The Romance of Wills and Testaments

This collection of essays examines wills and testaments as windows onto human character, social customs, and legal practice. Drawing on archival probate records and printed compilations, the author presents case studies of dying declarations, nuncupative and codicil-ridden dispositions, eccentric bequests, disputes over servants and burial, and charitable and sentimental legacies. Chapters consider how wills reflect piety, jealousy, family tensions, treatment of animals, funeral arrangements, and beliefs about the dead, mixing anecdote, legal context, and historical observation to illuminate changing attitudes toward death and inheritance.