By the Statute of Frauds all wills affecting real property were required to be in writing, but the provisions of this statute did not apply to wills affecting personal property only.1

At the present time all wills, whether affecting real or personal property, must be in writing, but in a few states different formalities are required in wills affecting real property than in the case of wills merely affecting personal property.2

1 2 Blackstone's Commentaries, 601, 502.

2 "The legislation of most of our American States on this subject is based upon the English Statute of Frauds, and insists that three (or at least two) witnesses shall subscribe, and that the will Of real estate itself shall be in writing and signed by the testator. From this standing-point of a devise, legislation and practice tended to the requirement that wills of personal property should be in writing and similarly executed and attested; and at length the local law has reached a general and uniform system. Wills must now be written and attested by either two or three witnesses, as the legislature may have preferred, but with the same number for both real and personal property. Many states model their testamentary law after the Massachusetts statute, which dates back to 1836, and requires wills both of real and personal estate to be in writing and signed by the testator, or by some person in his presence, and by his express dictation, and attested and subscribed in his presence by three or more competent witnesses. In this