William Herbert b 1758 (General)

by mrsbruso , Wednesday, August 24, 2011, 17:24 (4843 days ago) @ jimashton

At least with brides, they would sometimes use the term "spinster" even when she was clearly a widow. From my understanding it simply meant that she was of age and free to marry. In this case, it might be possible that "bachelor" was the equivalent, in that he was of age and free to marry. Or the clerk or minister might have been rushed or ill informed.in one of the wills in the document section a gentleman leaves his "nephews", sons of his daughter . . . So the terms weren't always exactly the way we would define them today.