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I wish I were better informed about early Pennsylvania Probate laws so that I could answer your question with valid authority. But I don't know that such an authority even exists. The order of succession that you mention was generally followed by most families. The way it was explained to me, regarding the amounts of money that was bequethed to each child, was that that the amount of money was representative of the proportion of land that each child would inherit. This does not make a great deal of sense either. Mainly because, it was also common practice, in those days for "12 honest men" to accompany the Sheriff to the land to be divided and they were to evaluate and determine if the land could be divided in such a fashion that it could support the inheritors. If it was determined, by the "12 honest men" that the land was incapable of supporting them, division of the land was not granted by the Court and another solution was determined by the Court. That is about all I know about this "12 honest men" process that was in fact how Westmoreland County operated its Probate process. It appears that they stopped doing things that way around the turn of the Century (1900).
I have read in one of the publications pruduced over the years, by the people at Poke Run, that there are 12 Revolutionary soldiers buried in unmarked graves in the old cemetary, which is the section closest to the church.
By the way, your gggrandfather, William G. Elwood's (died 1855) gravestone and that of his wife are still there, and in relatively good shape. It is not standing, but it is there, and quite legible.
Bill Elwood
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