
Contents
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Litigation: Marriage Litigation: Marriage
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Estate Settlements Estate Settlements
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Litigation: Property Litigation: Property
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Equity, Conscience, Law Equity, Conscience, Law
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Cite
Abstract
Litigation concerning Ralph Rishton’s marriages and property continued for a decade after his death. Tracing it reveals the paths Elizabethan English people had to pursue through different legal systems to assert rights stemming from complex fact patterns. Ralph left in his wake a trail of deliberately contradictory estate settlements, which this chapter traces in detail to uncover his aspirations for his succession. His second wife doggedly sought, but failed, to have courts (at Chester and York) declare her marriage’s validity. She did succeed, however, in asserting rights to property she received from Ralph as part of her marriage settlement. Ralph’s son by his second marriage likewise sought to claim rights in part of Ralph’s estates: after years of litigation and arbitration he was partially successful, owing to a resolution reflecting the posture of English equity courts towards equitable determination. Tracing these and all the other lawsuits left in Ralph’s wake permits some broader conclusions about law in operation during the period. The chapter reveals the familial and geographical closeness of lawyers to members of the east Lancashire gentry and how that proximity furthered law consciousness. Law for the Rishtons was transactional, a means of finding opportunities and exploiting contingencies.
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