THE Law of Wills, Codicils, AND REVOCATIONS. WITH PLAIN AND FAMILIAR INSTRUCTIONS FOR Executors, Administrators, Devifees, and Legatees. INCLUDING GREAT VARIETY OF FORMS OF WILLS AND CODICILS, Adapted to the Circumstances of Perfons of all Ranks and Situations, who DOWN TO MICHAELMAS TERM, 1800. TO WHICH IS ADDED A CLEAR AND DISTINCT ACCOUNT OF THE LAW'S DISPOSAL OF THE ESTATES ཐ Of those who die Inteftate or without a Will. CALCULATED FOR THE USE OF THE PUBLIC IN GENERAL, AS WELL AS THE PROFESSORS OF THE LAW. With ample Inftructions for obtaining PROBATE of WILLS, and THE SECOND EDITION WITH ADDITIONS. BY EARDLEY MITFORD, Esq. CONVEYANCER. LONDON: PRINTED BY W. STRATFORD, CROWN-COURT, TEMPLE-BAR; FOR J. STRATFORD, No. 112, HOLBORN-HILL. 1800. IT PREFACE. T is a melancholy Truth, that the improper penning or Execution of Wills creates a Multiplicity of Suits in the Courts at Westminster Hall: That this fhould be the Cafe cannot be Matter of Surprize, when it is confidered that many Persons who have very affiduously and carefully laboured to accumulate Wealth, have neglected, almost to the laft Moment of their Existence, to attend to the proper Difpofal of it. When a speedy Diffolution is pronounced inevitable by the Physician, the dismayed Patient perhaps thinks seriously of making his Will, and if his life is not too fuddenly terminated, it is then prepared and executed; but, on Account of the extreme Hafte in which it has been produced, fome of the neceffary Forms may have been omitted; or infurmountable Blunders may have been committed, which open a Field of Litigation for his furviving Relatives or Friends. Prudent Perfons will not put off fo effential a Business as that of making their Will till Death fhall aim his inexorable Shaft: They will confider that fatal bodily diforders too often affect and impair the Understanding; and though, according to the common Acceptation of the Terms, they may be of sound and disposing mind, &c. they certainly will be lefs able to dispose of their Property in the Hurry and Confufion of expiring Life, than when compofed in the calm Moments of Health and Deliberation. Though most men are anxious to acquire Wealth, they are in general extremely ignorant with regard to the Law of Wills: They know not that a Will and a Deed have in fome Cafes a different Operation; and that if "there "are two Claufes in a Will fo totally repugnant to each "other that they cannot stand together, the latter fhall "be received, and the former rejected; wherein it differs "from a Deed; for there, of two repugnant Claufes the "former shall stand; which is owing to the different Na"tures of the two Inftruments; for the laft Will and the "firft Deed is always most available in Law." This fingie Inftance, it is prefumed, will fufficiently point out the Neceffity of acquiring a competent Knowledge of the Law of Wills: It is a Duty incumbent on thofe poffeffed of Property, to learn like faithful Stewards, how to difpofe of that Property legally, and to the proper Objects. That wealthy Perfons ought always to have a Will by them duly made and executed, cannot be contested: Without that neceffary Step, their conduct is highly criminal; as Death may surprise them in a Moment, and deprive them of the Ability to do that Juftice which the Laws of God and Man require of them. The Editor, he humbly hopes, has given fuch Inftructions, in the following Sheets, as will enable his intelligent Readers to know and perform what fo effentially concerns them. He has endeavoured to give ample Directions to Executors, Adminiftrators, Devifees, and Legatees; and a full and diftinct Account of the Law's Difpofal of the Estates of those who die Intestate. Gray's-Inn: The Law of Wills. A I. General Definition of a Will will or teftament. WILL or teftament is defined to be "the legal de- What is a claration of a man's intentions of what he wills to be performed after his death;" for a will or teftament cannot take place till after the death of the teftator. Swinb. p. 1, f. 5. Carth. 38. inteftate The perfon who makes a will or teftament is called a Teftator and teftator; he who dies without a will is termed in law an what. inteftate. how dif A will and teftament, ftrictly speaking, are not words of Will and the fame meaning. A will is properly limited to land, and teftament. a teftament only to perfonal eftate; and the latter requires tinguished. executors, who are named, to take care and fee it performed, 1 Inft. 111. Shep. Abr. p. 4. A gift of lands or tenements by will is called a devife; and the perfon to whom they are given a devifee. ufed indif The words will and teftament are indeed generally ufed Sometimes indifcriminately; when they are to be understood other- criminately. wife, the context will fhew. The word demife feems moft properly applicable to the difpofition of lands by will; and bequest or legacy to that of perfonal eftate. Burn's Eccl. L. title Wills. common law and statute. Wills difpofing of lands are regulated by feveral acts of Wills by parliament, and are a conveyance unknown to the old common law, which permitted a man only to difpofe of his goods or perfonal property; but in a courfe of time the words became applied indifferently to a difpofition of lands or goods, which are frequently and continually diftributed and devised at the fame time by the will. A bequest of goods and chattels is termed a legacy, and the perfon to whom they are bequeathed a legatee. The devise of land by will is confidered as merely a Lands purfpecies of conveyance; whence the following diftinction is chafed after B making a founded will. |