[APG Public List] Age 21 as legal mandate for sale of land in 1814 Virginia

[CL Swope (alfonsa)]

Wow, Barbara. That's the mother load. Thank you!

It raises a follow up for my general edification:
Am I to understand that your last sentence "Unless the family went to 
court and the court ordered a division, an intestate estate could not be 
divided until the youngest heir (whether a child, or a child of a 
deceased child) came of age " is true throughout Virginia history in 
regards to an intestate estate?

Cynthia


Barbara Vines Little, CG wrote:
> You are correct and the most likely explanation for the date of the 
> sale is his having reached majority. While a sale could be made by one 
> under age 21, it was not legally binding. There are instances of 
> individuals who sold land before they came of age, coming into court  
> when they reached their majority and reaffirming the sale.
>
> If the mother's date of death could not be determined, then, as Craig 
> notes,  her dower interest could be a consideration. The children 
> could sell the land subject to her dower; she could join in the sale 
> and release her dower or the children could wait until she died and 
> they had clear title to the land and then sell it.
>
> When there is a gap between the death of the father and the sale of 
> the land, an underage child or a long-lived widow is the usual cause. 
> Unless the family went to court and the court ordered a division, an 
> intestate estate could not be divided until the youngest heir (whether 
> a child, or a child of a deceased child) came of age.
>
> Barbara Vines Little, CG
> Dominion Research Services
> PO Box 1273
> Orange, VA 22960
>
> 540-832-3473 bvlittle at earthlink.net
>
> CG, Certified Genealogist, is a service mark of the Board for 
> Certification of Genealogists, used
> under license by board-certified genealogists after periodic 
> evaluation; the board name is
> registered in the US Patent & Trademark Office.
>
>
> CL Swope (alfonsa) wrote:
>> The date of birth of my target is said to be Jan 1793, and he is said 
>> the youngest of the sibling  group. His only brother died in the 
>> early 1800s.
>> In April of 1814 the target and his four sisters advertised their 
>> inherited land (Virginia) for sale, and in May of that year sold it. 
>> By this time, my target was 'of Pennsylvania', but his siblings, and 
>> the land, were in Virginia.
>> I suspect the sibling group waited until 1814 to sell as he had just 
>> turned 21 and that  the  decision to sell at that time supports the  
>> reported (and so far unverifiable) birth year as well as his position 
>> as youngest in the sibling group.
>> Am I correct that there is a legal precedence for this assumption in 
>> the time frame? Google Books turns up quite a few references to court 
>> proceedings seeming to support my thought, but I'd like to be 
>> certain. I can think of no other reason the sibling group would have 
>> waited, and the coincidence of age seems a strong indicator to me. Am 
>> I in error?
>>
>> Thanks in advance,
>> Cynthia Swope
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