[In sense 1, a. AF. testatour = F. -teur (13th c. in Godef., Compl.), ad. late L. testatōr-em, agent-n. from testārī to witness, make a will. In sense 2 direct from L.]
1. One who makes a will; esp. one who has died leaving a will.
[1306. Rolls of Parlt., I. 220/1. La volunte de chescun testatour.] Ibid. (1447), V. 129/2. Ther remayneth due to the saide Executours, for their saide Testatour,… the sum of VII or VIII m. marcs.
1535. trans. Littleton’s Nat. Brev., 29 b. The executours … brought a wrytte of Erroure of vtlawry pronounced agaynst the testatoure in hys lyfe.
1664. Protests Lords (1875), I. 30. Provision made by the testator to pay honest debts.
1766. Blackstone, Comm., II. xxiii. 376. That all devises of lands and tenements shall not only be in writing, but signed by the testator.
1856. Emerson, Eng. Traits, Cockayne, Wks. (Bohn), II. 64. A testator endows a dog or a rookery, and Europe cannot interfere with his absurdity.
† 2. One who or that which testifies; a witness.
1600. W. Watson, Decacordon (1602), 350. Come false witnes, come true testator.
1632. Lithgow, Trav., X. 435. To all which, and much more haue I beene an occular Testator.
1698. in Col. Rec. Pennsylv., I. 549. I am a perfect Testator, by report of David Evans acquittance.
Hence Testatorship, the position or office of a testator; Testatory a., pertaining to or of the nature of evidence.
1624. Bp. Andrewes, Serm., Heb. xiii. 20–21 (1629), 584. Both, in His [Christ’s] Pastor-ship, and in His Testatorship.
1907. Daily News, 23 May, 6. Whether anything would be gained by giving it a judicial position instead of a testatory we must be allowed to doubt.
