Hello Richard Joint Tenants ~~~~~~~~~~ Each owns all of it or the whole. Tenants in Common ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Each is regarded as owning an individual share in the property, but that share has not positively been marked out. Tenants in Common hold property in undivided shares. A joint tenancy arises where land is conveyed to two or more persons and no words of severance are used. A tenancy in common arises when there are words of severance - so: a conveyance "....to A and B" would create a joint tenancy a conveyance "....to A and B equally" would create a tenancy in common. Should a party to a joint tenancy die his share in the property passes to the survivors, until such time as there is one person and he becomes the sole owner. (it could well be that this was not relevant when the will was written) A tenant in common may dispose of his share by will. Source: Paraphrased from "English Law" first published 1963, by Smith and Keenan The Law of Property Act 1925 would appear to be the relevant authority, but I don't think that it alters the original definition Best wishes Paul On Sun, 6 Apr 2003 07:57:45 +1000, Richard Prankerd <[email protected]> wrote: >List: > >I am in the process of transcribing a number of 18th century wills >(from the PRO-Online website) and have repeatedly encountered the >following statement: > >"to be divided equally between them share and share alike as Tenants >in Common and not as joint Tenants " > >Can someone please explain to me the difference between "Tenants in >Common" and "joint Tenants". This has been applied in situations >where the number of beneficiaries is anywhere from two to six. > >Many thanks >Richard >Richard J. Prankerd, PhD >Senior Lecturer Phone: INT + (613) 9903-9517 >Victorian College of Pharmacy Fax: INT + (613) 9903-9583 >(A Faculty of Monash University) email: [email protected] >381 Royal Parade >Parkville VIC 3052 >AUSTRALIA > >Researching: >PRANKERD and variants in Dorset, Somerset, Wilts, Bristol, London, >Hamps and Berks, not to mention Australia >I use Archive CD Books to help with my research >http://www.archivecdbooks.org > > >==== WESSEX-PLUS Mailing List ==== >To unsubscribe from list send the command "unsubscribe" to: >[email protected] (if in mail mode) or >[email protected] (if in digest mode.) 50.33.50N 02.26.70W http://www.pbenyon.plus.com/Naval.html