Captain Berry's Will
Debauchery, Miscegenation, & Family Strife
Among 18th Century Gentry

that at the time when the will was executed he does not deem himself capable of answering the question from any observation he was at that time capable to make, being far gone in intoxication; but from reflecting on circumstances and comparing them one with another when sober, as well as from the particular knowledge he had of Captain Berry when drinking, he is clearly of opinion that he was not sober, nor does he think he was of sound mind and understanding to make a will from the first moment he saw him that day. As to the execution of the will, his recollection of it is so imperfect that he cannot say anything positively about it. The Deponent thinks upon the whole that there was some conversation between him and Captain Berry about an executor, but whether any person in particular was named, he cannot say. And with regard to a guardian, he was so well satisfied that Col. Beall was mentioned in the will as such that on hearing of Captain Berry’s death, when he saw Col. Beall afterwards he mentioned the circumstance to him.

Being asked . . . if his name subscribed to the will aforesaid was of his handwriting, answers it was and that the will now produced is of his handwriting and is the will which he wrote at Captain Berry’s. . . . Being asked at what time he got to Captain Berry’s the day the will was wrote, answers the sun was about an hour high or not so much. Being asked how long after making the will be began to entertain doubts of Mr. Berry’s being in his senses at the time of making it, says that he thought very little on the subject until after Captain Berry’s death, altho’ this Deponent remembers that in the evening of the same day . . . the following conversation between this Deponent and Thomas Marshall, one of the subscribing witnesses to the will, happened: That Berry had made that will with a view of inducing his brothers to pay more attention to him than they had done for some time past & that it was the opinion of the Deponent and of Thomas Marshall that it was Berry’s intention that that will should not stand. Being asked how long it was after the making the will the Deponent was in a situation capable of reflecting on Captain Berry’s being in or out of his senses at the time, answers, “Two or three days, or perhaps less.”

. . . the Deponent is satisfied that Capt. Berry intended to make some further provision more than what was contained in the former will for William Berry Warman from

Source: Prince George’s County Register of Wills (Orphans’ Court Proceedings) 1777-1790, f. 99, MSA C 1275-1