[WED]Aliases - possible explanation?

[Elizabeth Jones]

This came up on the Devon Rootsweb list recently. and someone pointed out a very interesting article on the Genuki Devon page. The gist of the article was that no-one really knows why this was done, but the most likely explanation was that it was done to safeguard inheritancee. The writer gave an example from his own research of a daughter of a wealthy man who married and was referred to in legal documents as "maiden name" alias "married name" - this pricipal could also be applied to this daughter's children, if her children were to be included in is will - the addition of the benefactor's name kept the link in the forefront of people's minds. This theory was also ofered as an explanation on another list recently.. 
Hope this helps!
Liz

PS Apologies if you get this twice - the first one didn't seem to go, so I've typed it again!