Bizarre phrase in old wills: "sex children"

Factual Questions
1

As in, “to my sex children I bequeath…”. And from context I don’t believe it’s a mispelling of “six”. Did it mean natural (non-adoptive) children?

2

Yahoo! Images would have you believe it’s Madonna for some reason.

3

What’s the context that makes you think it doesn’t mean “six”? Google books turns up 3 full-text hits for the phrase “to my sex children”. In two cases, the testator did indeed have six children. In the third, the meaning isn’t obvious, but it could mean “six”.

hit 1: sex=vj=vi=six in Roman numerals

hit 2: six children named

hit 3: context unclear

4

Sex is Latin for six.

5

Obligatory Martha Quinn reference.

6

And hereis another where the “sex children” are bequeathed “sex lambes”. It clearly means “six”.

7

At least they didn’t misspell “beloved aunt.” (Curb Your Enthusiasm reference)

8

Were they all male children? Were they from New Zealand? Because, you know, I’ve heard these stories…

9

YOU ACTUALLY SEARCHED FOR THAT?!?!?! :eek:

10

How old is the will you’re referencing? Spelling was a lot more fluid a few centuries back. Sex for six[sup]1[/sup] survives in words like sextuplet and sextillion.

  1. Sounds like an orgy, doesn’t it?