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

to William, an illegitimate son of a certain Ann Warman, who is in the said paper said to be baptized by the name of “William Berry,” and appointed Thomas Owen Williams and Zachariah executors, which said testament, so regularly executed, your libellants always understood was by the said William Berry intended to be his last will and testament; that the said testament so regularly executed has been taken from the said William Berry’s house, and what has been done with it your petitioners are not informed, but the same was never cancelled by the said William Berry; that your libellants know not by what means the said paper now exhibited was procured to be signed, if signed at all by the said William Berry. Your libellants further show that to their knowledge there was no cause or reason which could have operated with the said William Berry, if he had been in his usual senses, to have altered the will so, as aforesaid, about a year ago regularly executed, as he & your libellants always lived in perfect friendship and affection; that the said paper now exhibited was not executed by the said William Berry according to law; and that the said William Berry, at the time when the said paper is said to have been signed and long before, was by a course of drinking strong liquor and bodily and mental infirmities in consequence thereof in a state unfit to dispose of his estate by a testament or last will. For these causes, or some of them, your libellants object to the said paper aforesaid being taken and received here as the last will and testament of the said William Berry, and pray that the Court here will enquire into the same, and that if upon inquiry and examination the Court here should be satisfied that the said paper should not be taken and received as the last will and testament of the said William for the causes aforesaid or any other causes or reasons which may appear in the course of the inquiry , that the said paper may not be received, adjudged, or taken by the Court as the last will and testament of the said William Berry, and that letters testamentary be granted to the said Thomas Owen Williams and Zachariah Berry, executors in the said testament named, or that letters of administration be granted on the estate of the said William Berry to his next of kin or legal representatives, the said William having died about the first day of July in the year 1784 without any lawful issue, the said William Berry never having been married, and that your petitioner Richard Berry is his heir at law, & the said Richard Berry and your other libellants are his only legal representatives.

T. Stone for Libellants

Source: Prince George’s County Register of Wills (Orphans’ Court Proceedings) 1777-1790, f. 125, MSA C 1275-1