Where probate fees have customarily been
less, they shall remain the same. The official shall approve and
seal the testament without delay and deliver it to the executors
named in such testaments for the said sum. If a person dies
intestate or executors refuse to prove the testament, then the
official shall grant the administration of the goods to the widow
of the deceased person, or to the next of kin, or to both, in the
discretion of the official, taking surety of them for the true
administration of the goods, chattels, and debts. Where kin of
unequal degree request the administration, it shall be given to
the wife and, at his discretion, other requestors. The executors
or administrators, along with at least two persons to whom the
deceased was indebted, or to whom legacies were made, or, upon
their refusal or absence, two honest kinsmen, shall make an
inventory of the deceased's goods, chattels, ware, merchandise, as
well moveable as not moveable, and take it upon their oaths to the
official.
No parish clergyman or other spiritual person shall take a
mortuary fee or money from a deceased person with movable goods
under the value of 133s., a deceased woman-covert, a child, a
person keeping no house, or a traveler. Only one mortuary fee may
be taken of each deceased and that in the place where he most
dwelled and lived. Where the deceased's moveable goods are to the
value of 133s.
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