Last Will and Testament, 1717 style

Last Will and Testament, 1717 style

From StocktonAfterClass by Ronald Stockton

May 4, 2026 · 17 min

About this episode

Ronald Stockton discusses a fascinating will from 1717 that he encountered while researching his family history.

Send us Fan Mail Being my family historian, I bump into strange documents from time to time. A couple of years ago, I saw a will from 1717 that I thought might belong to an ancestor. It turned out that it did not, but the will was so fascinating that I wanted to discuss it with you. The logic and style are very different from what we know as a will today (although the goal is the same -- to allocate resources according to the wishes of the deceased, without tension). T...

People in this episode

Host: Ronald Stockton

Topics covered

  • family history
  • historical documents
  • wills
  • inheritance
  • legal history

Keywords

  • will
  • 1717
  • family historian
  • inheritance
  • legal documents

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