INHERITANCE (OF. enlierilanre, from en heritcr, inhcruter, to inherit, from inheredi• lore, to appoint as heir. from in, in + lien's, heir; connected with hems, master, Gk. xei'p, (-heir, hand. Skt. bar, to take). In the most general sense, the acmlisitical of property. either real or personal, whether by will or intestacy, through the death of the former owner. In the more restricted sense of the English and American law, however, the term is confined to the transmission of real property by descent only. The popular use of the term to deseribe gifts by last will and testa ment is wholly inaccurate. Personal property does not in any event pass by inheritance, hut upon the death of the owner intestate goes to his personal representatives for purposes of administration (q.v.) and distribution (q.v.).
Strictly speaking, therefore. is con fined to certain kinds of interests in land which have coarse to be known as estates of inheritance. (See Es:TA•E.) Those include the two classes of estates known as fee simple and fee tail. In the former the inheritance is unrestricted, or 'general,' as it is termed, being open to all per sons standing in any degree of consanguinity to the decedent, collateral as well as lineal. In the
latter the inheritamae is restricted to the issue of the interstate, or even to a special class of lineal descendants, as to the issue of a certain wife begotten, or eVc11 to the male or the female issue. (See FEE TAIL.) This quality of inh•ri• lability, now regarded as an essential attribute of the absolute ownership of real property, has not always been a characteristic of such estates; but, like the corresponding quality of alienabil ity, was gradually added to the fee as that exist ed under the feudal system of land tenure. For the rules governing inheritance, see DEscExT and Iiiatt.
The term inheritance is also frequently em ployed to describe the property or estate acquired by descent. may, in addition to the real estates of inheritance above deseribed, include also certain privileged eliattels, known as heir looms (q.v.). Consult the :Authorities referred to under DESCENT.