The Red Cloud chief., 1881-09-22
ECCENTRIC WILLS.

ECCENTRIC WILLS.
The readers of English novels (and il
is from novels that most of us now-a-
days derive our knowledge of other
c~ountries) are a.are that the London
Repository of wills has been called for
ages Doctors Commons. 1t has ceased
to exist. Some time ago. the huge col
lection of wills which it contained was
transported to a W and larger re-
cepiacle at Somerset House, where am
pie room had been provided for them.
Doctors Commons had been outgrOwn,
and its precious contents were trans
ferrcd with as little ceremony as the
carmen of Wall street convey cart loads
of gold.
This collection of wills, probably the
largest in the world. occupies a range
OF rooms two hundred feet in length.
containing several miles of shelves filled
with folio volumes of wills which have
been proved and executed. Wills I'M
proved are kept in fire-proof vaults.
The business has grown TO wonderful
proportions. During the reign OF Eliz-
abetb, one very small volume sufiiced
for the wills of five or six years: but ut
present wills accumulate at the rate of
nine thousand a year for London alone;
and, for the whole kingdom, about
twenty-six thousand.
In this repository are preserved and
shown TO visitors the wills of DIR. } nhn-
son. Nelson, Pitt. Burke, wellington,
Milton and Shakespeare. That of
Shakespeare, which consists Of three
folio pages. is placed under an air tight
frame of oak and plate glass. 1 have
had the pleasure of looking upon this
interesting relic. The writing looked
small, dim and grabbed in the not bril-
liantly-lighted room where it was for
merly kept. 1t was drawn, however,
with the greatest care. as if by a tesla
o who knew the value of property.
and had maturely considered its distri-
button.
1t is a strange thing that some of the
wills which have given rise to the great
est amount of litigation are those which
distinguished law, ers and judges have
drawn for themselves. This may have
been from carelessness, but, more prob
ably, from excessive caution. Ii has be-
come so common Of late years for i'm
portant wills to be disputed, and TO
benefit no one so much as the lawyers,
that men of large possessions seem DIS
posed TO avoid making a will, and to let
their property GO as the law directs in
such cases.
An English author has published a
rare collection lately of testamentary
curiosities, most OF which he discovered
in the Search-Room of Doctors Com
mons. We find from his work that it is
as difficult TO be original in folly as in
wisdom, for there can scarcely befound
IN eccentric or ridiculous will which is
unique of its kind. A few years ago,
the gas man of the Walnut street
Thea,er in Philadelphia, which he had
served for forty-four years, bequeathed
his head 10 the theater to be converted
into a skull. and TO be usedto represent
the skull of Yorick in the fifth act OF
Hamlet. Many other persons have dis.
sional way. A noted phrenologist OF
Cincinnati left his head to one of his
lady pupils IS an illustration of the
science to which they were both de.
voted. Several professors of anatomy
have left their heads or their whole
skeletons to museums. The illustrious
Jeremy Bentham bequeathed his body
to be dissected. and the skeleton NAV
now be seen in the Museum of Uni.
versity College. London.
A Quaker physician of London tried
to distribute his body by his will, leav.
ing his heart to one. his lungs to an.
other, and his brains to a third, all OF
which were to be preserved from de.
composition. And he added:
.If these gentlemen shall fail faithfully &c
execute these last wishes in this request,
will come. if ii should be by any means pos
sible. and torment them until they shall com
ply"
The three gentlemen had the courage
70 decline their legacies. This bequesl
was not SO eccentric as that of Sanborn,
the halter of Medford, Mass, who be
queathed his BODY to Harvard Universe
ty for dissection by DIR. o. w. Holme:
and Prof. Agassiz. and ordered that his
skin should be tanned into leather. anC
made into two drum heads. This Pc
culiar drum he left to one of his towns
men, a drummer of note, on condition
that, on every anniversary of the battle
of Bunker Hill, he should ascend tina
height at sunrise and bea: the tune o.
Yankee Doodle. On one of the head:
of the drum was to be written Pope:
Universal Prayer and on the other tn,
Declaration of Independence. A great
number of these bodily wills have beer
made, but not So many have been exc
cuted.
Some gentlemen appear to have taker
pride in leaving extremely short wills
The English millionaire, Colts, wrote
his will on half a sheet ot paper: and
among other curiosities of this kind il
the London Win Office, there is a vii
drawn by a merchant who left two mill
ions of dollars to his wife and children
by q few lines written On the inside of
common envelope. Tue shortest will
perhaps, in the whole collection, wa.
proved as late as November, 1873. /
consisted of eight words:
"Mrs- Smith to have all when 1 die"
This will was found sufficient. An
other testator. upon being informed
that it was no matter whether he wrote
his will on paper, parchment, canvas o.
wood, chose to write it upon his door
and after his death his executors wer,
obliged TO have the door taken off it
hinges. and brought into court. II is
thing of frequent occurrence for zealots
whether political or s~ectarian, to seiz,
the opportunity which writing thei
viii presents to give emphatic u~tteranc'
to their most cherished opinions. 1
Baptist clergyman of England. who's
viii was proved in 1879. after disposin,
of his property, which was considerable
indulged in q most energetic declara
ton Of his religious belief:
81 desire all postcrity to know that William
Hill was a conscientious Trim tartan Baptis
mjuister. and that he believed infant sprins
ling TO Be from his Satanic Majesty. the key
eione of Popery, therefore the parent Of un
numbered terrible evils
He also put on record IN the sam'
document q solemn denunciation o
.the drinking customs" in the world
and called upon Heaven to ''dash al
o-cr sin and the devil from the earth