Inheritance patterns in Lancashire

[Phoenix]

I have just discovered that my great uncle by marriage was not, as I had assumed, a Surrey man, but originated in Lancashire.

It was a bone of contention for the inlaws that widows were hard done by in the family: on their husbands' deaths, they would not inherit more than a pittance. All the wealth went back to the men.

I will need to get his father's will to see exactly how it worked. It presumably was designed to ensure that land was not lost.

Does anyone have experience of inheritance among farmers in Lancashire? Until the C20th the family were based between Blackpool & St Annes, taking their surname from one of the local towns.

[Olde Crone Holden]

Phoenix

The vast majority of my ancestors were Lancashire based, although I also have some farmers in Cheshire.

Where land was concerned, yes, the men got the land, but this wasn't just a Lancashire thing, it was the law of the land - primogeniture. Widows got anything ranging from no mention at all to a very comfortable allowance. I assume where there was no mention, that the widow had already had money settled on her, or the eldest son had been detailed to provide for his old mum.

Quite surprising to me were instances where a Lancashire widow was left a thriving business, one which was secondary to the land etc. For example, a fairly well-off farmer, who ran a blacksmith forge, left the forge to his widow.

Also, many of these women owned land in their own names, usually ancient dower lands, and this they left to their daughters/granddaughters.

As for dividing up any actual cash, again it varied. Sometimes sons and daughters got equal shares, sometimes they didn't. I suspect this had more to do with the dynamics of the family than with tradition though.

OC

[Harrys mum]

I have several wills from Lancashire. In each one the wife was given use of the house and an annuity till death.

Strangely the eldest son didn't seem to get anymore than the others and certainly the daughters got property as well.

I think the eldest son often had been given the main property before his father's death.

Whatever the daughters were given was for her use and not her husband's.

Quite a few of the women's wills gave more to the daughters than the sons. Some property seemed to go down the female line.

My earliest will from Lancashire is 1740 and the latest 1814 and they were all wealthy families.

I can't say if that was the norm, though.

[Harrys mum]

We crossed, OC........lol

[KiteRunner]

I have got quite a few Lancashire farmers' wills, but I would have to look through them to see who inherited what exactly.

[kylejustin]

my lancashire lot mainly left things to the sons, but my lot didn't have many daughters that survived infancy.

[Phoenix]

The whole family, including adult children upper sticks in the early C20th and moved from Lancs to Essex. This suggests quite a lot of control excercised by the parents.

I assume that money was left in trust to the sons & passed back to the family on their deaths. I know it was felt that the widows were left in unnecessary hardship. On the other hand, my great uncle went bankrupt & lost his farm, so it may have been that the father felt his children could not be trusted with finances.

[Harrys mum]

One of my favourites is the Manor of Broughton. It was in the Sawrey family for a few generations till 1755 when Richard Gilpin Sawrey died without issue.
He left it to his cousin, John Gilpin, who then added the Sawrey to his name.

[modem]

Could it be something to do with the land coming under the Duchy of Lancaster? Its inheritance laws seem to have been/are different to those applying in the rest of England.

[Phoenix]

I think any land was in Essex. There was clearly indignation on the part of all the female inlaws about the treatment of the widows, but it sounds simply as if the father was a control freak. (I need some time off to go & find his will!)

[Penelope]

Redacted

[Olde Crone Holden]

Of course, you need to factor in that old chestnut of people thinking other people are well-off when they aren't!

It may be that the widow was left all that there was to leave apart from the farm. My father spent many a happy hour speculating how much people were worth, or where they had got their money from, or what they had done with the money he expected they had and so on.

OC

[Phoenix]

You have a point, OC. I remember meeting a couple of women in the Probate office, who couldn't understand what had happened to the £400 someone had been left. Surely they must have willed it to someone else? I suggested mildly that it might have been spent and got blank looks of disbelief!