755.

S.I.B.

* * * * *

HISTORY AND ANTIQUITY OF WILLS.

(_For the Mirror._)

According to Blackstone, wills are of high antiquity. We find them
among the ancient Hebrews; not to mention what Eusebius and others
have related of Noah's testament, made in writing, and witnessed under
his seal, by which he disposed of the whole world. A more authentic
instance of the early use of testaments occurs in the sacred writings,
(Genesis, chap. xlviii.) in which Jacob bequeaths to his son Joseph, a
portion of his inheritance, double to that of his brethren.

The Grecian practice concerning wills (says Potter) was not the same
in all places; some states permitted men to dispose of their estates,
others wholly deprived them of that privilege. We are told by
Plutarch, that Solon is much commended for his law concerning wills;
for before his time no man was allowed to make any, but all the wealth
of deceased persons belonged to their families; but he permitted them
to bestow it on whom they pleased, esteeming friendship a stronger tie
than kindred, and affection than necessity, and thus put every man's
estate in the disposal of the possessor; yet he allowed not all sorts
of wills, but required the following conditions in all persons that
made them:--

1st. That they must be citizens of Athens, not slaves, or foreigners,
for then their estates were confiscated for the public use.

2nd. That they must be men who have arrived to twenty years of age,
for women and men under that age were not permitted to dispose by will
of more than one _medimn_ of barley.

3rd. That they must not be adopted; for when adopted persons died
without issue, the estates they received by adoption returned to the
relations of the men who adopted them.

4th. That they should have no male children of their own, for then
their estate belonged to these. If they had only daughters, the
persons to whom the inheritance was bequeathed were obliged to marry
them. Yet men were allowed to appoint heirs to succeed their children,
in case these happened to die under twenty years of age.

5th. That they should be in their right minds, because testaments
extorted through the phrenzy of a disease, or dotage of old age, were
not in reality the wills of the persons that made them.

6th. That they should not be under imprisonment, or other constraint,
their consent being then only forced, nor in justice to be reputed
voluntary.