I believe the year at the top is written 16 & nintie = 1690. I'm afraid I have no idea what precedes that. It looks like 17 R [?].
Is there no other date given anywhere in the paperwork - perhaps on a wrapper, or on the grant of probate? I can see the Calendar that you've linked to on FindMyPast, with the handwritten annotation at the foot. But how does the Borthwick Institute date the will in its own catalogue?
Before 1858 a beneficiary could witness a will, as long as there was also another witness.
That is great and super helpful to know about the law on witnesses.
I am writing an article on this King family for the Quaker Family History Society publication Quaker Connections to collate all my research and am trying to tie up some loose ends. So thank you.
This is the other side of the probate document, which very clearly states that it was proved in 1663, so I am very confused about the date on the will. It was been catalogued elsewhere as 1690 I think, but it is clearly not.
Son-in-law Henry King died in 1680 and the will clearly shows it was proved in 1663.
The information about probate and witnesses is very helpful as I assume therefore that Margaret King the witness is the same as the beneficiary and executor.
Henry King's wife Margaret Dickinson|King was baptised in Skipton in 1620. Their marriage has not been found, however from her age it would put their 10 children as being born between c1640-1665.
Some of their children were baptised in the parish registers of Marton and Skipton; Jane in 1644, John in 1647, Henry in 1649 and William in 1650.
Their other children's baptisms are not in the registers as I think they then joined the Quakers and birth registers only exist from the 1660s.
Daughter Margaret King, who I believe is the spinster in the other document you kindly translated, was therefore presumably born between c1652 and 1665. She married widower John Walbank in 1699 and died in 1732.
Agnes or Annas King who is the other witness on the will I think is their eldest daughter, presumably born around 1642. It is possible her baptism is in Marton like that of sister Jane but the registers are illegible in places due to water damage.
Agnes King married William Ellis in Broughton on 1 February 1676/7 and had a daughter Ann Ellis in 1680 whose birth was recorded in the Quaker births.
I had wondered if the witness Annas/Agnes King could be a sister or mother of Henry King rather than his daughter, but I have found no Agnes Kings in the family or records.
Thanks again,
Jon