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To relieve your anxiety, let me assure you that we did find the will.1 In an airless vault room with one wall completely concealed by the shelved spines of leather-bound, legal-sized books.

Grandpa Appleton’s 1817 will was the very last one in the first volume. Here’s its first page, reduced to fit this display: the original is approximately legal size (8-1/2 x 14 inches).

Dated 3 February 1817, the will itself starts on Page 431, fills 432 and ends part-way down 433. Then a codicil, executed the next day, and finally on 434 the witnesses’ affidavits, taken the next 1 August, a fortnight after Appleton’s death.

1Probate records v. 1-2 1779-1826, Connecticut Probate Court (Norfolk District); FHL US/CAN Film 5178; v. 1, pp 431-435. Had I thought to snap a few pictures of the Norfolk Town Hall, inside and out, I’d have bothered you with a lot more of the process, ’cause it makes a great story. How I drove past three times with my GPS yelling that we were there, before I believed it. How the only occupant was an elderly and infirm lady who allowed as how Appleton Stillman’s will might well be there, but it would be in the vault in the basement, and she didn’t handle stairs well. We took some time making friends, and she agreed to give it a try, rummaging in a drawer for a scrap of paper. Bearing, she said, the combination, which she’d never had reason to use. But that she’d heard seldom worked the first time… Aren’t you glad I’m showing restraint? Well, it did work. The first time.
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