> Terry Jackson wrote: > > >Sure the term "lawyer" was around, and for a long time. Don't > >you recall Shakespeare's famous line: "First we must kill all > >the lawyers" I seem to recall that one.........or maybe it was one of my clients that said that.....grin!! > > The other (informal) maxim about practicing lawyers is that they > don't make wills for themselves! Guess they know the costs > involved. I assume you are joshing. Or are you referring to the shoemaker's children who had no shoes. Lawyers as a rule have very detailed Wills because they see what happens to those who don't......all too frequently. That was my favourite task in law......typing Wills. Had some very interesting ones too. As in one wealthy man who had a 40 page one.....to keep a certain religious cult that his daughter belonged to from getting their hands on any more of his money!! > > I have this problem with a seventeenth-century ancestor. > Variously described as a lawyer or attorney, he seems never to > have got around to making a will. When he died in 1677, he > dictated his will on his deathbed. This is annoying, because he > left a property to a son Nathaniel (who existed as a known son) > which seems to have ended up in the hands of a James (who isn't > known as a son) - so was this the wandering mind of a man close > to death or a mistake of the witness who wrote the will down or > the diktat of a family conclave? Or maybe they just did these > things to annoy future generations! In your case.....they probably did it just to annoy you (G). But what about some 'skulduggery' by this unknown James who perhaps was an illegitimate son who was emotionally closer to his father than the 'real son' Nathaniel??? I could make up all sorts of scenarios.......as I have seen a rather intriguing one in Ron's family (British Jamaican fellow by name of Cooper)......he had two wives, 15 legit children and 2 more illegit children.....he had an interesting way of differentiating. And can you guess who the wealthiest ones were? And not from inheritance? Yep, the illegitimate ones......by far. They were raised with the family and obviously given some sort of monetary assistance not covered by the Will....many reasons for that one. Hey......this is what makes this hobby/passion fun!! Wills are wonderfully informative and one wishes they were a fly on the wall when it was being drawn up. If I had a choice of documentation re ancestors, Wills win hands down!! They give the married names of daughters and so on. And the 'family dynamics'.......as in one shilling to the unfavourite son and the bulk to the others. And then there are the early 1500 British Wills I am translating for my husband's Canadian/English side......they fascinate me. Plus the writing bears little resemblance to English as we know it (court hand, I guess). Well that is my 2 cents worth......perhaps I will bring this discussion up on Eng-Cul......hopefully there are those that are interested in Wills and other sundry documents. Cheers......Heather List Admin. ENG-CUL