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

That on the second of June last he visited Mr. William Berry, deceased, in his last sickness & found him in bed. He held out his hand to this Deponent and said he was glad to see him but was afraid it was all over with him but hoped this Deponent would do his best to save him once more. He (this Deponent) told him he supposed his complaint proceeded from the old cause, the bottle. The Deceased said he believed it might in some measure but that people judged too hardly of him in that respect. The Deponent said it was needless to conceal it from him, for that he knew he did drink hard, but it did not matter now, for he came to do him what service he could.

The Deponent sat down by him and took hold of his arm and asked him what was his present complaint. He answered he had had a violent reaching to vomit for some time, that nothing would stay on his stomach, that he felt himself much exhausted and very unhappy. The Deponent says the Deceased had a cold sweat upon him, a low pulse, and there appeared to be a general languor & debility in his system. The Deponent asked him if strong grog would not stay on his stomach. The Deceased answered he did not believe it would. The Deponent called for some & in about one half gill of it mixed two teaspoonsfull of volatile drops and desired him to swallow it, which he did.

Some time afterward he told the Deponent he felt himself much relieved. Mr. Archibald Boyd, who the deponent believes was in the room all the time, said he thought that as the drops had done Mr. Berry so much good he believed they would be of service to him likewise, for he found himself pretty much in the same situation which Mr. Berry had described. The Deponent told Mr. Boyd that he knew his own feelings best - there were the drops. Mr. Boyd then took three teaspoonsfull, mixed . . .

Source: Prince George’s County Register of Wills (Orphans’ Court Proceedings) 1777-1790, f. 93, MSA C 1275-1