[quote=""robinbird79""]Figured there had to be some folks on here more knowledgeable in the Regency than I am.
1. Can a man inherit two estates? Say he's already inherited his father's estate and his uncle (who had his mother's estate) dies with no heir, could he be named heir to his mother's estate?
2. If above situation CAN happen, what can the man do with the "new" estate? Does he keep it (for the income it can bring him), leave it to a younger sibling (or an older sister if she hasn't married into a wealthy family), or would he sell it?
3. Were kidnappings for money something that happened in the time period? I.e desperate man kidnaps a girl from a wealthy family, drags her off to Gretna Green so he can get her dowry?
Thanks y'all![/quote]
The landed gentry had properties all over the country which they had acquired by divers means: inheritance (and not just from the paternal side), purchase, etc etc. There was nothing to stop them from inheriting from anyone. There might have been limitations to who they could leave part of their "estate" to, ie some of the nobilty were bound by entails. This was often still the case by the Regency period and up until the seventeenth century restrictions upon diposal of property inherited under feudal arrangements were rife. This had been partly evaded by the formation of trusts but Henry VIII attempted to put an end to that but had to back track in the face of severe opposition. You need to look at The Statute of Uses for the Henrician positon. But William I made an honest to goodness mess of English property law which it took centuries to sort out.
A person could do whatever he wanted with a newly acquired property but land was a primary element of prestige and position until relatively recently. It might be sold if he was in financial difficulty or to finance some other project but largely land was to be held on to even if it was never visited by the owner.
As to the last part of your question, there are a great many newspaper collections going back to the seventeenth century available online. I have access to them through various libraries both local and university and I am sure you would be able to get access to similar resources. I would have thought that this would be the best way to research your interest. Although it really relates to an earlier period Lawrence Stone's
An Open Elite is quite interesting regarding the acquistion of land and what was done with it.
