ABSTRACT
Dubious solicitors and executors were by no means the only persons who attempted to convert the assets of an estate to further their own interests and ignore those of the relatives. Executors were responsible for producing a true and reliable inventory of all the goods and chattels, movable and immovable, with each item valued as accurately as possible. Parties who opposed a will saw that the inventories could be used to claim that, in an attempt to defraud legatees of their rights, the various items were undervalued, so reducing the value of the expected legacy. A creditor was often able to bring a successful action against an executor whom he suspected of illegality. Thomas Townson, who had kept an inn in Ulverston, made his wife Bridgett his sole executor. The causes concerning mismanagement of an estate by executors often reveal the incompetence of these administrators in handling financial matters but also some psychological skill in handling difficult relatives.
