It helps genealogist to learn how personal property (the estate) was treated when a person died intestate, meaning without a Will. Primogeniture did not much apply to this kind of property. If you recall Primogeniture was the standard legal process of detailing how land was passed down via a chain of heirs.
In the southern states during the colonial period, around the Revolutionary War period, the laws of how intestated personal property was divided did change once in awhile. Primarily it allowed the widow one-third interest, if there were children from the marriage. The children divided the rest equally. If there were no children the widow was usually allotted one-half interest, with the other half equally going to the heirs in the normal line of succession.
Having to divide an estate meant that someone had to inventory it and put a value on it. The court would appoint an administrator to inventory the estate and put a value on it. Much of the time this was the widow herself. The administrator(s) would then divide the estate. If the widow didn’t want to do it the court would give the nearest heir a chance to do it. They liked to stay local so preference was given to local heirs. If none of those were suitable, or all declined, the administrator may have been a close friend or neighbor. Sometimes creditors were appointed when there was a lot of debt or because all else had declined. You can see why someone would decline the job, because the administrator was required to post a bond, most of the time equal to the approximate value of the estate. This was to guarantee they would be fair.
Slaves were treated differently depending on the period in time and the colony they were in. They usually were treated like land during the middle of the colonial period and after; since it was the land they worked. However at times in American history they were also treated like personal property. Virginia didn’t pass definitive legislation treating slaves like real property (land) until around 1705, but we’ll save that for another blog post.
Could an heir decline his or her inheritance? Yes and no. They could renounce their right to personal property but not for land. Since land was automatically passed down in a legal manner based on primogeniture it could not be declined. But one could immediately sell it via a deed and get rid of it pretty quickly. Keep in mind a child could not hold property until they were 21 so some of the time property, whether real or personal, may have been held until the child came of age.
Man…is genealogy complicated.
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