Definition
A direction — found most commonly in wills, trusts, deeds, and intestacy statutes — that the persons named (or a class of persons) shall receive equal portions of a property, fund, or distribution. When a testator leaves property "to my children, share and share alike," each child takes an identical fractional interest regardless of the total number of beneficiaries. The phrase functions as a distributive instruction, not merely a description of ownership: it tells the reader how the division is to be made, not simply that the beneficiaries hold together.
The phrase carries a secondary meaning in partnership, co-tenancy, and creditor contexts, where it signals pro rata allocation of gains, losses, or liabilities among participants standing in equal relation to each other.
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Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): "In equal shares; equally divided among all parties involved."
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Not separately defined; the phrase was treated as self-evident ordinary English meaning equal division among participants.
The common and legal meanings are largely aligned here, but the legal significance lies in what the phrase does operationally in a legal instrument. In ordinary speech the phrase is descriptive. In a will or trust it is operative — courts have used the presence or absence of the phrase to determine whether a per capita or per stirpes distribution was intended, and to resolve ambiguity about class gifts. The gap is not in meaning but in consequence.
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Common Confusion
SHARE AND SHARE ALIKE vs. PER STIRPES: These two distributive schemes are frequently contrasted and occasionally confused. "Share and share alike" (per capita distribution) divides the estate equally among all living members of a named class at the time of distribution. Per stirpes, by contrast, distributes through family lines: if a beneficiary predeceases the testator, that beneficiary's share passes to their descendants rather than being redistributed equally among the survivors. A researcher encountering either phrase in a historical document should not assume the other was intended. Courts have been called upon repeatedly to determine which scheme a testator meant when neither phrase was used, and have sometimes found "share and share alike" language to imply per capita distribution over a per stirpes default.
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Why It Matters in Research
The phrase appears with high frequency in probate records, equity proceedings, deed records, and intestacy statutes across common law jurisdictions from the eighteenth century forward. Several research traps are worth flagging.
First, the phrase has not always been treated uniformly as a per capita direction. Some older courts read "share and share alike" as merely confirming joint ownership without resolving the per capita versus per stirpes question — meaning a document using the phrase may have produced different outcomes depending on jurisdiction and era. Researchers reading historical cases should not assume modern interpretive consensus applies.
Second, in corporate and partnership law sources the phrase appears in instruments allocating profits, losses, assessments, and subscription rights. The meaning is consistent — equal pro rata division — but the legal context is entirely different from testamentary usage. A search across a multi-subject corpus will return hits from both streams; confirm context before drawing conclusions.
Third, in intestacy statutes the phrase was sometimes codified directly (e.g., "children shall inherit share and share alike"), while other statutes achieved the same result without using the phrase at all. Absence of the phrase in a statute does not signal a different rule; presence of it in a will does not automatically override a statutory default if the will is ambiguous on class composition.
Fourth, the phrase interacts with lapse doctrines and anti-lapse statutes. Where a beneficiary in a "share and share alike" gift predeceases the testator, whether the share falls to the residue, passes to the deceased beneficiary's issue, or is redistributed among surviving class members depends on jurisdiction-specific lapse rules — not on the phrase itself.
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Historical Dictionary Support
Rapalje & Lawrence define "share and share alike" as a term "used in wills and deeds to denote that the persons mentioned are to take equal shares of the property given." The definition is spare but accurate. The entry does not address the per capita/per stirpes distinction, nor does it flag the phrase's use in commercial instruments — both gaps that reflect the relatively settled understanding of the phrase in late nineteenth-century practice combined with the dictionary's limited scope.
What Rapalje & Lawrence do not address — and what subsequent legal development has made important — is the question of whether the phrase is sufficient, standing alone, to override a per stirpes presumption in jurisdictions that adopted such a default, or whether courts will look past the phrase when other testamentary language suggests a contrary intent. Modern probate scholarship has refined these questions considerably beyond anything in the historical dictionary record.
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Jurisdictional Note
Most common law jurisdictions treat "share and share alike" as a per capita direction, but the phrase's interaction with anti-lapse statutes and class gift rules varies. Some U.S. states have codified per stirpes as the default for class gifts, meaning a drafter who intends per capita distribution must use affirmative language — and "share and share alike" is typically recognized as supplying that intent. English practice and older Commonwealth jurisdictions may apply different default rules. Verify local statutory defaults when researching historical instruments.
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Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
The Law Mind Family Law Encyclopedia — Child Support: Income Shares Model: relevant for understanding how pro rata equal-shares principles operate in a modern statutory allocation context.
The Law Mind Business Organizations & Corporate Law Encyclopedia — Corporate Finance: Consideration for Shares and Watered Stock: relevant when researching equal-distribution language in subscription agreements and shareholder instruments.
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