d of my half-sister, Sarah Melvina
Thornton Pepper, deceased."

Dr. Richard Dudley, of Lawsonville, "husband of Frances Hollis,
deceased, sister of Mary Belle Hollis Page," was named as sole executor
of this will. A codicil dated twenty years later, June 30, 1802, the
very day of Andrew Hite's death, stated that all subsequent wills
having been rendered null and void by the death of the testator's
adopted son, Stephen Balleau Hite, were destroyed, and that the
testator, Andrew Thurston Hite, decreed that the will dated May 2,
1782, should be his last will and testament. This codicil also named
Richard Dudley, "late of Lawsonville, now of Williamsburg," as sole
executor.

Contrary to his own convictions and the dictum of his physicians,
Andrew Hite recovered from his illness in 1782, and five years later
adopted a lad, Stephen Balleau, and reared him as his son. This
Stephen, grown to manhood, but unmarried, was killed in a duel, four
months before the death of his adopted father, then an old man of
seventy-six years. After Stephen was killed, Andrew Hite seems to have
lost all interest in life, and to have neglected making any provision
as to the disposal of his property, until the very day of his death.
Then, instead of making a new will, he on his deathbed, in the presence
of his physician, his old body-servant, and a neighbor, simply added
the codicil to the will made twenty years before.

"This strange will still holds good, I presume, eccentric though it
be," Abner said to Dr. Dudley, after reading the document.

"Certainly," his uncle replied; "for your mother was undoubtedly living
at the date specified in the will."

"Yes," Abner said, "that can be established by your testimony, which is
corroborated by the inscription on her tombstone at Lawsonville and by
the record in your family Bible--both of which give the date of her
death as that of August 21, 1782, three months after the will was
written."

"And," added the doctor, "even should the will not stand, you, the only
child of your mother, are justly entitled to this bequest; for all that
Andrew Hite possessed, save that Kentucky land which he in my presence
promised your mother at his death, came through his father, your
great-grandfather, Abner Hite; and Sarah Jane Pepper is connected only
through her mother, Andrew Hite's half-sister, Sarah Thornton, who was
not a descendant of old Abner Hite. Therefore, you need have no
uneasiness on the score of e