Legal history of wills

Wills have a lengthy history. The will, if not purely Roman in origin, at least owes to Roman law its complete development, a development which in most European countries was greatly aided at a later period by ecclesiastics versed in Roman law. In India, the will was unknown before English conquest. Eusebius and others have related of Noah's testament, made in writing, and witnessed under his seal, by which he disposed of the whole world. A more authentic instance of the early use of testaments occurs in the sacred writings, (Genesis 48) in which Jacob bequeaths to his son Joseph, a portion of his inheritance, double to that of his brethren.