Family property

“ It is becoming habitual for a father to establish his sons with the family property,45 and only to retain such a portion of the estate as he may wish to fill his declining activities. This is a very beneficial change, though by no means a grateful one to the Exchequer which has brought it about. ”

“ Twelfth—They deny the widow the right of inheritance in the common property that they give the widower, allow her but forty days' residence in the family mansion before paying rent to her husband's heirs, thus treating her as if she were an alien to her own children—set off to her a few paltry articles of household use, close the estate through a process of law, and make the days of her bereavement doubly day of sorrow. ”

“ In the current discussions about property, rights, and social relations, it is very rare to see any appreciation manifested of the connection between the family and property. Yet this connection lies at the root of the whole matter. The grandest and most powerful monopoly in the world is the family, in its monogamic form ”

“ Any property, other than women and children, may be given away, if it be no detriment to the family—but not the whole property, where there are children; nor any portion which has been already promised to another. ”

“ I believe that in a true marriage, the husband and wife earn for the family, and that the property is the family's—belongs jointly to the husband and wife. But if the law says that the property is the husband's, if it says that he may take the wages of his wife, just as the master does those of the slave, and she has no right to them, we must seek a temporary redress. ”

“ The power of perpetuating our property in our families is one of the most valuable and interesting circumstances belonging to it, and that which tends the most to the perpetuation of society itself. It makes our weakness subservient to our virtue; it grafts benevolence even upon avarice. The possessors of family wealth, and of the distinction which attends hereditary possession, (as most concerned in it,) are the natural securities for this transmission. ”

“ The position of the husband gradually changed for the worse. From being owner, subject to an obligation to return the dos if the wife predeceased him, he became a trustee of the corpus of the property for the wife’s family, retaining only the enjoyment of the income as long as the marriage continued. ”

“ The property they received from their parents is used by the family into whose home they go. Upon marriage the children receive the property as it was left them, the annual increase having gone to the family which cared for them.
If there are no relatives, orphans with property readily find a home; if there are neither relatives nor property, some family receives the children more as servants than as equals. When they are married they are usually not given more than a dwelling. ”

“ Thus, whereas a son's children of either sex represented their father in the division of the family estate, a daughter's children did not represent their mother. On the other hand, property belonging to a woman at the time of her marriage was not necessarily absorbed into the family estate of her husband. ”

“ After having made first cousins heirs, where there were no legitimate children, they could not so divide the property between two different branches as to prevent the simultaneous existence of extreme wealth and extreme poverty in the same family. ”

“ Hence, if the udalman in possession should sell or alienate his land, the next of kin is entitled to redeem it on repaying the purchase-money, and should he decline to do so, it is in the power of the one next to him to claim his right and recover the property to the family or kindred. ”

“ If a younger brother settles in a new house, he takes his favourite sister with him, and not the woman who, according to the custom in all other countries, should keep house for him. The man's mother manages the house, and after her death his eldest sister takes her place; but no man has any idea who his father is, and the children of his sisters are his heirs. Moveable property is divided amongst the children of the sisters of the deceased equally, and the land is managed by the eldest male of the family, but each individual has a right to a share in the income. ”

“ A fellow oughtn't to let his family property go to pieces." ”

“ Legislation has provided for the retention of landed property by families to which it has belonged for any considerable period—thus, under certain conditions, a family which has parted with land can reacquire it at an appraisement—or land alienated by its owner may on his death be acquired by his next of kin. ”

“ The chances are that the old who have no relatives have at least a little property. Such persons are readily cared for by some family which uses the property at the time and falls heir to it when the owner Page 71dies. ”

“ A widower, if his wife has borne a living child, is entitled to the use of one-third of her real estate for life, and one-third of her personal property. If there are no heirs, lineal or collateral, he takes the whole estate absolutely. ”

“ Eighth—They forbid the mother's inheritance of property from her children in case the father is living, thus making her of no consideration in the eyes of those to whom she has given birth. Ninth—They give the husband control of the common property—allow him to spend the whole personal estate in riotous living, or even to sell the home over: his wife's head, subject only to her third life-interest in case she survives him. ”

“ We found that marriage gave to the husband all the wife's personal property which could be reduced to possession, and the use of all her real estate owned at the time or acquired by her after marriage, with power to rent the same and receive the rent. ”

“ "Since the advent of civilization, the outgrowth of property has been so immense, its forms so diversified, its uses so expanding and its management so intelligent in the interest of its owners that it has become, on the part of the people, an unmanageable power. The human mind stands bewildered in the presence of its own creation. The time will come, nevertheless, when human intelligence will rise to the mastery over property, and define the relations of the state to the property it protects, as well as the obligations and the limits of the rights of its owners. ”

“ In the event, however, of property coming to the child by inheritance the parents must give notice to the proper authority, who will inquire whether the administration of such inheritance requires a special guardian or not. [23] The father may apply the income of property belonging to the child for his maintenance, education, and other like purposes. ”

“ If the wife marries, the usufruct is reduced one-half. As to sons and daughters,—in the father’s estate the sons have a preferred right to take the real estate, with the appurtenances, against payment of a moderate valuation; sons also have a preferred right to take the property pertaining to the paternal industry, such as tools, professional implements, cattle, etc., without, however, any deduction from the actual value thereof; sons take without compensation the paternal wardrobe, arms, outfit, and seal. ”

“ In the great majority of cases the man has to earn a living and to support his family, at least among the possessing classes. He thereby obtains a superior position that has no need of any legal special privilege. In the family, he is the bourgeois, the woman represents the proletariat. ”

“ The disposal of parental property by will is restricted to the legal heirs. The eldest son has a double portion, or, more correctly speaking, the property may be said to descend to the eldest son in trust for all the younger brothers. ”

“ Now, if the circumstance of his being married made the thing given become the property of both husband and wife, we must, on the same principle, hold that where children were the moving cause, they too should be considered as owners in common of the land conceded. ”

“ Where the father was a landowner, for instance, the principal estate always descended to the son, whereas the daughter had to be content with some smaller estate of less value, or with part of the personal property. ”

“ If I should not live with thee, but divorce myself and take another wife, I shall be obliged to pay thee forty talents, which sum I secure with my property. Our son, on receiving his estate, is to pay thee fifteen talents yearly. Children of another wife are to have no right to the property of our first-born son. ”

“ No difference is to be made in the distribution of parental estate among the heirs, whether they belong to the society or not; but an equal partition must be made, as far as may be practicable, and consistent with reason and justice.
“7. If an unbelieving wife separate from a believing husband, by agreement, the husband must give her a just and reasonable share of the property; and if they have children who have arrived to years of understanding sufficient to judge for themselves, and who choose to go with their mother, they are not to be disinherited on that account. ”

“ Washington Laws of 1871 provided in relation to community property: "The husband shall have the management of all the common property, but shall not have the right to sell or encumber real estate except he shall be joined in the sale or encumbrance by the wife. ”

“ If the father should die before the son, without having made any fresh arrangement, the property will vest absolutely in the son, and, by executing a simple disentailing deed, he can convert his estate-tail into a fee ... and deal with the property as he likes. On the other hand, if the son should die before the father, the property will, upon the death of the father, descend to the grandson, if there be any, or to the second son if there be no issue of the eldest son. The eldest son, therefore, is certain to obtain possession of the property if he should survive his father ”

“ Every son when he marries is entitled to a share of the estate, which he is supposed to use for the support of himself and his family, and in that way the various estates grow smaller each generation. ”