This was a question my colleague at the University of Exeter, Alun Withey, asked me. He is currently researching material culture associated with travel and has come across the phrase in quite a few of the eighteenth-century wills he has been looking at.
That hasn't appeared in the ones I am transcribing here, nor in any others that I have previously looked at. I presume that it would only appear if the will was made by someone who was expecting to cross the sea, either as a sailor or as a passenger.
Tony
Thanks for your reply Tony. Yes, that's exactly right - Alun is seeking wills of people about to take a journey and in many cases that means mariners. It sounds like he has enough examples to wonder if it might be a phrase that becomes standard in the late 18th-century, hence the query.
I have found one in which the testator was "considering the perils and dangers of the seas and other uncertainties of this Transitory life" (John Thomas, mariner, now belonging to his Majesty's Ship Bristol in 1786). Fairly sure that I've spotted similar phrases when looking at wills from maritime centres like Wapping too. Be interesting to know whether there was some sort of pro forma or standard encouragement / requirement from the captain for crew members to make a will before a voyage.
Many thanks Liz, it's interesting to see another example and to hear that you have encountered it elsewhere. I'll pass that on, and will let you know if Alun does find out more. Related: we are hoping that Richard Blakemore (University of Reading) will be writing a chapter on the mariners' wills in our sample for the end of project edited collection of essays. It's possible he might uncover pro formas or know of the sort of encouragement you mention.
An update from Alun: he has found a very similar formulation in William Roberts, A treatise upon wills and codicils with an appendix of the statutes, and a copious collection of useful precedents, with notes, practical and explanatory, 1809.
However he has a 1717 will with the preamble in so it must date from earlier. The hunt continues ...