Re: Thoughts about Adrian Benjamin Burke's Article about the Two Wives of Robert Whitney

On Oct 21, 5:26 pm, Nathaniel Taylor <nltay...@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
In article
<nltaylor-E3FD0D.17173721102...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
 Nathaniel Taylor <nltay...@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:





I have read the partial translation in Adrian's article and looked at
some of the terms in the original (it's printed in a reduced form which
is not completely legible).  The only things that the feoffment implies
certainly are that Robert Whitney had some children alive, including one
or more daughters by his late wife Constance, at the time of the
feoffment.  He either had a son or sons or expected that he could yet
father a son or sons, but their maternity was irrelevant. The succession
is (1): to heirs male of the body (i.e. sons & sons of sons) of Robert,
by any wife, either already alive or not yet born; (2) to heirs of the
body by Constance his first wife (that is, to daughters and/or their
heirs, since any living son would go under option 1); (3) to 'right
heirs' (rectis heredibus), which would first be any female heirs by a
wife subsequent to Constance, and next be whatever collateral heir of
Robert was appropriate for that holding under the common law.  So while
the first condition implied that Robert had male children or expected
that he could father them, there is nothing to imply that existing male
children were or were not by Constance; there is also nothing to specify
that Robert did or did not have any daughters living at that time by a
wife other than Constance.  Sons by a second wife would be included in
(1).  Daughters by a subsequent wife were not included in (2), but are
covered in (3) as 'right heirs': in privileging daughters of the first
wife before daughters of any subsequent wife this feoffment differs from
the English common law which would makes daughters by any mother equal
coheirs.  

I should add that what this all boils down to is that this document
alone does not resolve the maternity of any of Robert Whitney's known
children.

Nat Taylor
a genealogist's sketchbook:  http://www.nltaylor.net/sketchbook/- Hide quoted text -

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That was the original point i think i had made.....
.

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