On Sunday, June 5, 2016 at 3:09:05 PM UTC-7, gera...@earthlink.net wrote: > I've heard that men were able to take care of their favorite illicitly- begotten children, but how did they do it when the laws gave bastards no rights of inheritance? An interesting case is where Sir Thomas Martin eventually married the children's mother and allotted them their due inheritances, but a kinsman successfully overturned the inheritances in court on the grounds that they were born bastards regardless of the father eventually marrying the mother. > http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1386-1421/member/martin-william > > Are you familiar with cases of bastards inheriting? How did they do it? I know of a case where an older brother did *not* inherit property & peerage because a younger brother went to court to have him (as well as another older brother) declared illegitimate. The late John Butler, Lord Dunboyne, told me that this was the case with the 8th Earl of Ormond - he had various people, including a priest, testify that their parents were not married when his two older brothers were born. According to Dunboyne, the evidence and testimony was the result of an organized plot and was not true. But it allowed Peter to gain Ormond at the expense of his older brothers. This information was passed to me in private communication. As far as bastards actually inheriting, I see evidence of this when a child is illegitimate but becomes legitimized. I guess the most famous case would be in England with the Beauforts.