HEIR, or HEIR-AT-LAW, in English law, means the person who, in the event of no will being left by a deceased person which indicates a different person, is entitled by law to succeed to the real estate of such deceased person. The term is never used in the loose sense which prevails in Scotland, as including both heirs, • properly so called, and executors or next of kin. When a person in England or Ireland does not think fit to exercise the undoubted right which belongs to him of leaving his real property by will to whomsoever he pleases, to be enjoyed after his own death, the law steps in, and appoints such a person for him, and this person is the heir-at-law. The law, in select ing these heirs, proceeds on certain fixed rules of primogeniture and relationship, pre ferring males to females. The eldest son is preferred to all the rest of the family, and his descendants; then the next eldest son and his descendants; and so on to the young est son, after whom the daughters succeed equally or all together, and are then called coparceners. After the descendants of the deceased person, who may be called A, are exhausted, then A's father succeeds; after whom follow A's eldest brother and descendants; then A's next eldest brother; and so on to the youngest brother; after failure of whom and his descendants, then all A's sisters by the full blood succeed equally as coparceners; then A's half-brother by the father's side, and descendants, etc.;
then A's half-sisters by the father's side, all as coparceners; after whom succeed A's paternal uncles and aunts in a similar order. Where there are no heirs whose relation ship can be traced to the deceased person, then the real estate goes to the crown.
The moment a person dies leaving real estate in England, such real estate vests at once in the heir-at-law, whoever that may be, without any ceremony or formality being required. The heir-at-law, however, takes the property subject to the debts of the deceased, and must pay off all provided there is no personal estate sufficient to pay them, but in no case can he be liable beyond the value of the estate itself. The heir, it is true, may be sued for these debts, in the first instance, by any of the creditors, but he may afterwards have the real estate exonerated, thereby shifting the liability to the personal estate. When the deceased had land which was subject to a mortgage debt, then that debt is a burden on the land, and must be borne by the heir; but the law was otherwise before 1854.
The law of succession in Ireland is entirely the same as in England. See SuccEs