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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III WILLS The will or testament of a man is one of the most important instruments of the law, affecting as it sometimes does the disposition of immense wealth, great estates, or other possessions. It is one of the simplest things in the world to draw correctly, to execute correctly, and to make binding on the successors of the testator. On the other hand, there is nothing in the whole law more capable of signally failing through some trifling omission. People have a tendency to go to a solicitor for the purpose of having a will drafted, but, while this is generally a good precautionary measure, if the solicitor be a reputable member of his profession, it is not altogether necessary. It is of no legal account whether a testator writes out a holograph or gets someone else to draw up the terms of a will for him. A typewritten document is equally as good as either. The main points connected with thesubject can be set out in a few words. A testator must sign the will at the foot or end thereof, or it may be signed by some other person in his presence and by his direction ; and such signature shall be made or acknowledged by the testator in the presence of two or more witnesses, present at the same time; and such witnesses shall attest and shall subscribe the will in the presence of the testator, but no form of attestation shall be necessary. Every will shall be construed, with reference to the real estate and personal estate comprised in it, to speak and take effect as if it had been executed immediately before the death of the testator, unless a contrary intention shall appear in the will. No will made by any person under the age of twenty- one years shall be valid. As a general rule, every will made by a man or woman shall be revoked by his or her marriage. All gifts...