Of all the common frontier documents, wills give us the best picture of the families. In the sixty-nine wills of this volume we see how Scott County, Virginia people intermarried, how they disposed of their property, and what property they had to dispose of.
From the author's introduction: These documents cover the period 1816-1852, and are recorded in Will Books 1, 2 and 3. The will books were used as catch-all places to record a variety of instruments, mainly performance bonds, and were not suitable for transcribing in full. Will Book 1, for example, contained only 10 wills in 359 pages. One will was found in Deed Book 1. I chose instead to pull out the individual wills and transcribe them. Researchers should check the will books for possible related documents such as inventories, estate sales, and settlements. Of interest here are the paired wills of John and Rebecca Anderson, husband and wife (pages 2 and 14) and of Charles McClung Sr and Jr, father and son (pages 48 and 50) with Hugh McClung brother of Charles Sr (page 32). Many wills mention slaves; some emancipate them and some provide care for their declining years . The will of Jonathan Wood (page 57) shows a marked distrust of his daughter's husband, setting up a trust fund in case she should be left destitute. I have transcribed the texts and names to the best of my ability from the microfilm. I expect there may be errors; there were certainly spots I couldn't decipher. All names are indexed except for the Scott County attesting clerks. I hope this volume provides some missing links for some researchers.
Karen Wagner Treacy
107-SCVW
