>From Joe Drake of S'hampton Co, VA, and of interest to all
***.... Question: What was the purpose of the estate inventories when
someone died. Did they have estate or death taxes in the 1700 and 1800's?
Educate me if you would be so kind.
Thank-you
Joe
***
Hi, Joe. In answering your question, it will be helpful to speak of the
whole matter of intestate proceedings. The overriding purpose of such
activity is to once and for all resolve all debts owing by and those payable
to the dead person, to learn of everything he/she owned at the moment of
death and of the value of those assets, to determine who of the survivors is
to have what share of those assets, and then to conclude and close forever
the worldly affairs of that deceased.
For about 800 years the power to determine who and in what percentage the
assets of a person who died intestate are to be divided among those who
survived has come to rest in the court. Before then, it was largely up to the
family. The legislatures have over the same period established the order of
priority among the survivors in intestate deaths. Those statutes are loosely
known as "Statutes Of Descent and Distribution". Land "descends" and
personal property (including intangibles) is "distributed", thus the name
given to those statutes.
In addition to the taxes that from time to time and in varying amounts have
been levied on estate property, both real and personal, it is the division
of those assets that has been and is most significant to the family.
The inventory is ordered by the court to be done by reputable/honest people
who quite usually must also be deemed acceptable by the family. Those folks
are to list EVERY asset, in order that sometime long after the settlement of
the last affairs of the dead person no one can spring up out of the bushes
and say that the inventory was not complete.
Across those centuries, those appointed appraisers - usually three - take
the inventory by visiting the premises (almost always), and then after
swearing to the truth of their findings and lists, they file that summary
with the court as part of the permanent estate file. It is from that list of
sums of money and all other funds deducted from the estate as expenses, paid as debts, or derived from the sale of any or all those
assets that the court ultimately divides the total value between the heirs.
When someone family member wants some particular piece of personal property
or asset, the court will usually approve that IF - IF - no other heir
objects. The value of that item to be taken "in kind" by an heir, as shown
in the inventory entry of that piece, is then deducted from the total sum to
which that heir otherwise would have received. It is this process that has caused myriad fights among families where one of the heirs enters the house and carries off what he/she want before the appraisers come by.
An estate ends with a final order by the court stating what he did with the
totality of the assets. That document is usually known as an "order of
distribution", a "final account", or a "final settlement", depending largely upon the
local practice.
Hope this answers your questions.
Paul
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