AUGUSTA, Ga. — James Brown’s will, which was read last week and excludes his partner, Tomi Rae Hynie, and their 5-year-old son, was drawn up 10 months before the child’s birth and more than a year before their marriage, a newspaper reported yesterday.

The will was signed August 1, 2000, Brown’s probate attorney in Aiken, S.C., Strom Thurmond Jr., told the Augusta Chronicle.

Brown, who died last month in Atlanta at age 73, married Ms. Hynie in December 2001. James Brown Jr. had been born six months earlier, on June 11.

The exclusion has added to a dispute about the soul singer’s legacy.

Brown’s attorneys contend that Ms. Hynie is not Brown’s widow because she was still married to another man when they said their vows. They have said Ms. Hynie later annulled her previous marriage but that she and Brown never remarried.

Ms. Hynie says she was legally married to Brown.

The will calls for Brown’s personal effects to be divided equally among the singer’s six adult children.

North Augusta, S.C., lawyer James Huff said that if a will specifically names some children but excludes others, the excluded children have no claim to the parent’s assets, regardless of when they were born.

Mr. Huff represented Brown when he sought to annul his marriage to Ms. Hynie in 2004, a petition the singer later dismissed.