Some seem to foresee trouble, or “fuss in the way of quarrel,” as one testator puts it. A clause is frequently inserted barring disputants from any benefit. George Spence (1587) expresses this well: “I will that if any person or persons shall not be content with such gifts as given to them by virtue of this my will and testament, shall be clearly and utterly voided out of the same, and they shall have no commodity or profit by virtue of the same.” And Anthony Wayte, of Clapham, whose will is dated September 10, 1558, believes in an original remedy—a short way with disputants. “If any dispute as to the meaning of my will, I will two or three unlearned husbandmen of my parish of Clapham to interpret my meaning as they or two of them shall think in their conscience.” It is a delightful touch of sarcasm and sagacity. It was no wonder that Sir George Hervey, of Thurleigh, Bedfordshire, who died about 1536, took his friends and even his servants into his confidence, acquainting them with the tenor of his will. For it was found, when the will was taken from its place of custody in a coffer “standing in the house of one Richard Holt, draper, dwelling in Watling Street,” that he had left his estates, his manors, and lands in Huntingdon, Bedford, Buckingham, Hertford, and Oxford, to his reputed son Gerard, to the exclusion of his generally recognised son and daughter, Nicholas and Elizabeth. Needless to say the will was called in question, but the affidavits of Sir George’s friends and servants, in whom he had confided, secured its admission to probate. Thus one witness said that “about ten or twelve days before the death of the said Sir George, this deponent was eftsoons in hand again with the said Sir George, that he should be good unto Nicholas Hervey; to whom the said Sir George answering this deponent, showed of a displeasure that was grown between him and the said Nicholas, and said that he had given him a dash with a pen, and that he should never have groat of him, and this deponent saith also that he was present when the late Abbess of Elstow went unto the said Sir George instanted and moved the said Sir George to be good unto the said Elizabeth, whereunto the said Sir George utterly refused to do her any manner of good, saying that she was not his daughter.”