my cousins and i brought up a good point in discussion today, about who kept wills in the past. these days as i understand it, you have a copy of your will, and the solicitor has a copy of it too. but was this always the case? i'm wondering if this became more commonplace in the mid to late 19th century?
i do know of one instance in my research, of a widow who had to contest her husband's will (1774). his family produced an outdated will upon his death, dated the day his last wife arrived in fort marlborough, sumatra (1770 off my head). this one left everything to his 3rd wife (current wife at the time of the will) and two children. the widow being the 4th wife, claimed there was an updated will, and the family in the end, admitted there was a more recent one. so this to me sounds like the will was kept by the person writing it, and there was no copy. the widow could not produce the will, so i assume someone burned it for the old one, which would have been more favourable to the husband's family.
i'm only asking because the widow's daughter died in 1843, and there is no will or administration on the hampshire archives site, or the canterbury court wills. though i swear she had an administration, as i remember finding her death duties in the index on FMP.
i do know of one instance in my research, of a widow who had to contest her husband's will (1774). his family produced an outdated will upon his death, dated the day his last wife arrived in fort marlborough, sumatra (1770 off my head). this one left everything to his 3rd wife (current wife at the time of the will) and two children. the widow being the 4th wife, claimed there was an updated will, and the family in the end, admitted there was a more recent one. so this to me sounds like the will was kept by the person writing it, and there was no copy. the widow could not produce the will, so i assume someone burned it for the old one, which would have been more favourable to the husband's family.
i'm only asking because the widow's daughter died in 1843, and there is no will or administration on the hampshire archives site, or the canterbury court wills. though i swear she had an administration, as i remember finding her death duties in the index on FMP.
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