Jarvis v. Tonkin

In this devisavit vel non case, a commissioner in chancery reported that the decedent’s last will was entitled to probate. The chancellor disagreed, sustaining exceptions to the commissioner’s report on the basis that the evidence showed that the will was procured by undue influence exerted by the principal beneficiary. The correctness of that ruling is the sole question on appeal.

Ella Myers Wood died in Portsmouth in 1984 at the age of 89. She was the widow of the Reverend John W. Wood, who had died in 1978. No children were born of the marriage, but the Woods were survived by an adopted…