote 258: Vide 2. Inst. 12. 13. With respect to the Practice, alluded to in the text, Lord Littleton observes, that undoubtedly inferior Lords did the same. It likewise, adds his Lordship, appears by the Great Rolls, that the wardships of the crown were sold by King Henry the second, and mention is made of that practice, without any blame, in the charters of King John and Henry the third. (Hist. Hen. 2. Vol. 3. 109.) The above citation from Lord Coke confirms the doctrine of the noble Historian.] CHAP. XI. The Heirs of Sock-men upon the death of their Ancestors, shall be in the Custody[259] of their nearest Kindred, with this distinction, that if the Inheritance itself descended from the paternal side, the Custody shall be conferred upon the kindred, the descendants on the maternal side; but, if the Inheritance descend on the part of the Mother, then the Custody belongs to the Kindred on the Father’s side. For the custody of a person shall never by Law be committed to another, of whom a suspicion can be entertained, that he either could or might wish to claim any right in the Inheritance itself.[260] [Footnote 259: If, says a Law of Ina, the Husband and Wife have any children, and the Husband dies, the mother shall retain and nourish her Child. Six shillings shall be given her to enable her to do it; a Cow, in summer, and an Ox, in winter. (LL. Inæ c. 38.)]