Execution Of Wills - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition execution-of-wills

Definition :

Execution of Wills. By the (English) Wills Act, 1837 (7 Wm. 4 & 1 Vict. c. 26), s. 9:-

No will shall be valid unless it be in writing and executed in manner hereinafter mentioned; (that is to say) it shall be signed at the foot or end thereof by the testator or 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 clause shall be necessary.

The (English) Wills Act Amendment Act, 1852 (15 & 16 Vict. c. 24), contains most elaborate saving allowances for the position of the signature. Thus, the signature of the testator may be placed 'at, or after, or following, or under, or beside, or opposite to, the end of the will'; 'a blank space may intervene between the concluding word of the will and the signature'; the signature may be 'on a side, or page, or other portion of the paper or papers containing the will, whereon no clause, or paragraph, or disposing part of the will may be written above the signature,' etc., the only restriction being that 'no signature is to be operative to give effect to any disposition or direction which is underneath or which follows it; nor to give effect to any disposition or direction inserted after the signature is made.'

Obliterations, interlineations, or other alterations must, by s. 21 of the (English) Wills Act, be executed in the same manner as a will. See Jarman on Wills and Wiliams on Executors, and WILLS; ATTESTATION CLAUSE.