Last Will and Testament, 1717 style Artwork

StocktonAfterClass

Ron Stockton was a professor of political science at the University of Michigan-Dearborn for 48 years. His specialty was non-western politics and political change. He taught classes on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Religion and Politics, the Politics of Revolution, Non-Western politics, and American politics. He also taught in the Honors Program, focusing upon foundational readings from the 18th and 19th centuries. He has an interest in religion and politics and in the role of religio-ethnic groups in the political system. The listener can anticipate talks on Arab-Americans, Jews, African-Americans, the Scots-Irish, and Evangelicals. He has lectured and written on American politics, public opinion, and voting behavior and on the role of religious organizations and ideologies in the political system. There will be occasional discussions of books and films that address serious issues. And he has lectured and published and even taught a class on gravestones, especially those of different ethnic and religious groups such as Muslims, African-Americans, Jews, and Native Americans. The goal of the podcast series is to provide analysis and commentary by a political scientist to explain and make accessible political, historical, and cultural developments in the United States and around the world, and to give the listener analytical tools to understand those developments. It is also to entertain the listener.

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StocktonAfterClass

Last Will and Testament, 1717 style

May 04, 2026 • Ronald Stockton

0:00 | 17:13

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Being 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 points

First, 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.