Law

Half Blood

Austen’s Sense and Sensibility contains a scene in chapter two in which John Dashwood and his wife decide what help he was to give his step-mother and three half-sisters. John made several suggestions which his wife opposed. The sisters were only half sisters, after all.

 ...what possible claim could the Miss Dashwoods, who were related to him only by the half-blood, which she considered as no relationship at all, have on his generosity to so large amount. It was very well known that no affection was supposed to exist between the children of any man by different marriages;....

Blackstone , in his commentaries, agrees to the point that siblings of the half blood can not be heirs to each other. If a man has two sons by different wives and one son buys a property and then dies, the half brother will not inherit. Instead it would go to the brother of the father.

However, the half-brother of the purchaser can be heir to the father’s brother and inherit from him as a nephew.

Even if the first son inherits from his father, his estate would not necessarily go to the half brother on his death.

Half bloods can succeed each other to the throne of England and to entailed estates and peerages. The three children of Henry the VIII th all ascended to the throne , though they all had different mothers.

A peer has a son with his first wife and then another son by his second wife before he dies. The first born son succeeds him in the peerage. He marries and receives money and land as a dowry with his wife. He also purchases some lands. Unfortunately he dies without a will before they have any children.

In this case the half brother inherits the peerage and any entailed property that came through the father while all other property goes either to the widow or an uncle or cousin.

If the man had a daughter, she would inherit everything that didn’t go to the widow or the half brother. If the girl died unmarried, her property would go to an uncle or cousin.

If there were a couple of sisters they would all inherit a portion of the estate. If one died unmarried, her sisters of the full blood would inherit from her.

Of course, people could always solve the problem by writing a will.

Generally, society did not share Fanny Dashwood’s attitude towards half siblings. Considering how many widowers married a second or even third time, society took a more lenient view of the matter unless one of the wives was of an inferior status.

That is not to say that society would find fault with John Dashwood’s treatment of his step mother and half sisters as long as they were not living in poverty or on the parish .

So there would be no reason for a villainous half brother to do away with his half sister as he was not her heir at law.