The tontine share in question was taken out in the testator's son's name. A bit like buying the son a lottery ticket - worth something or a lot! This was not unheard of - my great x 4 grandfather did the same for his son - his will of 1807 contains: "I give unto my Son Joseph Eade all that my share of one hundred pounds in the Wanstead Tontine on his own life to & for his own use & benefit " Of course the other members of the tontine may also have invested in their children's names, so it may not have been such an advantage after all !! Cheers, Liz in Melbourne On Tuesday, March 09, 2004 11:10 PM, History Search [SMTP:history.search@btopenworld.com] wrote: > The original poster mentioned a tontine being left in a will, if I remember > correctly. > > I cannot see how that is compatible with the definition below which tallies > with what I had always understood a tontine to be (from an Agatha Christie > story I once read) > > Chris > ...puzzled > > ----- Original Message ----- > > > > "A speculative arrangement for raising money, whereby the persons > > contributing to the sum raised receive in return an annuity divisible > among > > them during their lives, the whole of the annuity being receivable > > ultimately by the last survivor for the remaining term of their life" > > > ==== OLD-ENGLISH Mailing List ==== > OLD-ENGLISH Web Page > http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~oel/