ABSTRACT
In the seventeenth century it hovered around 20 per cent, rising to one quarter of the total in some places by the mid-eighteenth century. Because married women were precluded from making a will except by special arrangement with their husbands, the vast majority of women's wills were made by the widows and the single women. Married men who died without having made a will left wives who had an interest in, and were automatically granted the administration of, their estates. The median personal estate of those men who made a will was 40 per cent larger than the median estate of those who died intestate. Women in the fenland, however, had the same median wealth whether or not they made a will, although the number of wills at issue is small. Constance was heard by her daughter to say that she also gave to her grandson, her daughter's son.
