Pride and Prejudice discussion

When I first encountered this book I didn't know what an entailment was but as I understand it, it's a restriction on what one can do with real property (land)

Now...

Mr. Bennet cannot leave his land to any of his daughters because it's entailed away from the female line.

Instead, upon his death the property will go to Mr. Collins, his cousin. Mr. Collins refers to losing his father (Would that be Mr. Bennet's uncle?)

Now why do the two men have different last names and yet both have interests in a piece of property that cannot go to female relatives? I can sort of make sense of this if both men had the SAME last name but with different ones, I can't puzzle out their relationship.

Can someone explain what I'm missing?

Hi Stephen, so this has to do with the right of primogeniture where the inheritance (assets including property) are by law in wills, deeds, etc... handed to the first born male in the family line (a patrilineal or patriarchal value). So, as you said, Mr Bennet has five daughters and no sons. Hence, Longbourne must go to the eldest male in the family line; hence, Mr Collins. Mr Collins refers to the disagreement between his father and Mr Bennet that has led to their family conflict. The issue with the last names might be best explained through either (a) during this era, it was often the case that if you inherited the estate of a wealthy relative you changed your name to match with theirs. And (b) if, as in the novel, "Emma" when Mr Churchill (born Weston) is adopted by his wealthier aunt, his name changed accordingly. Or (c) if the direct male line peters out, then like all inheritance, the next-of-kin must be found - in this case, it might be that the most direct relative (given the entailment) is through the female line (so a gand-aunt or so) stemming years back, so as in a family tree, it might be that one of the branches carries the most direct male lineage. Think about the British royal family and who is in line to the throne - there are those who do not share the same last name who have more rights than the daughters of Elizabeth (think of Princess Anne's son, Peter Phillips, who is 12th in line to inherit the throne (or something like that) but does not share the same last name as Prince William and Harry.

I am quoting from a site on the book, which explains entails in general, and specifically about Mr. Collins:

'The reason that Mr. Collins has a different surname than Mr. Bennet, even though they are patrilineal relatives, is undoubtedly that someone in one or the other of their two lines (i.e. either Mr. Bennet, his father, or paternal grandfather, etc.; or Mr. Collins, his father, or paternal grandfather, etc.) changed his surname on receiving an inheritance from a non-patrilineal relative. This was done relatively frequently among the "genteel" classes, and there are several examples of changing surname, or adding another surname hyphenated to one's original surname, among Jane Austen's near relatives (her brother Edward and his children changed name from "Austen" to "Knight" when he became the heir of a cousin and cousin's wife named "Knight"; Jane Austen's uncle added the surname "Perrot" to become "James Leigh-Perrot" upon inheriting from his great-uncle Thomas Perrot; and later Jane Austen's nephew James Edward Austen changed his surname to "Austen-Leigh" after inheriting from James Leigh Perrot and his wife).

What this means is that either Mr. Bennett or Mr. Collins, received another inheritance from a non-patrilineal relative, and hence, changed their name to this relative's. This was something that would be understood by the reading audience in England of the 1800's, but not necessarily by us modern folk. Entails are a complicated construct, and play a part in the storyline of TV's 'Downton Abbey,' too, though they no longer exist today. And not all families were restricted by them. But in families of great wealth, noble lineage, titles, etc., they played a part in keeping large estates together, handing down of titles, etc. There are cases when an oldest son wasn't particularly well-liked, but he still inherited the bulk of an estate on his father, grandfather, uncle or other male relative's death.

This is the site I used: www.pemberley.com