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

He believes the chief of the money paid for lands purchased came from his brothers & mother, that he has heard the Deceased boast of his having an excellent banker in his brother Zachariah. He does not believe either of the three tracts above mentioned were fully paid for but one . . . .

Was it not a caution with William Berry when persons were at his house from whom he wished to conceal his drinking to keep strong liquor in his closet & go to it to drink privately, refusing at the same time to drink with the company? Answer: it was, and he has told the Deponent when he has called him into the back room to partake with him of liquor more adapted to the pallates of them both

Source: Prince George’s County Register of Wills (Orphans’ Court Proceedings) 1777-1790, f. 104, MSA C 1275-1