Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1886-09-17
WILL LORE.
A CHAPTER OF INTEREST ON
MEMS LAST TESTAMENTS.
Curious and Eccentric requests
Wills of Some Prominent Per-
sOnages-Wills by Word of
Mouth and in Rhyme.

only curious to know how a man wishes
his property to go after he is through
with it, but it seems like voice from
the dead declaring how it shall go. 1t
Is usually written in the most solemn
moment of mans life. At that mo-
ment one realizes to the full that he
brought nothing into this world and can
take nothing out, and that, after the
tongue is hushed and the heart stilled,
his commands will be spoken and his de-
sire5 obeyed. Associated as it is with
such thoughts as these, it is not strange
that we are eager to know how Mr.. Van
derbilt, or Mr.. Astor, or Mr.. Tilden, or
Mr.. Storey disposes of his fortunes. As
. matter of fact, being strangers to them,
we do not care whether they endow a
college or cat, but if their wills happen
to be published in the papers, we read
them first, as the most toothsome items
of news.
There are many very curious and &C.
centric wills described in the books, and
some strange phases of human nature are
illustrated in them. Some men, who in
life would not give a cup of water to a
beggar, by their wills leave enormous
sums to charity. Those are the wills
that usually take course through the
courts, with handsome pickings for the
lawyers on the way. All charitable be-
quests are construed with the utmost
strictncs5. About ten years ago H. H.
Taylor, of this city, died, leaving will
drawn by himself. After providing for
his wife and son, as he thought quite
liberia ly, he devised the residue of his
estate, about $500, 900, to seven trustees
to found a charitable institution such as
they should deem best In case they
elected not to do So the trustees were to
turn over the estate to the Home of the
Friendless. AS a matter of course the
will was contested and, after thorough
legal inquiry, it was found that the char
liable cause would not hold water
After considerable litigation the case was
compromised, and the Home of the
Friendless got 5000, 900 and the heirs
the remainder.
A man in New Jersey, not long since,
left his estate to pay off the National
debt. The will was contested, of course,
but the courts have recently held it
valid. In the last century Sir Joseph
Jekyil did the same thing in England
Simple matter rs it really is, lawyers
have not always been successful in draw
ing their own will | ord st. LEONARD
High Chancellor of England, who, az
Edward Sugden, was the most eminent
chancery lawyer in England, and who
with a number of law books, one partic-
ularly with very elaborate chapter on
drawing wills, drew his own will, and it
required an expensive lawsuit and the
d cision of court of chancery to give
it proper effect. The will of Lord West
bury, another Lord High Chancellor,
drawn by himself met with the same
fate. could give you many similar in
stances.
There have been devises to animals or
for their benefit which have been held
valid to cats, dogs, horses, and even
parrots. Not infrequently people have
undertaken to show their spite and
hatred, and sometimes their humor, in
wills.
The will of Lord Pembroke in the
seventeenth century has several items of
that kind-for instance: "Item-I give
nothing to my Lord Sage, and | do make
him this legacy willingly, because know
that he will faithfully distribute it unto
che poor. Itcm-I give up the ghost.
Lord Bacon had no property to leave,
but he left regularly executed will, in
which he bequeathed his name and mem
DRY to mems charitable speeches, to
foreign nations, and the next ages"
Shakespeare left an elaborate will, which
contains clause that his puzzled the
Shakcspeareans not little: II give
unto my wife my second best bed, with
the flu niture." Why did he only give
Ann Hathaway his second best, and not
his best bed? Nothing else did she get,
and the would has sought in vain to know
the reason why.
Napoleon in his will left a handsome
legacy to WI tch Iame1 Chasillon, VINO
had attempted to assassinate yelling.
ton.
The will of Rabelais has this clause
81 have no available property; owe {
great deal; the rest give to the poor
His last words when dying were: II &c
to see the great Perhaps" A famous
French able had this pithy clause in hi
will: "To my steward l leave nothing
because he has been in my service foI
eighteen years" +
1t is not unusual for man to leave al
his property to his W f., with the rovist
that if she marres again she is to hav,
only what the law allows her. l hav
drawn number of such wi Is. Cover
nor Morris the celebrated American
statesman, did not treat his wife SO. H,
had married very late in life Ann Ran
dolph, cousin o, John. o Roanoke,
woman much younger than hi nselt, anC
with whom he lived We y happily. H
bequeathcd very handsome income t,
her, and then provided that in case sh'
married again the income should b
doubled
A sol 1ier or asa l)r is allowed to max
nuncui alive w.ll-that is, will b
word o. mouth, by which per.onal estAt
may be dispose Of, but you, being ci
villain, must make yours in writing.
don't matter much what the writing j
on it may be on safe, or table top
or even wall, though it is advisable tina
it should be on paper or parchment 70,
may write it and sign your name in penci
if you like, bnt it is better to do it il
ink.
You may make your will in Choctaw
II you happen to understand that Ian
guage, or it may, as Hamlet says: "b
writ in the choicest Italian" you ma
write it in shorthand, or in abbre viations
or in cipher, so long as you leave the Ike,
behind you. Courts are not martinets a
to the spelling, and If your orthograph
is not perfectly ultra they will not min,
it if they can make it olt If you wis
to drop into poetry, even that is per