Talk:Desire & Decorum Miscellaneous Characters/@comment-3452092-20190923010204

So according to English law at the time as I understood it, Mr. Sinclaire did not need to adopt Percival. As the husband of his mother at the time of his birth, legally Percival was his son unless he chose to say otherwise. Had he been a noble, Percival also would legally have been the heir to his title unless he said otherwise. By turning him over to Rosalyn's brother, he could be seen as denying parentage, but it's also possible he could still claim him, because I don't know if it was a formal disowning or something less formal.

And he still can't be Duke Karlington's heir (because he is not and never was Duke Richards. Richards is his family name, but not his title and these incorrect uses of titles are messing with me), because he was not legally Tristan Richards's son even though he is biologically. Legally, he's Ernest Sinclaire's son. Of course this is Pixelberry's alternate reality that ignores a lot of English law at the time, so obviously they can do whatever they want, since they refuse to do the actual research.