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In a contract of marriage there occurred the following clause:
“And in case there should happen to be only one daughter, he obliges him to pay the sum of 18,000 merks; if there be two daughters, the sum of 20,000 merks, whereof 11,000 to the eldest, and 9,000 to the youngest; and if there be three daughters the sum of 30,000 merks, 12,000 to the eldest, 10,000 to the second, and 8,000 to the youngest.”
A fourth daughter having existed of this marriage; in a process betwixt her and the other three, the question occurred, whether she could have any share of the 30,000 merks upon the presumed will of her father, or if she was to be left to insist for her legal provision ab intestato? The Lords found the fourth daughter entitled to a proportion of the 30,000 merks, and found her proportion, suitable to the provision made in the contract of marriage, to be 4,500 merks; so as to restrict the eldest daughter to 10,500 merks, the second to 8,500 merks, and the third to 6,500 merks. See Appendix.
