testator

noun

Etymology: From Latin testator (“one who makes a will, in Late Latin also one who bears witness”), from testari (“to bear witness, make a will”). See testament.

1. One who makes or has made a legally valid will.

   “[…] there is an exception “in the cases of heir and executor, who may plead a release to the ancestor or testator whom they respectively represent; so also with respect to several tortfeasors, for in all these cases there is a privity between the parties which constitutes an identity of person”.”

   “As it is, knowing that the testator was a gentleman of the highest intelligence and acumen, and that he has absolutely no relations living to whom he could have confided the guardianship of the child, we do not feel justified in taking this course.”