Can anyone answer a technical question to do with wills?

[felixthecar]

I'm researching a mill owner who went bankrupt in 1836. He died 10 years later. His will doesn't come up on Ancestry, but his children's do. They were all very well off at the time of their deaths. So, first of all, is there no will because he was bankrupt, and does anyone think that he could have put money into trust before becoming bankrupt, and wouldn't that be illegal?
Any thoughts would be interesting. He obviously kept some money, as he moved to a nice house in another part of the country.

Did he own the nice house though? Or was it rented or even borrowed?

Well I think he did, as, after his death, the children lived there for decades