Last Will and Testament, 1717 style

Send us Fan MailBeing my family historian, I bump into strange documents from time to time.  A couple of years ago, I saw a will from 1717 that I thought might belong to an ancestor.  It turned out that it did not, but the will was so fascinating that I wanted to discuss it with you.  The logic and style are very different from what we know as a will today (although the goal is the same -- to allocate resources according to the wishes of the deceased, without tension). Three small pointsFirst, in a mistake, I once said an ell was 14 inches.  In fact it is 45 inches. Second, I suspect you know the term anno domini, which we commonly call A. D. Third, a "share" of tobacco  had different meanings.  In some cases it was a negotiated amount, for example with a shareholder.  The most common meaning was a full "hogshead" barrel, which was typically 1,000 pounds.  It sounds as if that might be what was meant in this document.  This is a relatively short podcast so it will not cost a significant portion of your life to listen.  And you might find it interesting.