Your Inheritence Laws are Screwed Up

if an eatate is entailed on male heirs, as it is in pride and prejudice, then it passes to the next male heir. this was a common practice in aristocratic and gentry families though not always. but even with entailed estates, certainly in the middle ages the widow was entitled to her 'dower' the use of a third of the property during her lifetime. by the 19th century, i think it had become the custom in aristocraticf amilies for the widow to be given a house on the estate known as the 'dower house' which was hers for her lifetime. An entail could be broken if the oldest son agreed to it, but unfortunately mr Bennet has no son. any non entailed property coudl be left elselwhere, For instance, in pride and prejducie, it is made clear that mr Bennet has not saved towards his dAughters' future, he should have been saving money out of his income from the estate (which was his to do what he liked with) to leave his daughters. but he hasn't. When elizabeth goes to see lady catherine de burgh, lady catherine expresses satisfaction that there is no entail in her family, her daughter will inherit everything. mr Bennet, no account of not having sAved, won't be able to leave his daughter a lot.

Sense and sensiblity is a bit different. The family estate in sense and sensibility was not entailed, but the grandfather of the dashwood girls made a will leaving everything for his grandson for whom he had conceived a doting affection. So when his son remarried, the daughters of hi second marriage were not going to inherit. The dashwood father trusted his son to provide for his half sisters. However, the son's wife talks him out of doing much for his sisters, so the dashwoods are left with an income of £500 a year, i suppose from property perhaps belonging to the father that wasn't pArt of the grandfather's estate, or possibly something of their mother's, I can't remember. £500 a year wasn't a lot for an upper class family, but it was far more than an ordinary family would have to live on. With their £500 a year they will still be able to employ three servants. £500 a year was the income that jane austen and her mother and sister had to live on after her father's death, they lived modestly (by gentry standards) but were not destitute.

i missed a dying art, i must look it up. i don't know why he was able to leave everything to the groundskeeper. there is a lot of strange stuff goind on in Midsomer!

if an eatate is entailed on male heirs, as it is in pride and prejudice, then it passes to the next male heir. this was a common practice in aristocratic and gentry families though not always. but even with entailed estates, certainly in the middle ages the widow was entitled to her 'dower' the use of a third of the property during her lifetime. by the 19th century, i think it had become the custom in aristocraticf amilies for the widow to be given a house on the estate known as the 'dower house' which was hers for her lifetime. An entail could be broken if the oldest son agreed to it, but unfortunately mr Bennet has no son. any non entailed property coudl be left elselwhere, For instance, in pride and prejducie, it is made clear that mr Bennet has not saved towards his dAughters' future, he should have been saving money out of his income from the estate (which was his to do what he liked with) to leave his daughters. but he hasn't. When elizabeth goes to see lady catherine de burgh, lady catherine expresses satisfaction that there is no entail in her family, her daughter will inherit everything. mr Bennet, no account of not having sAved, won't be able to leave his daughter a lot.

Sense and sensiblity is a bit different. The family estate in sense and sensibility was not entailed, but the grandfather of the dashwood girls made a will leaving everything for his grandson for whom he had conceived a doting affection. So when his son remarried, the daughters of hi second marriage were not going to inherit. The dashwood father trusted his son to provide for his half sisters. However, the son's wife talks him out of doing much for his sisters, so the dashwoods are left with an income of £500 a year, i suppose from property perhaps belonging to the father that wasn't pArt of the grandfather's estate, or possibly something of their mother's, I can't remember. £500 a year wasn't a lot for an upper class family, but it was far more than an ordinary family would have to live on. With their £500 a year they will still be able to employ three servants. £500 a year was the income that jane austen and her mother and sister had to live on after her father's death, they lived modestly (by gentry standards) but were not destitute.

i missed a dying art i think, or at any rate don't remember it well, i must see if i can watch it somewhere.

on looking it up i see that there was an act of parliament in 1975 which stated that there must be reasonable provision made for dependents, so a widow ought to be able to challenge a will that doesn't leave her anything.