tion of soul and body.

I.

DR. CHRISTOPHER SUTTON.

In the year one thousand six hundred and twenty-nine, on the third day of April, being Good Friday. The last will and testament of me, Christopher Sutton, Prebend of (the) Cathedral and Collegiate Church of S. Peter in Westminster, written with mine own hand, in manner and form following.

In the name of GoD, Amen. I, Christopher Sutton, Doctor in Divinity, and Prebend of the Cathedral and Collegiate Church of Westminster, most unworthy of that title and place, being at this present (I give Almighty GoD praise) of good health and memory, do make and ordain my last will and testament, in form Commenda- and manner following: Imprimis, I commend in humble manner both my body and soul into the hands of (the) blessed TRINITY. same time, and who are to sign their names as attesting witnesses in the presence of the testator. No particular form of attestation is necessary. If any person is drawing up a will, without legal assistance, the best form of expression will be the simplest and plainest that can be used. Care must be taken not to bequeath legacies to attesting witnesses, or even to the wife or husband of an attesting witness, as all legacies so bequeathed are void in law. If therefore a testator wishes to give anything to an attesting witness, he must do it in some other way than by a legacy. But creditors and executors can be attesting witnesses. Persons under twenty-one years of age cannot make a valid will, Neither can married women in the lifetime of their husbands, except where they have property settled on them, with a power of devising, &c. Devises of land, or bequests of any interest whatever in land, for charitable purposes or pious uses, are void by the Mortmain Act. Therefore, if a testator desire to leave legacies to charities, he must take care to make them payable, either expressly, or by ordinary course of law, out of such personal estate as may be applied for the purpose. A bequest to a charity, or for any pious use, of a term of years in an estate, or of leasehold property; or of money to arise from, or be produced by, the sale of land; or by the rents, profits, or other interest arising from land; or a bequest of money to be laid out in land; or a bequest of money secured by mortgage; or a bequest of annuities charged on land, or rather rentcharges; or a bequest of money, with a direction to apply it in paying off mortgages on schools, or the like; or a bequest of money secured on parochial rates or county rates, or turnpike tolls; is in each case void.

A will can only be revoked by being destroyed, or by the execution of a new will. Alterations in a will must be made in the same way as the will itself. Persons making any alteration in their wills must therefore be careful that the alterations are attested and signed in the same way as the will. Any man or woman, having made a will, and marrying afterwards, the act of marriage generally revokes the will.

My poor sinful soul I commend into the hands of Gon the FATHER, Who has created it, into the hands of GoD the (SON), my merciful Redeemer, Who hath redeemed it, into the hands of GOD the HOLY GHOST (Who hath) sanctified it, and after an unspeakable manner infused His grace into it, in prospering (me) in my study and calling; in preserving me, His unworthy servant, from innumerable evils whereinto, by the corruption of mine nature, I had often fallen. And for my earthly body, I bequeath Disposal of (it) to Christian burial in the place where it shall please GOD to body. call me out of this mortal life. If it be at Westminster, I humbly crave to be buried before the vestry door, where the choirmen keep their surplices: to whom I give the sum of five pounds. If it please GOD to call me in the country, I desire to be buried with Divine service. If it happen there be a sermon, I request the preacher to speak little of praise; to whom I give twenty shillings.

Item, I give, &c.

II.

THE REV. JOHN KETTLEwell.

of GOD'S

In the name of the FATHER, SON, and HOLY GHOST, Amen. AcknowI, John Kettlewell, &c. do make and constitute this my last will ledgment and testament. First, I do with a truly awful, and affectionate, mercies. and thankful heart, adore the excellences, and magnify the good. ness of the most Holy and Eternal TRINITY, for all the innumerable and valuable mercies of the FATHER, SON, and HOLY GHOST, shown most seasonably, and of mere grace and bounty continued on incessantly, both to my soul and body at all times hitherto. I have always lived upon Thy goodness, O my dear GOD, and have ever met it, both in my successes and disappointments, in my comforts, and in my afflictions, and in all the accidents and providential orderings through all the moments of my life. I have ever found Thy word a sure word, and Thy promises true and steadfast, and an upright adherence to Thy ways, and trust in Thy providence, to be the best security and defence in all my troubles and trials; and I have fully proved and experienced Thy Paternal care and tenderness, and Thy truth and faithfulness all my days. And this I do most gladly and thankfully publish at my death, to Thy glory and praise, among men and angels for evermore.

soul.

I do willingly and freely resign my most precious and immortal Commensoul, whensoever it shall please Him to call for it, into the merci dation of ful hands of Gon Who made it, and of His blessed SON JESUS CHRIST, Who hath redeemed and washed it with His Blood, and of the HOLY GHOST, Who out of His infinite love and goodness, has kept it under the most blissful guidance and comfort of His grace. I die firmly assured of the grace and mercy of GoD, Profession through the merits of JESUS CHRIST, to all true penitent sin- of faith and ners that believe the Gospel. I am a poor, miserable sinner, and infinitely need mercy; but I know I have a merciful God, to take account of me, and a SAVIOUR, Who died for me, to judge me;

repentance.

h

and I have an humble confidence, through the merits of His Blood, that He will freely pardon all my manifold and great offences, and look favourably on my repentance, and accept my poor and weak, but sincere, and hearty, and well-meant services, when He comes Disposal of to call me to account for them. And as for my body, after my body. last breath is expired, I leave that to be decently interred where my executrix, hereafter named, shall think fit, in comfortable and blessed hope of a most happy resurrection from dust and dishonour unto glory, and from the chains of death to the triumphs of eternal And estate. life, at the last day. And as for all the worldly estate which GOD hath graciously blessed me with, and made me His steward of, my will is to dispose of it to the praise of His name, and I trust to His good liking.

Commendation of soul.

Profession of faith.

III.

BISHOP SANDERSON.

I, Robert Sanderson, Doctor of Divinity, an unworthy Minister of JESUS CHRIST, and by the providence of God, Bishop of Lincoln, being, by the long continuance of an habitual distemper brought to a great bodily weakness and faintness of spirits, but (by the great mercy of GoD) without any bodily pain otherwise, or decay of understanding, do make this my will and testament, (written with my own hand) revoking all my other wills by me heretofore made, if any shall be found. First, I commend my soul into the hands of Almighty God, as of a faithful Creator, which I humbly beseech Him mercifully to accept, looking upon it, not as it is in itself, (infinitely polluted with sin,) but as it is redeemed and purged with the precious Blood of His only beloved SON, and my most sweet SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST, in confidence of Whose merits and mediation alone it is that I cast myself upon the mercy of Gon for the pardon of my sins, and the hopes of eternal life. And here I do profess, that as I have lived, so (I) desire, and by the grace of GoD, resolve to die in the communion of the Catholic Church of CHRIST, and a true son of the Church of England, which as it stands by law established, to be both in doctrine and worship agreeable to the Word of God, and in the most, and most material points of both, conformable to the faith and practice of the godly Churches of CHRIST in the primitive and purer times, I do firmly believe; led so to do, not so much from the force of custom and education, (to which the greatest part of mankind owe their particular different persuasions in point of religion,) as upon the clear evidence of truth and reason, after a serious and impartial examination of the grounds, as well of popery as puritanism, according to that measure of understanding, and those opportunities which GOD has afforded me; and herein I am abundantly satisfied that the schism which the papist on the one hand, and the superstition which the puritan on the other hand, lay to our charge, are very justly chargeable upon themselves respectively. Wherefore I humbly beseech Almighty God, the FATHER of mercies, to preserve the Church

by His power and providence, in peace, truth, and godliness, evermore to the world's end; which doubtless, He will do, if the wickedness and security of a sinful people (and particularly those sins that are so rife, and seem daily to increase among us, of unthankfulness, riot, and sacrilege) do not tempt His patience to the contrary, &c. &c.

IV.

THOMAS, EARL OF DORSET.

work in

The Eternal GOD of heaven and earth, the FATHER, the SON, Hope of and the HOLY GHOST, guide and prosper this mine intent and GoD's guid purpose; which, in Their Name, I here take in hand and begin; ance in the because that is a truth infallible, such as every Christian ought hand. not only perfectly to know and steadfastly believe, but also continually to meditate and think upon, namely, that we are born to die; that nothing in this world is more certain than death, nothing more uncertain than the hour of death, and that no creature living knoweth neither when, where, nor how it shall please Almighty God to call him out of this mortal life; so as here we live every hour, nay, every instant, a thousand ways subject to the sudden stroke of death, which ought to terrify, teach, and warn us, to make ourselves ready, as well in the preparation of our souls to GOD, as by the disposition of all our earthly fortunes to the world, whensoever it shall please the heavenly Power to call us from this miserable and transitory life, unto that blessed and everlasting life to come: therefore I, Sir Thomas Sackville, of the noble Order of the Garter, Knight, Baron of Buckhurst, Earl of Dorset, and Lord High Treasurer of England, being, at this present, thanks be to Almighty GoD, in sound and perfect health both of body and mind, do here ordain, constitute, and make this my present last will and testament, the eleventh day of August, in the year of our LORD GOD one thousand six hundred and seven, in manner and form following: first, therefore, as a living creature most bound thereunto, I here throw down, and prostrate myself in all humility and thankfulness at the foot of my CREATOR, REDEEMER, and SAVIOUR, rendering unto His Divine Majesty, my most lowly, hearty, and infinite thanks, in that He hath vouchsafed to create me a man, endued and infused with soul and reason, and fashioned like unto the image of His own eternal SON, That might have made me a brutish and soulless beast, to have fed and grazed upon the earth, like unto those irrational living creatures of the field; but specially in that He hath pleased to make me a Christian man, whereby, in this life, I may joy and rejoice with the sound and badge of that glorious name; and when I go from hence, I may thereby and through the mercies and goodness of JESUS CHRIST, depart and die in assurance and comfort of my soul's and body's salvation and resurrection, and to rest at His right hand, in the fruition of those celestial and unspeakable joys and blessedness that shall never have end.

e

Children and descendants to continue

faith.

V.

RICHARD BOYLE, EARL OF CORK.

First, I bequeath and humbly commend my soul to Almighty GOD, my Maker; and His only begotten Son, my sole SAVIOur, JESUS CHRIST, confidently believing, &c., &c.

Moreover, I do, upon my blessing, charge and command, not only my said son and heir, but also all and every of my three in the right younger sons, Roger, Lord Baron of Broghill, Francis, and Robert Boyle, and all my daughters,* to be most zealous and constant in that undoubted, true, protestant religion, now professed and established in the Churches of England and Ireland; in which they have been, by myself and their worthy, deceased, religious mother, seasoned, trained up, and bred; and that they, and each of them, train and breed up their children in the same true, protestant reAnd in peace ligion. And that my said three younger sons be and continue

one with

another.

Gift to the
Church

And poor.

Suits at law to be avoided.

observant, respective, kind, and loving unto their eldest brother, and that he be helping, comfortable, and assistant unto them, and they lodged and entertained by and with him in his house in Dublin, when their several occasions call them thither. And that all his younger brethren do hearken unto him, incline, and follow all such good counsel and advice, as he, and the overseers of his will, or any of them, from time to time shall give unto them.

He also devised towards the new building, covering, and garnishing of the chancel of the collegiate and parochial Church of Youghall the sum of £98, and to the poor of that parish and those of Lismore, Tallough Tallough-bridge, Bandon, Codfaddagh, and Cloghnikilty, £10 each.

VI.

ARCHBISHOP BRAMHALL.

Lastly, according to my expectation and confidence in said wife and children, I do pray, and as much as in me lieth my enjoin them to observe all acts of love one to another, and to avoid all unnatural suits and contentions, and to rest satisfied with this my will, according to the purport thereof, and my true meaning therein declared as aforesaid.

It is worthy of observation that of the sons named one was afterwards the celebrated and religious philosopher Robert Boyle, the founder of the Boyle's Lecture; and of the daughters, one at least, Catherine, Viscountess Ranelagh, was as remarkable for her piety and excellence.-See Bishop Burnet's Funeral Sermon on Robert Boyle.