DESCENT

Hereditary succession. Succession to the ownership of an estate by inheritance, or by any act of law, as distin- guished from "purchase." Title by descent is the title by which one person, upon the death of another, acquires the real estate of the latter as his heir at law. 2 Bl. Comm. 201; Com. Dig. "Descent," A. Descents are of two sorts,-lineal, as from father or grandfather to son or grandson; or collateral, as from brother to brother, or cousin to cousin. They are also distinguished into mediate and im- mediate descents. But these terms are used in different senses. A descent may be said to be a mediate or immediate descent of the estate or right; or it may be said to be mediate or immediate, in regard to the mediateness or immediateness of the pedigree or consanguinity. Thus, a descent from the grandfather, who dies in possession, to the grandchild, the father being then dead, or from the uncle to the nephew, the brother being dead, is, in the former sense, in law, immediate descent, al- though the one is collateral and the other lineal; for the heir is in the per, and not in the per and cui. E Li F On the other hand, with reference to the line of G pedigree or consanguinity, a descent is often said to be immediate, when the ancestor from whom the party derives his blood is immediate, and without any intervening link or degrees; and mediate, when the kindred is derived from him mediante altero, another ancestor intervening between them. Thus a descent in lineals from father to son is in this sense immediate; but a descent from grandfather to grandson, the father being dead, or from uncle to nephew, the brother being dead, is deemed mediate; the father and the brother be- ing, in these latter cases, the medium deferens, as it is called, of the descent or consanguinity. 6 Pet. 102. Descent was denoted, in the Roman law, by the term "successio," which is also used by Bracton, and from which has been derived the succession of the Scotch and French ju- risprudence. H J

(379) DESCENDANTS, (equivalent to "next of kin"). house contains an implied grant of the easement of light to its windows, and if 25 Ga. 420, 428. the grantor were allowed to obstruct them he would derogate from his grant. Pal8 Com. mer v. Fletcher, 1 Lev. 122; Gale Easm. 97. D. 873. (in a statute). 9 R. I. 266, 289. (in a will). 3 Bro. Ch. 367, 368 Dig. 472; 1 East 120, 129; 11 Ch (means "issue of the body of the person named, of every degree"). 1 Redf. (N.Y.) 409. DESCENDANTS OR REPRESENTATIVES, (in a will). 2 Cox C. C. 187, 188. 2. Agreements or provisions are said to be in derogation of the marriage contract when they tend to disturb or prejudice the status of lawful marriage. Thus, a provision in a settlement for the future DESCENT is what takes place when separation of the husband and wife is in land or some interest in land or other derogation of the marriage contract, berealty belonging to a person passes, on his cause it is calculated to facilitate the disdeath intestate, to some one related to him solution of the marriage contract, "which by consanguinity, either directly or by the policy of the law is to preserve intact reference to some other person, according and inviolate." H. v. W., 3 Kay & J. 382. to certain rules of law. (Co. Litt. 13b, See IMMORALITY; SEPARATION DEEDS. 3. An agreement is said to be in derogation of a statute, or of a rule of law, when it enables the parties to evade a rule made not for their benefit, but in the interest of the public. See Savin v. Hoylake Rail. Co., L. R. 1 Ex. 9; Poll. Cont. 242. 4. An alteration of, or taking away from, a contract for the sale of stocks is also called a "derogation." (380) either "literally the common law," or (more usually) the common law as altered by the Inheritance Act." (3 and 4 Will. IV., c. 106, 2 2.) The rules regulating this kind of descent are called the "canons of descent," and are as 4. In the United States, the rules of Descent according to the common law means descent are prescribed by the statutes of the several States, which, while presenting the same general features, differ widely in certain particulars. The English doctrine of primogeniture is entirely disregarded, and the distinction between male and female heirs is abolished in nearly all of the States. Under some of the statutes inheritance among collaterals is per stirpes, the children of a deceased parent taking the portion which would have belonged to him had he been living, but in most of the States it is provided that lineal descendants, standing in equal degree from the common ancestor, shall share equally per capita. For a compilation of these statutes, see 3 Washb. Real Prop. (3 edit.) 21. The following are the rules of descent under the English statutes5. The rule which determines the stock of descent is that in every case descent shall be traced from the purchaser, i. e. from the last person who acquired the land otherwise than by descent. (3 and 4 Will. IV. c. 106, § 2. See PURCHASER.) Thus, if land is conveyed or devised to A. and he dies intestate, the descent is traced from him, because he was the purchaser; again, if, on A.'s death intestate, the land descends to B., and he also dies intestate, the descent is still traced from A., because B. was not the purchaser, although he is the person from whom the land descends. This view of the operation of the act seems to us to be the correct one, but it is not universally accepted. According to Mr. Joshua Williams (notes to Watkins on Descent 119; Jurist N. S. iv. (2) 56), where a person (B.) has acquired land by descent from the purchaser (A.) and dies intestate, the person (C.) who then takes the land by descent derives his title not from B. but from the purchaser A., so that he would take the land free from B.'s specialty debts if it were not for the Acts 3 and 4 Will. IV. c. 104, making the land of every deceased owner assets for payment of his debts. The objection to this view is that the Inheritance Act does not say that every descent shall take place from the purchaser, but that where a descent takes place "the title to inherit by reason of consanguinity" shall be traced from follows-* 7. Fee-simple. Descent of an estate in fee-simple. (1) Inheritances in the first place lineally descend to the issue of the purchaser, in infinitum, but the issue nearest in degree to the purchaser are preferred to the more remote; consequently the children of the purchaser are preferred to their own issue. (2) The male issue is admitted before the female in the same degree; for instance, sons are admitted before daughters. (3) Where two or more of the male issue are in equal degree of consanguinity to the purchaser, the eldest only shall inherit; but the females shall inherit all together. (4) The lineal descendants of any person deceased shall represent him; i. e. shall stand in the same place as the person himself would have done had he been living. Therefore, if the purchaser leaves a daughter, and a grandson by a deceased son, the grandson takes the land by right of representation, to the exclusion of the daughter. (See PER CAPITA; PER STIRPES.) (5) On failure of lineal descendants of the purchaser, the inheritance descends to his nearest lineal ancestor, or to the issue of such lineal ancestor, if he has died, according to the rule of representation (canon 4). (6) The paternal line is preferred to the maternal. In other words, the father and all the male paternal ancestors of the purchaser and their descendants shall be admitted to inherit before any of the female paternal ancestors or their descendants; all the female paternal ancestors and their heirs before the mother or any of the maternal ancestors of the purchaser, or her or their descendants; and the mother and all the male maternal ancestors and their descendants before any of the female maternal ancestors or their descendants. (7) A kinsman of the half blood shall inherit next after a kinsman in the same degree of the whole blood to the purchaser, and after the issue of such kinsman, when the common ancestor is a male, and next after the common ancestor, when such ancestor is a female. (See BLOOD, § 2.) (8) In the admission of female ancestors, the mother of the more remote male (paternal or maternal) ancestor, and her heirs, shall be preferred to the mother of a less remote male (paternal or maternal) ancestor and her heirs 28. Estate tail. - The descent of an estate the purchaser. (See the correspondence on this tail follows the first four canons, unless it is point in the Jurist N. s. iv. (2) 56, 72, 109, 120.) barred, or unless it is limited to special heirs or If, however, there is

in a will, and includes all who proceed from the body of the person named; as grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Amb. 397; 2 Hil. Real. Prop. 242. Hereditary succession. Succession to the ownership of an estate by inheritance, or by any act of law, as distinguished from ‘“‘purchase.” ‘Title by descent is the title by which one person, upon the death of another, acquires the real estate of the latter as his heir at law. 2 Bl. Comm. 201; Com. Dig. “Descent,” A; Adams vy. -Akerlund, 168 Ill. 682, 48 N. E. 454; Starr v. Hamilton, 22 Fed. Cas. 1,107; In re Donahue’s Estate, 86 Cal. 332; Shippen v. Izard, 1 Serg. & R. (Pa.) 224; Brower v. Hunt, 18 Ohio St. 338; Allen v. Bland, 134 Ind. 78, 33 N. E. 774. _Classification. Descents are of two sorts, Isneal and collateral. Lineal descent is descent in a direct or right line, as from: father or grandfather to son or grandson. Collateral descent is descent in a collateral or oblique line, that is, up to the common ancestor and then down from him, as from brother to brother, or between cousins. Levy v. McCartee, 6 Pet. 112, 8 L. Ed. They are also distinguished into mediate and immediate descents. But these terms are used in different senses. A descent may. be said to be a mediate or immediate descent of the estate or right; or it may be said to be mediate or immediate, in regard to the mediateness or immediateness of the pedigree or consanguinity. Thus, a descent from the grandfather, who dies in possession, to the grandchild, the father being then dead, or from the uncle to the nephew, the brother being dead, is, in the for mer sense, in’law, immediate descent, although the one is collateral and the other lineal; for the heir is in the per, and not in the per and cus. On the other hand, with reference to the line of pecinrce or consanguinity, a descent is often said to be immediate, when the ancestor from whom the party derives his blood is immediate, and without any intervening link or degrees; and mediate, when the kindred is de rived from him mediante altero, another ancestor intervening between them. Thus a descent in lineals from father to son is in this sense immediate; but a descent from grandfather to grandson, the father being dead, or from uncle to nephew, the brother being dead, is deemed mediate; the father and the brother being, in these latter cases, the medium defercna, as it is called, of the descent or consanguinity. Levy v. McCartee, G Pet. 112, 8 L. Ed. 334; Furenes v. Mickelson, 86 Towa. 508, 53 N. W. 416; Garner v. Wood, 71 Md. 37, 17 Atl. 1081. Descent was denoted, in the Roman law, by the term “successto,” which is also used by Bracton, and from which has been derived the successton of the Scotch and French jurisprudence. . —Descent cast. The devolving of realty upon the heir on the death of his ancestor intestate. ' : DESCRIPTIO PERSONZ 860 ‘“DESCRIPTIO PERSONZ. Lat. Description of the person. By this is meant a word or phrase used merely for the purpose of identifying or pointing out the person intended, and not as an intimation that the language in connection with which it occurs is to apply to him only in the official or technical character which might appear to be indicated by the word.

The act of descending, or passing downward; change of place from higher to lower. Incursion; sudden attack; especially, hostile invasion from sea; - - often followed by upon or on; as, to make a descent upon the enemy. The United Provinces . . . ordered public prayer to God, when they feared that the French and English fleets would make a descent upon their coasts. Jortin. Progress downward, as in station, virtue, as in station, virtue, and the like, from a higher to a lower state, from a higher to a lower state, from the more to the less important, from the better to the worse, etc. Derivation, as from an ancestor; procedure by generation; lineage; birth; extraction. Dryden. Transmission of an estate by inheritance, usually, but not necessarily, in the descending line; title to inherit an estate by reason of consanguinity. Abbott. Inclination downward; a descending way; inclined or sloping surface; declivity; slope; as, a steep descent. That which is descended; descendants; issue. If care of our descent perplex us most, Which must be born to certain woe. Milton. A step or remove downward in any scale of gradation; a degree in the scale of genealogy; a generation. No man living is a thousand descents removed from Adam himself. Hooker. Lowest place; extreme downward place. [R.] And from the extremest upward of thy head, To the descent and dust below thy foot. Shak. A passing from a higher to a lower tone.

An instance of descending; act of coming down. | A way down. | A sloping passage or incline. | Lineage or hereditary derivation. | A drop to a lower status or condition; decline. | A falling upon or invasion. | A particular extension of the idea of gluing.