It has always been possible to leave personal estate to whomever one wished, the confusion with illegitimate offspring is they had no automatic right to inherit. This means that anything left had to be specifically left to them as with other people who were not blood relations. Cheers Guy Tim Powys-Lybbe wrote: > > My understanding is that at least up to the 18th century and probably > also the 19th, it was impossible to leave anything to an illegitimate > offspring. So I suspect most of this will was invalid. It was, however, > possible to give them things in their lifetime, which is what an > ancestor of mine did in the early 17th century for a son born before he > married the mother. > > As late as 1880 a gt-gt-grandfather, a lawyer, thought is best to set up > a trust for his second family, so that the gift was to the trustees, not > to his offspring. Then in his will he considered the possibility that > this trust might be overturned so added in that his will would set up a > similar trust to replace it. Anyhow he succeeded in providing for his > second family. > -- http://freespace.virgin.net/guy.etchells Transcripts, Parish Records, Calendar, Scaleable Map of Uk. Link to LDS website, Abbreviations, Returns of Owners of Lands etc. http://www.framland.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/ Worldwide Cemetery Links, Monumental Inscriptions, War Graves, etc.

In message of 28 Oct, Guy Etchells <guy.etchells@virgin.net> wrote: > It has always been possible to leave personal estate What do you mean by "personal estate"? Personal estate used to mean movable items, not land. So in the days when the only significant wealth was land, which was "real estate", this would not have been part of personal estate and could not have been left. > to whomever one wished, the confusion with illegitimate offspring is > they had no automatic right to inherit. This means that anything left > had to be specifically left to them as with other people who were > not blood relations. Cheers Guy > > Tim Powys-Lybbe wrote: > > > > > > My understanding is that at least up to the 18th century and probably > > also the 19th, it was impossible to leave anything to an illegitimate > > offspring. So I suspect most of this will was invalid. It was, however, > > possible to give them things in their lifetime, which is what an > > ancestor of mine did in the early 17th century for a son born before he > > married the mother. > > > > As late as 1880 a gt-gt-grandfather, a lawyer, thought is best to set up > > a trust for his second family, so that the gift was to the trustees, not > > to his offspring. Then in his will he considered the possibility that > > this trust might be overturned so added in that his will would set up a > > similar trust to replace it. Anyhow he succeeded in providing for his > > second family. > > > -- Tim Powys-Lybbe tim@powys.org For a miscellany of bygones: http://powys.org