Scottish wills

[terianne]

There is a  4 John McNicol's wills - died between 1814-1816 at Edinburgh commission court & sheriff court - they all collect a man with a Jamaica / shipping contact

[carolineasb]

Sorry but there are not 4 Wills as you say

For the deceased you refer to, there is  a Testament Dative on 26/1/1814 and an Inventory of the Estate of 7/1/1814.  There is also an Additional Inventory on 14/12/1815 and an Eik on 9/1/1816. So no Will

[terianne]

Don't miss inventory out of hand not uncommon for testament just to be registered only as inventories the information can include other info and some people will just have an inventory instead of will or both

[carolineasb]

Sorry but that's wrong too. By the very nature of a Testament Dative, the deceased did not leave a will (or at least one was not found).

I should perhaps say that I think the way SP have indexed and charge for these documents is wrong. If a deceased's estate requires Confirmation then the Will, if there is one, and Inventory are confirmed together almost as one document but SP seem to have them on separately for some deceased. There may be an Inventory (still Confirmation) on its own if there was no Will. Some of these Wills on their own may simply be Wills registered for safekeeping which, as I've said before, can happen

[Forfarian]

I should perhaps say that I think the way SP have indexed and charge for these documents is wrong. If a deceased's estate requires Confirmation then the Will, if there is one, and Inventory are confirmed together almost as one document but SP seem to have them on separately for some deceased

I have noticed that where there are both an inventory and a will, they often have different reference numbers, suggesting that they are and always have been collected into different volumes. For example, in the series SC70 (Records of Edinburgh Commissary Office), SC70/1 contains inventories while SC70/4 contains testamentary deeds, i.e. wills.