Houghton v. Dickinson
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Petition filed in the Probate Court for the county of Hampshire June 7,1906, by the administrator of the estate of Marshall D. Dickinson praying for leave to make a partial distribution and for a determination of the persons entitled to share therein.
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Petition filed in the Probate Court for the county of Hampshire June 7,1906, by the administrator of the estate of Marshall D. Dickinson praying for leave to make a partial distribution and for a determination of the persons entitled to share therein. On appeal to this court, the case was heard by Morton, J. It appeared that the respondent Marshall D. Dickinson claimed to share in the distribution as a son of the intestate and that the other respondents contended that he was illegitimate and never had been acknowledged by the intestate as his son although, after his birth, his father and…
1Opinion of the CourtBraley, J.
By the common law the respondent, not having
been born in lawful wedlock, was without inheritable blood and therefore would have been incapable of participating in the distribution of the estate of his putative father, who died intestate. 1 Bl. Com. (Sharswood’s ed.) 459. Until partially abrogated by St. 1832, c. 147, which permitted an illegitimate child upon the intermarriage of his parents and subsequent acknowledgment by his father to be recognized as an heir of legitimate children of the same parents, and by Rev. Sts. c. 61, § 4, which gave to him the further right of a lineal heir but…
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