Moniker/Name
Sarah
Source of Question
Research
Your Question
Hi, I’m writing a book and have a question about inheritance. If a marquess died and his wife was pregnant when he died, would his younger brother inherit the title and estate immediately? Or would there be a waiting period to see if the wife gave birth to a boy? If she did give birth to a boy, I assume that would trump the inheritance by the younger brother — but I wanted to double-check that assumption.
Additional comments
If it makes a difference, the younger brother in this scenario is a younger twin brother of the marquess. Thank you.
Thanks for the question, Sarah, and for being a Regency Reader!
Primogeniture generally requires that the “by right of substitution” applies in this situation, ie, everyone would wait to see if the child was male. A male child would inherit, rather than the twin. If the child was a girl, unless there was an unusual entail or estate requirements, the twin brother would become the new marquess.
Hope that helps!
Sources: Primogeniture – Definition, Examples, Cases, Processes (legaldictionary.net)
978-1-4438-2864-2-sample.pdf (cambridgescholars.com) (Jamoussi, Z. (2011). Primogeniture and entail in England: a survey of their history and representation in literature. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.)
