Wills Quotes
At the time, in many states married women could not control their own inheritance, could not sign a contract, owned no part of a family business that a women might have founded and worked in her entire life, could not be an executor of a will—even if it were her husband’s.
Since a slave was not a person, he/she could not accept any gifts or own any property. They were themselves property. The Greeks, the Romans, the ancient Germans, the Poles, with the Portuguese, the Spanish and the French had provided, both by law and by custom, for the possession of property by the slave, which could, not be seized by his master. This is another sense in which American slavery was even worse than most slavery had been.
Eleanor Roosevelt was left the other half of the income. Many people accused FDR of disinheriting his own children, However, he did not. It was the income from the estate that he left to LeHand as she was disabled and had no other source of sustenance or to pay her medical bills. The principle assets were left ½ to his children, and when Missy LeHand passed away, the income then reverted to his children. He explained to his son that the children were all educated and healthy and could earned a living but Missy could not. The children grew up knowing Missy and actually gave her the name “Missy” which stuck. There was no resentment on their part..
“Familia” in Latin meant in this context, the community or the citizens as opposed to the officials, The Bishop determined the former was under attack by the officials who in the probating of wills and estates would take bribes or levy taxes under “laws” that they would make up on the spot bilking the rightful inheritors of the property and wealth of the deceased. The principle that laws and regulations must be written down in advance and not otherwise, is a fundamental part of Western law today, But as this quotation shows, it was not always such.
