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

then [Mr. Boyd] returned into the back room. The company sat and conversed a considerable time together, chiefly about Mr. Carnes's balloon. After which Dept. thinks he walked out in the yard with Mr. Jere. Berry, and Dept. came again into the room where the company were. Mr. Boyd had walked out at the back door. He came in and carried out a chair at the back door, sat down in it and nodded. Word came to Dept. by Capt. Berry's boy, Jeffry, [who] asked Dept. to walk in to his master, and Dept. went in. Mr. Boyd & Capt. Berry got out of their seats and made towards the Deponent. They both asked the Dept. to sign the will. Dept. sat down and wrote his name to it, and Capt. Wm. Berry laid his finger on the seal, and the Dept. thinks he acknowledged it to be his hand & seal and last will & testament.

Dept. retired out of the room . . . and stayed some time in the yard. Returned into the house again. Company had gone into the small room. Dept. seated himself in company. The conversation still was about Mr. Carnes's balloon for about half an hour. Dept. again walked out in the yard in company with Jere. Berry, Doc. Steuart and Jno. F. A. Priggs came out where we were, got their horses, and went off.

About an hour after, Mr. Boyd and this Dept. went off together; Dept. went home with Mr. Boyd. On their way home Mr. Boyd told the Dept. that he had wrote Capt. Berry's will today & said that he did not think he was capable of writing so good a hand as he had done today, but yet not so well as he could wish. However, it is a matter that he could stand up in the face of a court & defend any day. Mr. Boyd after a while said he imagined it was only done in order to make his brothers court him. Dept. replied to him for answer & said it might be so.

When you went to William Berry's the evening before he made the will now exhibited, did he appear to you to be sober? Answers, “No, he appeared to be a little lively with liquor.” Was the conversation he held with you that evening sensible & rational? Answer: as much so as the Dept. knew him to be usually capable of.

When Mr. Berry called you and Jere. Berry to his assistance the next morning, as you before related, did he appear to be drunk or sober? Answers, he was continually puking while he was in the room, and Dept. did not exchange more than a word or two with him. Did what you heard Mr. Wm. Berry say at that time seem to be sensible or otherways? Answer: it appeared to Dept. to be sensible & reasonable. Did the orders Wm. Berry gave for a person to go for the doctor and a person to write his will proceed entirely from himself? Answer: yes, the directions were given by Berry to him, the Dept. Did Wm. Berry from the time the Deponent

Source: Prince George’s County Register of Wills (Orphans’ Court Proceedings) 1777-1790, f. 114, MSA C 1275-1