Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- List of Abbreviations
- Table Of Statutes
- Table Of Cases
- THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE LAW OF CHARITY 1532–1700
- THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE LAW OF CHARITY 1700–1827
- Appendixes
- Appendix A Bills and Answers in Chancery relating to Charity, 1350–1601
- Appendix B Selected Transcriptions
- Appendix C The Charitable Uses Act, 1597: 39 Elizabeth I c. 6
- Appendix D The Charitable Uses Act, 1601: 43 Elizabeth I c. 4
- Appendix E A Bibliographical note on the Cambridge MS. of Francis Moore's Reading on the Statute of Charitable Uses: 43 Elizabeth I c. 4
- Appendix F Francis Moore's Notes and his Speech at the Beginninge
- Appendix G A Case from Francis Moore's Reading
- Appendix H Inquisitions before the Charity Commissioners: 1597–1787
- Appendix I Decrees made by the Charity Commissioners: 1597–1787
- Appendix J The Mortmain Act, 1736: 9 George II c. 36
- Appendix K The Poor Relation Cases
- Index
Appendix K - The Poor Relation Cases
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 October 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- List of Abbreviations
- Table Of Statutes
- Table Of Cases
- THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE LAW OF CHARITY 1532–1700
- THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE LAW OF CHARITY 1700–1827
- Appendixes
- Appendix A Bills and Answers in Chancery relating to Charity, 1350–1601
- Appendix B Selected Transcriptions
- Appendix C The Charitable Uses Act, 1597: 39 Elizabeth I c. 6
- Appendix D The Charitable Uses Act, 1601: 43 Elizabeth I c. 4
- Appendix E A Bibliographical note on the Cambridge MS. of Francis Moore's Reading on the Statute of Charitable Uses: 43 Elizabeth I c. 4
- Appendix F Francis Moore's Notes and his Speech at the Beginninge
- Appendix G A Case from Francis Moore's Reading
- Appendix H Inquisitions before the Charity Commissioners: 1597–1787
- Appendix I Decrees made by the Charity Commissioners: 1597–1787
- Appendix J The Mortmain Act, 1736: 9 George II c. 36
- Appendix K The Poor Relation Cases
- Index
Summary
The courts were frequently asked to consider the fate of legacies to ‘poor relations.’ But not until Mahon v. Savage (1803), 1 Sch. and Lef. III and Att.-Gen. v. Price (1810), 17 Ves. 371, did any question turn on whether the legacies were or were not charitable.
In the majority of cases the testator had bequeathed personalty to his poor relations, to be distributed among them at the discretion of his executors. The primary question which confronted the courts was to determine which of the testator's poor relations could take.
The eighteenth-century law on this topic is an intractable bog of conflicting decisions, made more intractable by confused and incompetent reporting: see, for example, Isaac v. De Friez (1754), Ambl. 595 and Att.-Gen. v. Bucknall (1741), 2 Atk. 328. The balance of authority suggests that the Statute of Distribution, 1670 (22 and 23 Car. II c. 10), was deemed to be ‘the best measure for setting bounds to such general words; otherwise it would be endless to find out everybody that were relations’.
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- History of the Law of Charity, 1532-1827 , pp. 260 - 262Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1969