Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1866-12-20
Curious Wills.

Oouo VIM, III iitoJ WVulu uOI udSe SlVeu
cup of water to a beggar, by their will
leave an enormous SUN to charities, to Sc.
cure for themselves kind of posthumous
admiration. Others allow not their resent
ments to sleep with them in the grave, but
leave behind them wills which excite the
bitterest feelings and animosities among
their surviving relatives Some wills are
remarkable for their consciseness and
perspecuity; others for their unprecedented
shapes and curious contents. One man
provides for college, another for cat !;
one gives legacy to provide bread and
herrings for the poor in Lent, and kid
gloves to the minister, while others provide
for bull-baiting, the welfare of maid ser.
wants, and the promotion of matrimony.-
John Hodge has kept his name out of OBJ.
liviou by giving twenty shilling year to a
poor man to 60 about the parish church of
Trysall: during sermon time, to keep the
people awake and drive hogs out of church
A Lancashire gentleman, in the last Gen.
tury, having given his body to the worms
of the family vault, bequeathed an ounce
of modesty to the editors of the London
Journal and Free Briton, giving, as his rea.
sons for the smalness of the legacy, that
he was "conviuced that an ounce will be
more than they'll ever make use Of"
Another testator, after having stated at
great length in his will the number of Oh.
legations he was under; bequeathed to his
benefs ctor ten thousand-here the leaf turn
over, and the legatee, turning to the other
side, found the legacy was ten thousand
thanks.
A testator, who evidently intended to
thwart his relations and be benefactor to
the lawyers, gave to certain persons Gas
many acres of land as shall be found equal
to the area inclosed by the centre of oscil
lation of the earth in a revolution round
the sun, supposiug the mean distance twen-
ty.one thousand six hundred seni.diameters
of the earth from it."
An uncle left in his will eleven silver
spoons to his nephew, adding, eff I have
not left the dozen, he knows the reason"
The fact was, the nephew had, some little
time before, stolen the twelfth spoon from
his relative.
Sir Joseph Jekyl left his fortune to pay
the national debt. When Lord Mansfield
heard of this, he said l.: "Sir Joseph was
very good man and good lawyer, but his
bequest was very foolish one he might
as we'll have attempted to stop the middle
arch of Blackfriars Bridge with his full. bot.
toned wigp'
Lord Pembroke gave "nothing to Lord
Say, which legacy gave him because l
know be will bestow it on the poor and
then, after giving equally peculiar legacies,
he finished with: "Item. I give up the
ghost"
Dean Swift's character is exempifed in
his will Among other things, be bequeath-
ed to Mr.. Grattan, of Comethan, silver
box, Sin which I desire the said John to
keep the tobacco he usually cheweth, called
pig tail"
Miton's will was nuncupative-thatis, is, by
word of mouth, he being blind at the same
time he made it. Shakspeare's was made
in regular form so was Byron's. ~
Some wills contain kind ofsautobiogra-
ply of the testator, as we'll as his thoughts
and opinions. Such was the will of Napo-
leon, who gave handsome legacy to Chau.
tillon, "who had as much right to assassi.
nate that oligarchist, the Duke of yelling.
ton, as the latter had to send me to perish
on the rock of St. Helena"
Such, also, was Sir William Petty's,
which states with a certain amount of self.
pride, that "at the full age of fifteen, l had
obtained the Latin, French, as we'll as
Greek tongues" and at twenty years of age,
"had gotten up three score pounds with as
much mathematics as any of my age were
6noun fo houaV