<<Anyhow it sounds as if you do know about the laws on wills (I don't!) so I wonder if you can elucidate what applied between the liberalisation of real estate in the 16th century and, perhaps, in the 19th century or whenever when the stigma of illegitimacy no longer applied to the beneficiaries wills.>> The law relating to illegitimacy didn't change substantially between the early medieval period and the 20th century - throughout that time illegitimate children could not inherit anything from parents who died intestate, but could be bequeathed property of any sort (whether land or otherwise) by a will. Just to be quite clear: there was absolutely no bar on bequeathing anything at all to one's illegitimate offspring in a will. Their disability only applied under the laws of intestate inheritance. The Legitimacy Act 1926 allowed illegitimate children to inherit if their parents had married after their birth - but only if the parents had been legally able to marry at the time of the birth (ie the Act didn't apply if the birth had been the result of an adulterous relationship). The Legitimacy Act 1959 removed the condition about ability to marry at the time of the birth. However it wasn't until the Family Law Reform Act of 1969 that illegitimate children acquired the right to inherit equally with legitimate offspring - but only from their parents, not from other relatives. Matt Tompkins