Wills and testaments

[Malmo]

Hello and happy new year.
I have been looking at Scotland's People wills and testaments site. One of the documents of interest to me shows that Jessie M died intestate. I thought that intestate implied that a will had not been written.
If this is the case, why would there be three pages to it and what sort of information might it contain?
One more question. How accurate is the recorded date to that shown on other documents like a death record for example?
Thankyou and happy new year again. May all your searching bear friut.
M

[RJ_Paton]

Although a person may have died intestate their property still has to be disposed of ... there are certain conventions in Scots law regarding the disposal of heritable and non heritable property.

Application would be made to the Sheriff Court of the area where the deceased lived or had property for the authorisation to dispose of the property although this was often settled "in family" there may have been some dispute about the distribution. (this could take several weeks or sometimes longer and so had no direct relationship with the date of death)

This FAQ answer from Scotlands people explains it well
http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/content/faqs/questions/index.aspx?380

[Little Nell]

Hi Malmo,

Is it an inventory?  Even if someone died intestate, any property they had still needed to be administered etc.  So it may be a list of their property, debts etc.  Could be useful.

I have always found the dates to be very accurate, although I suppose it depends on the date.  However, I get the impression that you are talking late 19th century?

I often use the free search facility for wills etc to help me determine which certificate to view!

Nell

Oops, really should look before I hit the post button.

[Malmo]

Thanks Nell and Falkryn
I was just trying to get a feel for this document which I found through the free search, before spending good money on it.
I suppose the only way to find out is to spend the money
M

[yn9man]

Hi Malmo,

Is it an inventory?  Even if someone died intestate, any property they had still needed to be administered etc.  So it may be a list of their property, debts etc.  Could be useful.

I have always found the dates to be very accurate, although I suppose it depends on the date.  However, I get the impression that you are talking late 19th century?

I often use the free search facility for wills etc to help me determine which certificate to view!

Nell

How do you use the free search facility? I have tried to view wills (to ensure I ordered the correct one) but all I have been able to get is a listing of the wills and inventory. Not much information to go on to ensure you are ordering the document you want / need.

yn9man

[RJ_Paton]

To use the search facility, log in, click on the free index search in "Wills & testaments" and enter the details .... unlike the normal search it does not cost anything to view the search results when they come back.


Re time period I have just double checked one I had from 1842 for my x5 great grandfather who died intestate - he died in June and the testament is cleared in September with all of the property going to his widow (Relict) . His testament is only one page so I presume that the 3 page item will have far more information and possible details of other members of the family.

[Malmo]

I couldn't have put it better than Falkryn's way yn9man. It's quite easy really. Even for me.
I had another thought. If there are documents even for people who died intestate, why aren't there documents for everyone. Everyone that is who had a life with family, a home etc which must have contained some artefacts to dispose of

[RJ_Paton]

The documents only exist if the estate is over a certain value - £50 in the case of my ancestor who left an estate just over £59 in value which then requires the Sheriff Court to be involved

[carolineasb]

Falkyrn

Just wondered where you got the information about the £50 limit required before Confirmation is sought.  Nowadays (& I believe it has been for sometime), Confirmation of an Estate is only required if a "Financial Institution" requests same or possibly if the Deceased has Heritable property & the Title Deeds do not include a survivorship clause - this does not depend on the deceased's estate being intestate or testate.  I thought perhaps that the £50 limit had at one time been a "Small Estate" limit which, at present, stands at £30,000.

Regards

Caroline