An illegitimate child could not inherit from the father, even if the child was acknowledged in court.  An illegitimate child would NOT be included in "All my surviving children", and would have no standing in court. [ An illegitimate child could inherit from the mother].

It was fairly common not to mention a living child, even if some were mentioned by name. A father could disinherit children of his marriage, but not his wife. [although some men tried! ] Some children were disinherited, while others were favored.

The most common reason for not mentioning some children by name would be that he had children by two marriages. Sometimes a mother, uncle or grandparent left estate to the first group of children, so the father only took care of the children by the second marriage in his will. [sometimes they were thoughtful enough to leave that reasoning in writing!] Even if there was only one marriage, the eldest children had sometimes already received some estate from a deceased relative, or the father. Another reason to leave out some children would be if the children mentioned were older than the rest who were not mentioned - some were legal age to accept property, while the others were too young to accept an inheritance of property right away. [do you know if the testator died shortly after writing the will?] I have also noticed that many men mention older children by name , and then the younger children are grouped together as "the rest of my children", or just, "all of my children". Maybe
 they felt closer to children who were older or they felt there was more of a chance that they would survive the testator.

If a man only owned one or two pieces of property, the eldest children were often favored in the will, even long after the Law of Primogeniture was no longer in effect.  [I assume the estate concerned land?] Maybe there was not enough property to leave each child land.

Most people left no will.  If they did have a will - there is a reason. There were laws codifying how property would be disposed of  when  there was no will.  The purpose of writing a will usually is to dispose of property in some way other than the way in which property would be disposed of if the person died without a will.

You might want to check other county court records and see if there is a list of heirs, or Distribution of Estate papers filed by the executor in Louisa.   Possible a survey exists of the divided land?

Langdon

<<I have my ggg-grandfather's Will which does not mention my
gg-grandfather. The Will mentions his wife and his three sons by name to render aid
to their mother in managing his estate. Was it common for a child not to
be mentioned in a Will ?>>  Thanks, Marie>>

<<My question(s) is would an illegitimate child be included in the
definition of "all my surviving children" in a will even if not named?  Would he
or she have any rights in a later chancery court case?  Would it have made
any difference if there had been some sort of court acknowledgement, or a
bastardy case?>>  Janet








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