Heirs of the body

Common card · No. 473265

In English and American law, heirs of the body are the biological lineal descendants of the original holder, recipient, or grantee of a parcel or peerage, "the body" referring to that person's physical body from which his or her descendants issue. The phrase is used in letters patent and other legal instruments to stipulate that certain types of property pass to a direct blood descendant of the original holder according to a fixed order of kinship. Upon the death of the grantee, a designated inheritance such as a parcel of land, a peerage, or a monarchy, passes automatically to that living, natural descendant of the grantee who is most senior in descent according to primogeniture, males being preferred, however, over their sisters regardless of relative age; and thereafter the property continues to pass to subsequent descendants of the grantee, according to the same formula, upon the death of each subsequent heir. Legitimacy is also required of heirs in all extant letters patent, but that...

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