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I have come across a number of english legal cases from the mid-16th century where great store was set by what the 'ultime voluntate' of the deceased had been. Though in these cases its incontrovertability was probably more to do with its irrevocability. These statements were occasionally cited in an attempt to overturn earlier written wills. Equally, many times people tried to have last-gasp legacies revoked because the deceased had been utterly speechless or mad and out of his wits. I have come across them in the equity courts, but am no great expert on whether they appear in common law cases. And of course such cases only arise when matters are in dispute and the stakes are high enough... However these are legacies and not declarations. I have it in the back of my mind that condemned criminals were mindful to clear the decks when execution was imminent but trying to pull an example out of a hat is going to be difficult. I suspect I have seen them in the published Elizabethan assize circuit accounts so it won't be a medieval example. And of course there are the politically motivated judicial murders in which the likes of Thomas More and Thomas Cromwell were forced to confess non-existent offences publicly. I'm not sure how credulous the general populace were, but in the mid-1550s when in rapid succession Thomas Seymour, his brother Edward, and Robert Dudley sent each other to the block like dominos they must have had some doubts! Regards John A.W. Lock ----- Original Message ----- From: <[log in to unmask]> To: 000<[log in to unmask]> Sent: Wednesday, October 20, 1999 7:07 PM Subject: deathbed declarations > Does anyone know how or when the belief arose that deathbed statements or > confessions are true? Is there any authority for the idea or is it just a > folk-belief? > > pat sloane > %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%