The San Francisco call., 1899-07-09
CHANGING NAME IN ENGLAND.
Applications Granted by the Crown
Only for Good Reasons.

Now, the crown has the absolute right
to grant or withhold at its pleasure its
license and authority for a change Of
name, and If all one hears be correct al
most as many applications are refused as
are granted. Needless to say, the re-
fusals are not the personal refusals Of her
Majesty, but emanate from the home OF
fee, through which all petitions pass, and
the home office has assumed to itself tho
decision as to whether or not a case shall
be put forward for the personal consider
alton of her Majesty. In no circumstance
can any one compel either the home OF
flee to put forward petition or her Maj
from past experience, one is able to in
dicate generally the cases in which an
application is likely to be successful. To
begin with, no case has ever been known
in which the crown has refused Its Ii
cense for any change or assumption
which is N conformity with either will
for granted that any application for
royal license in pursuance of either a
will or or settlement viii be granted nted with
Applicants desiring to assume a name
under other circumstances must show
what the crown can consider to be good
should be effected. The refusals to
which one hears occasionally do not all
seem to be indicated from Identical rea-
sons, but it is difficult to get exact par
ticulars of such cases, and though one
would hesitate TO say that the granting
of a royal license upon voluntary apph-
crown or its officers, one cannot, however,
definitely say that such and such a case
would be invariably refused. Consequent
ly one can only indicate the probabilities
of consent or refusal. These Will usually
be found to be somewhat as follows,
though, as each case has its special cir
cumStanceS, it is naturally difficult to
speak with any certainty.
An application to assume name where
no descent can be shown from any family
of such name and where it is merely
matter of personal caprice is almost in
Variably refused An APPLICATION to assume
the name of a family from whom descent
in the female line exists is generally
male ancestor of that name through
whom descent is proved was an heraldic
heireSS in blood. or where the applicant
can show that he is an heir of line of any
male of that family; An application put
forward in a case of adoption to assume
the name of the guardian is usually
granted if the application is made by the
guardian and in his lifetime; but the mat
ter is on an entirely different footing if
the application is made merely at the ca
price of the ward. and after the death
of the guardian, when the latter has left
behind him no indication of his wish that
his ward should adopt his name. An ap-
plication to assume the particle De in
unquestionable evidence can be procured
of descent from an ancestor who so wrote
The application of a husband to assume
fact of the heirship or otherwise of the
wife. If she be an heireSs in blood the ap-
plication is usually granted but II not,
infrequently refused in cases to the con-
trary. But the crown does not sanction
the assumption of a name by the wife
while her husband is alive, unless the hus-
band Joins in the petition to assume the
same name.-Genealogical Magazine.