Descend in United Kingdom

Meaning of Descend

The following is an old definition of Descend [1]: Sometimes, to “pass by descent or inheritance ” or ” be inherited by,” – thereby expressing in a single term what otherwise might require a circumlocution. When so used, in statutes, it is usually accompanied by other words which prevent ambiguity: as, ” descend to his father,” ” to his mother,” ” to his next of kin; ” but in these cases these terms so qualify the word ” descend ” as to give it the effect of ” pass by inheritance ” to the person named or described. In a will the word cannot be construed to include any but lineal heirs, without clear indication that it was otherwise intended by the testator. Ordinarily, for an estate to vest by operation of law in the heirs, immediately upon the death of the ancestor. In a will, does not work a descent in the strict legal sense, as inheritance is through operation of law. It indicates, presumably, a desire that property shall follow the channel into which the law would direct it.0 May import devolution by force of the devise made, rather than descent in the legal sense; that is, “to go down.” 1 Descendant. One who has issued from au individual, including a child, a grand-child, and their children to the remotest degree.2 Correlative, ancestor, see, in this resource, the term Often synonymous with “heir.” 3 “Descendants” includes every person descended from the stock referred to. – is co-extensive with “issue,” but not as comprehensive as “relatives;” 4 nor does it embrace ” brothers and sisters; ” has not the same signification that ” heii’s of the body ” has,; and may be used by a testator as synonymous with “children.” Descent. Passing downward; hereditary succession. Hereditary succession to an estate in realty. The title whereby a man on the death of his ancestor acquires his estate by right of representation as his heir at law. See Heir. Lineal descent. Descent from father or grandfather to son or grandson; or from mother to daughter, etc. Collateral descent. From brother to brother, cousin to cousin, etc. Mediate, immediate descent. A descent may be mediate or immediate in regard to the mediate or immediate descent of the estate of right, or the mediateness or immediateness of the pedigrees or degrees of consanguinity. A descent from a parent to a child cannot be construed to mean a descent through and not from a parent. When an estate is said to have descended from A to B, the obvious meaning is that it is an immediate descent from A to B. ” Come by descent ” means by immediate descent. Canons of descent. The rules which regulate the descent of real estates of inheritance; the rules according to which estates are transmitted from ancestor to heir. At common law these canons are: I. An inheritance lineally descends to the issue of the person who last died actually seised, in infinitum, and never lineally ascends. II. The male issue are admitted before the female. III. Where there are two or more males in equal degree the eldest only inherits; but females altogether. IV. Lineal descendants, in infinitum, represent their ancestor. V. On failure of the lineal descendants of the person last seised the inheritance descends to his collateral relations, being of the whole blood of the first purchaser: subject to the last three preceding rules. VI. The collateral heir of the peraon last seised must be his next collateral kinsman of the whole blood. VII. In collateral inheritances male stocks (however remote) are preferred to female (however near); unless the lands have, in fact, descended from a female. Lord Hale re duced the rules upon the subject of descent, up to whose time they had continued the same some four hundred years, to this series of “canons.” Material alteration was not again made in them till 1833,- by stat. 3 and 4 Will. IV, c. 106 (amended in 1859 by 22 and 23 Vict., c. 35, ss. 19, 20). By that act, which went into effect January 1, 1834, among other important alterations, the father is made heir to his son, the latter having no issue; all lineal ancestors are rendered capable of being heirs; and relatives of the half-blood are admitted to succeed on failure of relatives in the same degree of the whole blood. In England title by ” descent ” was favored by the courts, because land in the hands of the heirs at law by descent was chargeable with payment of the ancestor’s debts, and because such title favored the right of escheat upon failurc of heirs. On the other hand, land acquired by ” purchase ” was not liable for debts, and, upon the death of the owner, descended to the heirs on the paternal side, and upon failure of such heirs to the heirs on the side of the mother. Title by descent was considered the worthier, and where a will gave the devisee the same estate he would have taken as heir-at-law he was adjudged to take not under the will, but by descent or operation of law. The, common-law canons of descent tended to prevent the diffusion of landed property, and to promote its accumulation in the oands of a few. The principles sprang from the martial genius of the feudal system. In the United States the English common law of descents, in its essential features, has been rejected; each State has established a law for itself. So far as the British law was taken as the basis of this legislation, it was the statutes of Charles II (1671, 1678), and of James II (1685), respecting the distribution of personalty. The two systems are radically different. See Blood; Caput, Per capita; Distribution; Feud; Inherit; Pedigree; Primogeniture; Purchase, 3.

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Notes and References

1. Concept of Descend provided by the Anderson Dictionary of Law (1889) (Dictionary of Law consisting of Judicial Definitions and Explanations of Words, Phrases and Maxims and an Exposition of the Principles of Law: Comprising a Dictionary and Compendium of American and English Jurisprudence; William C. Anderson; T. H. Flood and Company, Law Publishers, Chicago, United States)