A history book I am reading mentions Lundy (Island), the Scillies and the Orkneys as being shelters for pirates in the early 1600s. "Dunkirk pirates made English waters unsafe. The Barbary corsairs raided the Devon & Cornish coasts and those of southern Ireland. The slave-markets of Africa knew the boys and girls of Plymouth, Barnstaple and (Irish) Baltimore." Well, we dealt with the topic of pirates a year or so back, and most general history books quote from public documents about the abductees. But are there many incidental references in private Wills? "To my son Fred if he should ever return from the pirates, I bequeath..." or "One hundred pounds to be paid as ransom for the safe return of my daughter Mary, if ever an opportunity should arise..." - that sort of thing. The poorer victims would have been lost forever, I guess, and their parents left no Wills. But what about the testamentary classes? Gordon Barlow