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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 9360434" data-attributes="member: 42582">So here is a website that says a bit about the history of probate in England: <a href="https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/wills-or-administrations-before-1858/" target="_blank">Wills and administrations before 1858 - The National Archives</a>Notice this:Not everyone left a will and not all wills needed to be proved by a court. People leaving small amounts of goods could leave instructions with their family or friends. For the instructions in a will to be carried out by the executors, who would distribute the estate of the testator, the will had to have been proved in a probate court, almost all of which were church courts. . . . before 1858 there were more than 200 other church courts across the country that dealt with probate, each of which kept separate records and registers of wills – there was no central index and this remains the case.How are wills proved in The Shire? I've just referred to JRRT's letter discussing the law of inheritance in The Shire - as I've already said, it's obvious that it has one, from the stories. There are no church courts there. Do Shirriffs prove wills?Googling just turned up this article on stray animals in feudal England: <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-british-studies/article/waifs-and-strays-property-rights-in-late-medieval-england/148ADDD32647806A4793D0AB2933F888" target="_blank">Waifs and Strays: Property Rights in Late Medieval England | Journal of British Studies | Cambridge Core</a>It discusses how matters concerning stray animals were argued and proved in manorial courts. How does this work in The Shire? Undoubtedly there is a way of sorting this out. But JRRT doesn't tell us what it is. Do Shirriffs hear and determine these matters? The Mayor? The Thain? The Master of Buckland? Any and all of the above?Suppose that an animal strays in the north or north-east of the North Farthing? Does the disputed animal have to be driven all the way across The Shire for a matter to be heard? Or can a Shirriff travel to the place in question and make a decision?In the fiction there is an answer. JRRT doesn't tell us what it is. My view is that there is no need for a world sourcebook to do so either. The GM can make something up on the spot if needed, that seems fun or interesting or plausible. It's unlikely to be any weirder than some actual system of law that operated somewhere in the real world at some or other time.</blockquote>

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