Download PDF by Professor Bonfield Lloyd: Devising, Dying and Dispute: Probate Litigation in Early

Seventeenth-century England was once a rustic keen about estate rights. for less than those that owned estate have been thought of to have a vested curiosity within the upkeep of legislations, order and social concord. As such, developing the possession of 'things' was once a relentless challenge for every person, and nowhere is that this extra obvious than within the circumstances of disputed wills. according to a wealth of surviving facts from the Prerogative court docket of Canterbury, the probate jurisdiction which probated wills of the extra prosperous English homeowners in addition to a few of people with a extra modest volume of estate, this e-book investigates what litigation over the validity of wills finds concerning the interaction among society and legislation. the amount investigates, catalogs, and systematizes the felony matters that have been raised in will disputes within the Canterbury court docket within the final half the 17th century. even though, this isn't only a ebook approximately legislation and felony perform. The files from which it attracts plunge us into deeply own and sometimes tragic events, revealing how the final requests of the lifeless and demise have been usually neglected or misinterpreted through relations, associates and collectors for his or her personal benefit.

By concentrating on estate legislation as mirrored in situations of disputed wills, the ebook presents a glimpse at a miles fuller spectrum of society than is usually the case. Even humans of really modest skill have been involved to cross on their possessions, and their circumstances offer a image of the kind of items owned and social relationships published by means of styles of bequests. This too is correct for ladies, who regardless of being denied complete participation in lots of components of civic existence, are often encountered as key avid gamers in complaints over disputed wills.

What emerges from this examine is an image of a society for which notions of legislation and personal estate have been more and more intertwined, but within which courts have been much less interested in formality than with making sure that the intentions of will-makers have been correctly carried out.