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

him out of his senses that the Dept. ever saw, that in that same state he seemed always to be on his guard, and, the Dept. thinks, could make as good bargains as at any time.

In what situation did Archibald Boyd appear to be in on the day on which the will was executed? Ansr: he was not sober, he was enlivened with liquor, but not so as to be past doing business. At the time Wm Berry begged & requested the Dept. to stay, he took the Dept. to one corner of the room and wished he had been there a day or two before to have done the business for him, that this little body Boyd had been drunk & plagued him a good deal and he wished he could have got the Dept. to have done the business for him. Whether Mr. Berry, when sober, was not himself capable of making a will or deed? Ansr: be believes him to have been capable at all times to have done it that ever he saw him.

Sworn in open Court
Test. Saml. Tyler, Reg'r

Source: Prince George’s County Register of Wills (Orphans’ Court Proceedings) 1777-1790, f. 123, MSA C 1275-1