WILLS AT COMMON LAW. At early common law' a gift by will of personal property was valid without writing or other formality. As knowledge of the art of writing became more general, the courts came to look askance at verbal or nuncupative wills, holding that they were valid when executed in that manner only by force of necessity. An early statute (29 Charles II., ch. 3) placed various restrictions upon the power of disposing of personal property of less than thirty pounds in value by nunenpa tire wills. It required such wills to be executed by the testator in the presence of three wit nesses in his own house and during his last sickness. This statute with unimportant modi fication was generally enacted into the statute law of this country. In all of the States wills of personal property may now he executed with the same formalities as wills of real estate, and in a number of States, as in New York, all wills of personal property are now required to be executed in that manner, with the exception that nuncupative wills of soldiers in actual service and of sailors while at sea are still deemed valid.
It seems probable that by the Anglo-Saxon law land held by grant from the King. sometimes known as 'book land: was to a limited extent devisable. Disposition of land by will, however. was inconsistent with feudal tenure, as it de prived the overlord of his feudal rights and privileges, a nd, following the Norman Conquest, the practice of making gifts of lands by will ceased with the gradual establishment of the feudal system. There were exceptions in sonic of the ancient cities as to lands held in hurgage (q.v.) and in the County of Kent as to lands held by gavelkind (q.v.). where the power of disposition of land by will was preserved by local custom.
The development of the system of uses by the English Court of Chancery admitted of gifts of land by will by means of a conveyance of the land to such uses as the grantor might appoint by his will. (See TRUST.) This method of making devises was temporarily destroyed by the Statute of Uses (27 Hen. V111.), but the power
of devising was completely restored as to all soeage estates and as to two-thirds of the tes tator's lands held by knight service by the Statute of Wills (32 Den. VIII.) enacted in 1540. By the abolition of feudal tenures (12 Charles II., eh'. 14) in 1656, the Statute of Wills was indirectly extended in its application to all lands.
No particular formality was required by the Statute of Wills for the execution of a valid will except that it was required to be in writing. By the Statute of Frauds (29 Charles II.. eh. 3) a will was required to be signed by the testator mid to be subscribed by three or more witnesses. Other statutory changes Lave been made in the English Law of Wills which are substantially in the Wills Act (7 Win. IV. and in 1. Vict., ch. 26).
Statutes based on the Statute of Wills and the Statute of Frauds have been enacted in most of the United States, in all of which there are statutes authorizing gifts of land by will. While varying in numerous partieulars, these statutes are alike in requiring generally that the will shall be in writing and signed by the testator at the end of the will. tIenerally two and in some States three witnesses are required, who must subscribe the will as witnesses in the presence of the testator and in the presence of each other. In some States a smaller number of witnesses is required for a will of personal property than for a will of real property. In some States, also, as in New York, the testator is required to publish his will, that is, announce at the time of executing it that the document is his last will and testament. In Louisiana holo graphic wills without witnesses are valid; also nuncupative wills, provided the will is tran scribed by a notary in the presence of witnesses numbering three or five according to circum stances. There are also in that State other rules as to the execution and proof of wills which are not generally in force in the other States of the United States.