What does "reputed" mean in a will?

[kiya]

I've just been given some help on another part of the forum in deciphering a will, and it turns out the writer used "reputed wife" and "reputed son" to refer to his first wife (already deceased) and the son he had by her.  He wrote: "I give and bequeath unto my reputed son William Grayson whom I had by my late wife or reputed wife Rosanna".

Can anyone give me an idea of why it would be written that way?

[stanmapstone]

Reputed:  Generally believed, accounted, or reckoned to be, supposed or alleged.

Stan

[Milliepede]

Is the late wife and Rosanna the same person? 

[kiya]

Thanks Stan, so basically what it means in any other context.  I suppose it's because it's an official document?  Earlier in the will he mentions a brother and sister, but these don't have reputed in front of them.

Milliepede - yes, they're the same person.

[lizdb]

I guess the brothers and sisters are actual brothers and sisters. But it sounds as if Rosanna and he never legally married.

[kiya]

That's the strange thing - William married Rosanna in 1798.  He names a woman, Martha Deakin, at the beginning of his will as "my wife under the name of Martha Grayson with my full authority and whom I consider to be my wife, however the law may be to the contrary".  He was living with her at the time of writing his will (1839) and Rosanna had died years earlier (1824).

[Milliepede]

So it sounds like the "reputed" son was because he was the son of Martha Grayson who wasn't officially his wife.

The son being called William Grayson is a bit of a giveaway.  When was William Grayson born - during the life of Rosanna or after her death?

"late wife or reputed wife" seems an odd way of putting it if they were talking about the same woman.  To me it reads two different women and he would have known which one had his child but hey what do I know!

[avm228]

It sounds to me as though there was some doubt about the lawfulness of his marriage to Rosanna, and therefore the legitimacy of their son William.

Whether such doubt was cast by others, or by William (senior) himself, is not clear.  Perhaps he considered the marriage to Rosanna void or voidable for some reason (and thought himself therefore free to marry Martha in Rosanna's lifetime) but the law did not agree with him.

Did he marry or purport to marry Martha at any stage (whether during Rosanna's life or later)?

[avm228]

William & Martha?

https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/NVT9-R6N