Extracted From:
  A LAW DICTIONARY ..., SIXTH EDITION, 1856
  by John Bouvier
  CHILDS & PETERSON, PHILADELPHIA

INHERITANCE, estates. A perpetuity in lands to a man and his heirs; or it is the
right to succeed to the estate of a person who died intestate.... The term is
applied to lands. 
   The property which is inherited is called an inheritance. 
   The term inheritance includes not only lands and tenements which have been
acquired by descent, but also every fee simple or fee tail, which a person has
acquired by purchase, may be said to be an inheritance, because the purchaser's
heirs may inherit it....
   Estates of inheritance are divided into inheritance absolute, or fee simple;
and inheritance limited, one species of which is called fee tail. They are also
divided into corporeal, as houses and lands and incorporeal, commonly called
incorporeal hereditaments....
   Among the civilians, by inheritance is understood the succession to all the
rights of the deceased. It is of two kinds,
   1. That which arises by testament, when the testator gives his succession to
a particular person; and,
   2. That which arises by operation of law, which is called succession ab
intestat....

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