Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1866-04-06
NO. 2.
CURIOUS wills.

leave enormous sums to charities, to sc
cure for themselves a kind of posthumu
admiration. Others allow not their re
| sentiments to sleep With them In the prav
! but leave behind them wills which ex
cite the bitterest feelings and animositie
among the surviving relatives Som,
| wills are remarkable for their conciseDes
! and perspicuity others for their unpre
! cedented shapes and curious contents
! One man provides for a college, another
/ for a cat one gives legacy to provide
bread and herrings TO the poor In Lent
and kid gloves to the minister; while
| others provide for bull batting the well
fare of maid servants, and the promotion
of matTimOny. John Rudge has kent his
name out Of oblivion by giving twenfy
shlllings year to a poor man to go about
the parish church of Trysuil during ser
mon time to keep people awake and dogs
out of church. Henry Green of Mel
bourne, Derbyshire, gave his property for
providing four green waIstcoats for four
poor women every year, such waistcoats to
be lined with green galloon lace. In the
same neighborhoOd and inspired by a
similar feeling, Thomas Gray provided
gray walstcOats and gray coats. John
Nicholson, statiOner of London, was so
attached to his family name that the bulk
Of his property was given IN charity for
poor persons In England as should appear
to be of the name of Nicholson. David
Martinez, ofCalcutta, while giving direc.
tlons to his executor says: AS to this
fulsone carcase, having already seen
enough Of worldly pomp, I desire nothing
relative to be done, only its being slowed
away in my old green chest, to save ex-
pense. He then bequeathed to one man
all his debts he owed aud to another his
sincerity.
A Lancashire gentleman in the last cen
tury, having given his body to the worms
OF the family vault, bequeathed an ounce
of mOdesty to the authors of the London
journal and Free Brlton, giving as a rea-
son Tor the smallness of the legacy, that
he was convinced that an ounce will be
found more than they'll ever make use
OF. Another testatOr, after having stat
ed at great length in his will the number
OF Obligations he was under, bedueathed
to his benetactor ten thOusand-here the
leaf turned 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 benetactor to the lawyers. gave
TO cert2Ln persons as many acres Of land
as shall be found equal to the area en-
closed By the track of the center Of os-
cIllatIon Of the earth IN a revolution
round the sun, suppOsing the mean dis
tance OF the sun twenty one thousand six
hundred semi -diameters of the earth from
it. y -
An uncle left in his will eleven silver
spoons to his nephew, adding: IF I have
not lett him 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
Jekyll left his fortune to pay off the
National debt When Lord Mansfield
heard of this. he said Sir joseph was
a very good man and good lawyer but
his bequest was very foolish one he
might as well have attempted to stop the
middle arch of Biaekfriars bridge with
his full bottOmed wig I" Lord Pembroke
gave nothing to Lord Say. which legacy
l give him because L know he will bestow
1t on the poor" and then, after giving
other equally peculiar legacies, he finished
with Item-I give up the ghost" Dean
Swift's character was exemplified in his
VIII: Among other things he bedueathed
to Mr.. y ohm Grattan, Of Cionmethan,
silver box lin which / desire the said
y Ohm to keep the tobacco he usuaIlv
cheweth called pigtaiI
The celebrated Sarah, Duchess of Mari .
borough, left Pitt ten thousand mounds
for the noble defence he had made for
the support of the laws of England, and
to prevent the ruin of his country A
somewhat similar bequest was not long
ago, made by Mr.. Disraeh. Bacon left a
VIII appointing SIX executors, but no
property except his name and memory.
which he bequethed to mems charitable
speeches, to foreign nations and succeed
ing ages. Lord Clarendon had nothing
to leave his daughter but his executors
kindness ; and Lord Nelson left neither
viii OF real nor personal estate behind
him, although he bequeathed his adopted
daughter to the beBefcence Of his coun-
try. Millions viii was muncupative-
that is by word of mouth-he being blind
at the time he made It. Shakespeare's +
was made in regular form so was Byron's.
Chatterton Will was a very strange one,
consisting of mixture Of levity, bitter
satire and actual despair, and announces
a purpose of self destruction.
Others wrote their wills In verse, and,
as specimen, we give that Of William
= acket, Of the parish of Islington, which
was proved IL 1857, when no witnesses
were required to a will of personal.
I give and bequathe,
When I'm laid underneathe.
To my two loving sisters most dear,
The whole of my store,
Were it twice as much more
Which Gods goodness has granted me here.
And that none may prevent
This my viii and intent,
Or occasion the least of law racket
With a solemn appeal,
confirm, sign and seal
This, the true act and deed of Win Jacket.
Some wills contain a kind of autobi-
ography of the testator, as we'll as his
thoughts and opinions Such was the
will of Napoleon, which gave handsome
legacy to the wretch Cantillion. who has
as much right to assassinate that oligarch-
ist, the Duke of Wellington, 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 pride, that at the full age of
fifteen, had obtained the Latin, French
and Greek tongues" and at twenty years