The Orphan's Legacy: or, a Testamentary Abridgement
Title Page of 4th ed. (1701)
AuthorJohn Godolphin
CountryEngland
LanguageEnglish
Published1701
Pages478

The Orphan's Legacy: or, a Testamentary Abridgement is a treatise on the law of inheritance by English jurist and writer John Godolphin. It was published in four editions between 1674 and 1701.[1]

The book was an important source of legal knowledge for courts and scholars in 17th and 18th century England. Sir William Blackstone, in his Commentaries on the Laws of England drew heavily on them for his scholarship on testamentary law and administration.[2] It also informed legal decisions in the pre-revolution American colonies.[3]

In 1694 the founder of Pennsylvania, William Penn, recommended the first edition in a letter to his friend, Quaker dissident John Rodes.[4]

In modern times it has been used by courts and scholars as evidence of the historical English law of wills and inheritance.[5] For example, in a 1911 case involving the killing of actress Cora Crippen the book was cited for the "old law" that a killer could not inherit from his victim.[6]

References

  1. ↑ "Godolphin, John" . Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
  2. ↑ https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/blackstone_bk2ch32.asp
  3. ↑ Billings, Warren M. (2017). "English Legal Literature as a Source of Law and Practice in Seventeenth-Century Virginia". "Esteemed Bookes of Lawe" and the Legal Culture of Early Virginia. University of Virginia Press. p. 26. ISBN 9780813939407.
  4. ↑ Thomas, Allen C (1911). "William Penn on the Choice of Books". Bulletin of Friends' Historical Society of Philadelphia. 4 (3): 42–43 – via JSTOR.
  5. ↑ Crago, Neville (1993). "Executors of Unproved Wills: Status and Devolution of Title in Australia". University of Western Australia Law Review (December 1993): 236 – via Austlii.
  6. ↑ In the Estate of Cunigunda (Otherwise Cora) Crippen, Deceased, [1911] UKLawRpPro 4.
  • Full text at archive.org
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