_Abridged from Powell's Advice to Executors, (just published.)_
_Queen Consort._--An ancient perquisite belonging to the Queen Consort
was, that on the taking of a _whale_ on the coasts, it should be divided
between the King and Queen; the head only becoming the King's property,
and the tail the Queen's. The reason of this whimsical distinction, as
assigned by our ancient records, was to furnish the Queen's wardrobe
with whalebone.
_A civil Death_ is where a husband has undergone transportation for
life. In such case, his wife is legally entitled to make a will, and act
in every other matter, as if she was unmarried, or as though her husband
were dead.--_Roper's Husband and Wife_.
_Pin Money._--It has been judicially determined, that a married woman
having any _pin-money_, (by which is understood an annual income settled
by the husband, before marriage, on his intended wife, or allowed by him
to her after marriage, gratuitously, for her personal and private
expenditure during the existence of the marriage,) or any separate
maintenance, may, by will, bequeath her _savings_ out of such allowance,
without the license or consent of her husband.--_Clamey's Equitable
Rights of Married Women._
_Compulsory Will._--So cautious is the Ecclesiastical Court in guarding
against restraint of any kind, that in a case in which it was proved
that a man, in his last sickness, was compelled to make his will to
_procure quiet from the extreme importunity of his wife_, it was held to
have been made under restraint, and was declared void.
_Wills of Criminals._--The lands and tenements of _traitors_, from the
commission of the offence, and their goods and chattels, from the time
of their conviction, are forfeited to the king. They have therefore no
property in either; and are not merely deprived of the privilege of
making any kind of will after the period of their conviction, but any
will _previously_ made is rendered void by such conviction, both as
respects real and personal estate. The law respecting _felons_ is the
same, unless it be worth recording that a remarkable exception exists in
favour of Gavelkind lands, which, even though the ancestor be hanged,
are not forfeited for felony.
_Bachelors' Wills._--Without any express revocation, if a man who has
made his will, afterwards _marries, and has a child or children_, his
will, made while a bachelor, will be presumptively _revoked_, both as
regards real and personal estate, and he will be pronounced to have died
intestate. The law presumes that it must be the natural intention of
every man to provide for his wife and offspring before all others, and,
consequently, in such a case, apportions his property according to the
Statute of Distributions. But the fact of a marriage alone, _without a
child_, is no revocation; and though both facts conjoin to revoke the
will, yet such revocation is only on the presumption that the testator
_could not have intended_ his will to remain good. If, on the other
hand, from expressions used by him, and other proof, it be made to
appear unquestionable that it was his intent that his will _should_
continue in force, the marriage and birth of children will not revoke
it.
_Paraphernalia of a Widow._--These are defined to be "such goods as a
wife is, after her husband's death, allowed to retain in preference to
all creditors and legatees; as necessary wearing apparel, and jewels, if
she be of quality; and whether so or not, all such ornaments of the
person, as watches, rings, and trinkets, as _she used to wear_ in her
husband's life-time. Under the term 'wearing apparel' are included
whatsoever articles were given to her by her husband for the purpose of
being made up into clothes, although he may have died before they were
made up." (_Clamey._) It should be added, however, that the jewels of
the wife are, after her husband's death, liable to the payment of his
debts, should his personal estate be exhausted; though her necessary
wearing apparel is protected against the claim of all creditors.
* * * * *