Godfrey and Archdekin v. Godfrey
Allegation dated 28th Jany 1796

On Thursday the twenty eighth day of January 1796

A business of proving in solemn form of Law the last Will and Testament of John Cree late of Thornhill in the County of Dorset Esqr deceased bearing date the twentieth day of October in the Year of our Lord One thousand seven hundred and ninety five, promoted by David Godfrey and James Archdekin two of the Executors named in the said Will against Lucy Godfrey (wife of John Godfrey Esqr) a Legatee named in a former Will of the said Deceased bearing date the 16th day of July 1794...

[The Proctor acting on behalf of the Executors presents the 1795 will as an exhibit, identifies it as John Cree's will and makes the following "allegations" in their support:]

1st

That on the twentieth day of October in the Year of our Lord One thousand seven hundred and ninety five the said John Cree, the Testator in this Cause, deceased, being then at his house at Thornhill... and of sound and disposing mind, memory and understanding and having a mind and intention finally to settle his affairs and make his last Will and Testament in writing, did with his own hand write or draw the very Will now remaining in the Registry of this Court... and after he had wrote the same, he read it all over and liked and approved thereof, and in testimony of such his good liking and approbation, he did... set and subscribe his name thereto in the manner and form the same now appears thereon... and so much the said Lucy Godfrey... the other party in this Cause doth know or hath heard and in her conscience belief and hath confessed to be true...

2nd

That some time after... he the deceased being desirous of giving greater force and effect to his said last Will and Testament and of rendering the same sufficiently valid so as to have legal operation in every part thereof, hath it in contemplation to recognise and publish the same in the presence of a sufficient number of witnesses and did accordingly with his own hand write on a piece of paper annexed to his said last Will and Testament the aforesaid Memorandum or Clause of Attestation contained in the Words herein before set forth...

The party proponent doth... alledge... that the said deceased for the reasons... set forth in the 4th Article of this Allegation did not publish and declare his said last Will and Testament in the presence of Witnesses in the manner in which he intended to have done

3rd

That the whole series or contents of the said last Will and Testament... and also the aforesaid Memorandum or Clause of Attestation and the subscription thereto, were and are of the proper handwriting of the aforesaid John Cree... deceased, and so known and believed to be by divers persons of good credit and reputation who have frequently seen him write and also write and subscribe his name...

4th

That very soon after the said deceased had made the aforesaid Memorandum or Clause of Attestation to his said last will and Testament he... having some doubts as to the legal operation which his said last Will and Testament would have, even if he were to recognise and publish the same in the presence of a sufficient number of Witnesses as he had intended to do, and being apprehensive that his said Will was not drawn so as to give full effect to his intentions as therein declared, determined that his Solicitor should, to obviate all doubt from such his said last Will and Testament so as aforesaid written by himself, draw a new Will for him, and therefore the said deceased did not recognise and publish his said Will although he still meant that his intentions as therein declared should operate and have effect;

and the Party proponent doth further alledge and propound that on the fourteenth day of November last, the said deceased came to Town from Thornhill aforesaid where he had wholly resided from the time of his making his aforesaid last Will and Testament, and on Tuesday the seventeeth day of the said month of November he the said deceased went to Mr. John Claridge Attorney at Law of Craven Street in the Strand in the County of Middlesex, whom he had employed as his Solicitor for several year before and told him that he would call on him the said John Claridge to settle his affairs, and the said deceased at such time produced to the said John Claridge the very Will pleaded and propounded in this Cause on the part and behalf of the said David Godfrey and James Archdekin, inclosed in a sheet of paper and said the same contained his Will and left the same with him and told the said John Claridge that he would call on him again for the purpose of settling his affairs, as the said John Cree then declared, and appointed the next Friday being the twentieth day of the said month of November for that purpose;

5th

That on the day after the said deceased had so been with with [sic] the said John Claridge as herein before pleaded being Wednesday the eighteenth day of... November, the said deceased was suddenly taken ill and died on the next morning (to wit) Thursday the nineteenth... of November without having published his aforesaid last Will and Testament in the presence of Witnesses or having seen the said John Claridge after the said Tuesday...;

[and] that the said deceased was at and during all and singular the premises set forth in this Allegation of sound and perfect mind, memory and understanding, well knew what he wrote, said and did, and was capable of making his last Will and Testament or of doing any other Serious or rational Act of that or the like nature...

6th

That all and singular the premises were and are true, public and notorious and so forth.

Probate lawsuit Godfrey and Archdekin v Godfrey, concerning the deceased John Cree esq of Thornhill, Dorset. Prerogative Court of Canterbury: Allegations, TNA PROB 18/104/77.