Not right, but seisin (legal possession), makes a stock from which the inheritance must descend.

Explanation

(English-origin maxim.) Inheritance descends from the person who was actually seised (in legal possession), not merely from one who had a right of entry or a bare right — seisin, not abstract right, is the root of descent.

Where this applies

• A man had a legal right to inherit a manor but never took physical possession of it — his children cannot claim descent through him because seisin, not mere right, is the root of inheritance.
• Two branches of a family dispute who inherits a parcel of land, and the court awards it to the branch whose ancestor actually held seisin at death, not the branch whose ancestor merely had a claim.
• An heir argues his father had a right to a piece of land, but since the father never actually possessed it, the son cannot inherit through him.