from
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856)
ABATEMENT OF LEGACIES, is the reduction of legacies for the purpose of
paying the testator's debts.
2. When the estate is short of paying the debts and legacies, and there
are general legacies and specific legacies, the rule is that the general
legatees must abate proportionably in order to pay the debts; a specific
legacy is not abated unless the general legacies cannot pay all the debts;
in that case what remains to be paid must be paid by the specific legatees,
who must, where there are several, abate their legacies, proportionably. 2
Bl. Com. 513; 2 Vessen. 561 to 564; 1 P. Wms. 680; 2 P. Wms. 283. See 2 Bro.
C. C. 19; Bac. Abr. Legacies, H; Rop. on Leg. 253, 284.