ABSTRACT
Ambitious relatives and friends who were unwilling to risk the opportunity to inherit or benefit by a will could feel very threatened by the attitude and actions of the testator. So they could and did try, sometimes in vain, to provide proof that the testator was not in his correct mind and had been open to influence by others. An attempt in 1730 to declare that William Craig, mariner of Whitehaven, was non compos mentis was foiled in the end. On 25 August 1730, Robert Dixon, Jane Dixon, Robert Gilpin and Hannah Craig, their infant sister, wanted the will declared null and void because of the manner in which the deceased disposed of his shipping interests. It was the custom for small trading ships to be constructed with a number of people (as many as twenty) each holding a share in the vessel and drawing a share of the profits.
