Devisor

A testator; one, who devises his real estate.

As a general rule all persons who may sell an estate may devise it. The disabilities of devisors may be classed, in three divisions. 1. Infancy. In some of the United States this disability is partially removed; also, an unmarried woman at the age of eighteen years may devise. 2. Coverture. In general, a married woman cannot devise but in Connecticut and Ohio she may devise her lands and in Illinois, her separate estate. In Louisiana, she may devise without the consent of her hushand. 3. Idiocy and non sane memory. It is evident that a person non compos can make no devise, because he has no will.

The removal of the disability which existed at the time of the devise does not, of itself, render it valid. For example, when the hushand dies, and the wife becomes a feme sole; when one non compos is restored to his sense; and when an infant becomes of age; these several acts do not make a will good, which at its making was void.
   

This entry contains material from Bouvier's Legal Dictionary, a work published in the 1850's.