The history of wills stretches back roughly 4,500 years, to written documents drafted in ancient Egypt around 2550 BCE. From those early papyri, the will traveled through Roman legal reform, medieval English church courts, and American state legislatures to become the document people sign today. The core idea has barely changed: a person decides, in writing, who gets what.
The Oldest Wills We Have
The earliest surviving written wills come from ancient Egypt. One document from around 2550 BCE records a man named Sekhenren transferring all his property and goods to his brother, a priest of Osiris. Another from approximately 2548 BCE goes further, settling property on the testator’s wife, Teta, for her lifetime, forbidding the demolition of houses his brother had built for him, and empowering Teta to pass those houses to whichever of her children she chose. It even named a guardian for the couple’s infant children. Scholars who have studied the language say it could “well be used to-day.”
The most striking ancient Egyptian will belongs to a woman named Naunakhte, drawn up in November 1147 BCE during the reign of Ramesses V. Naunakhte had raised eight children and was not satisfied with all of them. Her will declared: “I am a free woman of the land of Pharaoh. I brought up these eight servants of yours and gave them a household. But, look, I am grown old and, look, they do not care for me in turn. Whichever of them has given me a hand, to him will I give of my property; whichever has not, to him will I not give my property.” She disinherited several children by name, left specific items to others, and threatened anyone who contested the will with a hundred blows.
Three and a half thousand years later, a parent cutting an ungrateful child out of a will remains one of the most common reasons people visit an estate planning attorney. The instinct behind the will is that old.
Other Ancient Systems: Codes Instead of Choice
Not every ancient civilization gave individuals the freedom to draft their own will. Some imposed inheritance by statute.
The Code of Hammurabi, from roughly 1750 BCE in Mesopotamia, laid out detailed rules based on family relationships. Sons of a man’s first wife shared equally in the estate. Children of a slave could share only if the father had formally acknowledged them during his lifetime; otherwise they received their freedom but no property.1Hanover Historical Texts. Hammurabi’s Code of Laws These weren’t wills. They were a mandatory framework that left the individual little room to override the defaults.
Ancient Greece moved closer to modern testamentary freedom. Solon’s reforms in Athens during the 6th century BCE gave childless citizens the power to dispose of their property by will, choosing beneficiaries rather than having everything revert to the extended family. Before Solon, Athenian property had to stay within the bloodline.
Islamic inheritance law, developed in the 7th century CE, took a hybrid approach that still governs estate distribution for a large share of the world’s population. A Muslim may leave a bequest, called a wasiyyah, to people or causes of their choosing, but that voluntary bequest is capped at one-third of the net estate after debts and funeral expenses. The remaining two-thirds pass to fixed heirs in shares set by Quranic law. The one-third limit traces to a hadith in which the Prophet Muhammad told a companion who wished to leave two-thirds of his estate to charity: “One-third, and one-third is much. It is better for you to leave your offspring wealthy than to leave them poor, asking others for help.” A bequest above the cap needs the unanimous consent of the mandatory heirs to take effect.
Rome Turns the Will Into a Legal Instrument
Roman law is where the will became a serious legal instrument, and much of modern will law descends directly from Roman innovation. The earliest Roman will, the testamentum calatis comitiis, was declared before the curiate assembly, a public gathering that met only twice a year for the purpose. A Roman citizen could only make this form of will on those two dates, and only in Rome. That was impractical for soldiers, travelers, and anyone whose life didn’t align with the calendar.
A military form developed for soldiers on campaign, the testamentum in procinctu, made before battle. But the version that eventually dominated was the testamentum per aes et libram, a private ceremony involving a symbolic sale of the testator’s entire estate to a trusted person in the presence of five witnesses and a scale-bearer. This mancipatory will freed Romans from the twice-yearly public assembly and let a will be made at any time.
Rome also confronted a problem that still generates litigation. What happens when a testator leaves so much to outsiders that the family gets almost nothing? The Lex Falcidia, enacted in 40 BCE, said no testator could leave more than three-quarters of the estate in legacies to non-heirs. The designated heir or heirs were always entitled to at least one-quarter.2University of Wyoming College of Law Library. The Civil Law – Book 6 – Title 50 – The Falcidian Law The concept of a forced share for close family persists in civil law countries today and echoes in common law rules that protect surviving spouses from complete disinheritance.
English Law and the Modern Will
English will law is the direct ancestor of the rules used in the United States, Canada, Australia, and other common law countries. Its development was shaped as much by fights between the crown and the church as by any coherent legal theory.
The Split Between Church and Common Law Courts
During the Anglo-Saxon period, wills were largely informal and oral, dealing with personal belongings rather than land. After the Norman Conquest in 1066, William I centralized England’s government dramatically, demanding loyalty oaths and conducting the Domesday Book land survey.3Encyclopaedia Britannica. Norman Conquest Ecclesiastical courts took jurisdiction over wills of personal property. These Bishop’s Courts originally arranged Masses for the dead, then expanded to settle the deceased’s debts and distribute goods to close relatives.4Judicature. The Disappearing Probate Court Secular common law courts handled land. This split jurisdiction lasted centuries.
The Statute of Wills, 1540
Under feudal law, land could not be devised by will at all. It passed by strict rules of descent, and the king and feudal lords collected valuable fees each time land transferred. The Statute of Wills in 1540, enacted under Henry VIII, allowed landowners to devise their real property by will for the first time.5vLex. Wills Act 1540 The crown gave up significant feudal revenue in exchange. The 1540 statute required a writing but imposed no signature or witness requirements.
The Statute of Frauds, 1677
Without formal safeguards, fraud followed. Forged wills, fabricated deathbed declarations, and perjured testimony about what the deceased supposedly wanted became widespread. The Statute of Frauds in 1677 required that devises and bequests of land be “in Writeing and signed by the partie” and “attested and subscribed in the presence of the said Devisor by three or fower credible Witnesses, or else they shall be utterly void and of none effect.”6British History Online. Statutes of the Realm Volume 5 – Charles II 1677 – An Act for Prevention of Frauds and Perjuryes This was the first time English law required witnesses on wills, and it built the framework still in use: writing, signature, witnesses.
The Wills Act, 1837
The Wills Act of 1837 consolidated the older statutes into one coherent law. Section 9 required a will to be in writing, signed by the testator or by someone in the testator’s presence and at their direction, and attested by at least two witnesses present at the same time who each sign in the testator’s presence.7legislation.gov.uk. Wills Act 1837 Section 9 The witness requirement dropped from three to two. The Act also unified the rules for personal property and real property, finally ending the split jurisdiction between church and common law courts. These requirements remain the backbone of will formalities across the English-speaking world.
Wills in the United States
The American colonies inherited English will law and adapted it. After independence, each state wrote its own probate statutes, producing the patchwork that exists today. The Uniform Law Commission drafted the Uniform Probate Code in 1969 to bring some order. The UPC offers a standardized framework for will execution, probate procedure, and intestate succession. Roughly 18 states have adopted it in whole or in part, including Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Michigan, and Massachusetts, with adoption years ranging from 1971 to 2009.8Legal Information Institute. Uniform Probate Code Even states that haven’t formally adopted the UPC have borrowed heavily from it.
The core requirements for a valid will in most American jurisdictions still track the English model: writing, testator’s signature, and at least two witnesses. And a will remains revocable during the testator’s lifetime. You can change it or tear it up at any point before death. That flexibility is one reason the basic concept has survived for millennia.
Handwritten and Electronic Wills
Two variations depart from the traditional witnessed format.
Holographic wills are entirely handwritten by the testator and require no witnesses. The key requirement is that the will be written in the testator’s own hand and signed by them, so a court can verify authenticity through handwriting analysis if the document is challenged. Roughly half of U.S. states recognize holographic wills. The UPC acknowledges them under Section 2-502(b), and California, Texas, and Arizona accept them. Other states reject any will that lacks witnesses.
Electronic wills are newer. Nevada became the first state to allow them in 2001. More than a dozen jurisdictions have followed, several by adopting the Uniform Electronic Wills Act. States that now permit some form of electronic will include Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Nevada, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Utah, and Washington, plus the District of Columbia. Under the UEWA, an electronic will must exist in an electronic format such as a PDF, carry the testator’s electronic signature, and be witnessed by people who also sign electronically, often during a real-time video session. Some jurisdictions require storage in a secure digital repository. The COVID-19 pandemic pushed several states to adopt emergency or permanent provisions permitting remote witnessing. As of 2026, most states still require a traditional paper will signed and witnessed in person.
Why the Will Was Invented
The reason the will exists, and why it kept evolving from Egyptian papyrus to Roman scale-bearer to English statute to electronic signature, is that the alternative is unappealing. When someone dies without a valid will, their property passes through intestate succession: default rules written by the state legislature, not by the deceased. Every state has its own intestacy statute, and none of them can account for the specific relationships, promises, or preferences a will captures. Intestacy also means a court appoints someone to administer the estate, and for parents of minor children, it means a judge decides who raises them, without any guidance from the parent.
Naunakhte understood the problem in 1147 BCE. So did the Romans who lobbied for the Lex Falcidia, the English landowners who pressed for the Statute of Wills, and the Nevada legislators who authorized electronic signatures in 2001. The technology changes. The reason people write wills does not.