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

drunk, that he supposed they would not be fooled any longer. “Well,” says the Deceased, “I don’t care, rot my skin, they shall not have a farthing of my estate. I will give it all to Billy” - who was then in the room (meaning Billy Berry Warman, the person mentioned in the will). The Deponent told him he had an undoubted right to dispose of his property as he pleased, and if he was satisfied the boy was his son, it was all very well, and he would write the will agreeable to his directions. The Deponent sat down down to the table in order to write the will, but finding his hand shook amazingly, he got up again, telling Capt. William Berry it would not do yet, he must take a little more powder.

He then asked the Deponent to come sit down on the bed by him, when it was mentioned either by him or the Deponent that it would be necessary to appoint a guardian to the boy. Capt. William Berry, admitting the propriety of the measure, asked the Deponent whom he should choose. The Deponent told him it was his business to make the choice, when he replied to the Deponent that he left the matter to him and bid him put in either Robert Peter of George Town or Col. Joshua Beall. The Deponent told him it would never suit Mr. Peters, who lived at a distance and had so much business of his own. “Well then,” says Capt. Berry, “it must be old Joshua, but no, drot him, he is too old too.” The Deponent then said, “I will tell you what, old fellow, he will live long enough to bury both you and me if we do not mend our manners, and that speedily too.” On which he agreed that Col. Joshua Beall should be the boy’s guardian.

The Deponent then sat down a second time to write the will. He wrote or was writing the preamble when Capt. William Berry stopped him thus: “I will tell you what now, Boyd. I want you to put down in the first place my hound bitch Dido, I want to leave to my sister Williams, and her puppies to be equally divided amongst her children.” The Deponent told him he would not put that down, saying it would be sufficient mortification to his sister to find herself altogether neglected by his will without being insulted by such a legacy as that. He insisted, however . . . and said it must be done; he wanted to leave the bitch to his sister on purpose to suck her eggs. The Deponent, however, positively refused to insert it, threw down the pen, got up from the table, telling Captain Berry he found he had no intention of making a will. At last he agreed the Deponent should go on without inserting it, and after taking notice of some legacies, left the remainder, as in the will, to the boy, and directed the Deponent to write the will now produced and to insert what is contained in it. Together with some particulars hereafter mentioned which the Deponent neglected. Being asked if at the time of giving the directions to the Deponent to write the will aforesaid and at the time he signed the will, he conceives Captain William Berry to have been of sound and disposing mind to dispose of his estate, - returns for answer

Source: Prince George’s County Register of Wills (Orphans’ Court Proceedings) 1777-1790, f. 98, MSA C 1275-1