Nuncupative Will
Dictionary of Terms and Phrases Used in American or English Jurisprudence · Benjamin Vaughan Abbott · 1879
Dictionary of Terms and Phrases Used in American or English Jurisprudence
A disposition of property to take effect at death, made by declaration; an oral testament. In many jurisdictions, soldiers and sailors in actual service are allowed, in view of the exigencies peculiar to their condition, to make wills by word of mouth, under certain restrictions, and subject to after formalities; and these are known as nuncupative wills. Otherwise, w Uls are required to be in writing. A nuncupative will can only be a verbal declaration, made in presence of witnesses called on to notice it, and not reduced to writing by direction of the testator. He must intend, at the time, that the verbal declaration so declared shall be his will. Unexecuted verbal instructions for a will, which are intended to be reduced to writing and signed, cannot be proved as a nuncupative will.
Ma tter of Hebden, 20 N. J. Eg. 473.
A nuncupative will is an oral testament, declared by a testator in extremis, before a sufficient number of witnesses, and afterwards reduced to writing.
The Stat. 29 Car. II. ch.
3, restricted nuncupative wills, Vict. ch. 26, § 9, such wills are abolished, subject to a provision that any soldier being in actual military service, or any mariner or seaman being at sea, may dispose of his personal estate, as he might have done before the making of this act.
See 11 Geo. IV. & 1 Wm. IV. oh. 20. Wharton.