HEIR-AT-LAW, is a person who succeeds to another by descent. Both in England and Scotland, estates, in the absence of a different special destination, descend to heirs in the direct line, however remote. The exclusion of parents, until the extinction of all descendants, both direct and collateral, is almost peculiar to the laws of these kingdoms. By the Jewish law, on the failure of issue, a father succeeded to his deceased son, to the exclusion of the son's brothers, unless one of them married and had issue by his widow. By the Roman law, on the failure of children or lineal descendants, the father and mother, or other lineal ascendants succeeded, together with the deceased's brothers and sisters. As a consequence, however, of the feudal system in Britain, a landed estate descends to sons, in the order of their seniority—the issue of the elder son always excluding the immediate younger son, and so on through the whole sons. It is only in default of such issue that daughters succeed, and then they succeed equally. The children of a deceased child in the order now mentioned, represent the parent, and exclude all relatives which such deceased parent, if surviving, would have excluded. By this rule the son of an eldest son, and failing him and his issue, the daughters of an eldest son, equally among them, and their descendants, exclude the other sons and daughters of the ancestor, and so on through all the ancestor's children. On the entire failure of lineal descendants, the estate goes to collateral heirs—that is, the ancestor's immediate younger brothers in the order above mentioned, and their issue; failing whom it goes to his sisters equally and their issue. On the entire failure of collateral descendants, it goes to the ancestor's father, then collaterally to the ancestor's uncles and their descendants; whom failing, to his aunts (the latter equally) and their descendants. It is only on the failure of all these, that the succession opens to the grandfather, and next to his relatives. There is no succession by or through the mother, unless the estate came from her. In Scotland where an estate is not acquired by inheritance, it is called conquest; and in all competitions among brothers or uncles, or their descendants regarding conquest, it is not the immediate younger brother or uncle, as in heritage, who succeeds, but the immediate elder brother or uncle.
HEIR by DESTINATION, sometimes called "heir of provision," is a person called to succeed by the will of the proprietor, either directly, or on the failure of persons to whom the estate is primarily conveyed. Any absolute proprietor executing a conveyance of his estate, can regulate the order of succession; but unless the specified destination be protected and enforced by certain legal prohibitions and re-
Heir-apparent strains, attention to which require all the skill of the practised conveyancer, a hope of succession is merely created, which may be defeated by each heir as he enters on the possession.
Heir-apparent is a person so called in the lifetime of his ancestor, whose right of succession is indefeasible, provided he outlive the ancestor; as the right of the next heir to the throne, or to an estate under a deed of entail, or under the marriage-contract of his parents.
Heir-presumptive is one who, if his ancestor should die under existing circumstances, would be his heir, but whose right of succession may be defeated by various contingencies, such as the subsequent existence of a nearer heir, even though by posthumous birth, or the special conveyance of the estate by the ancestor to a different person.