The weekly Union times. [volume] (Union C.H., South Carolina) 1871-1894, 1886-11-12

a man in New Jersey, not long since
left his estate to ply off the national debt
The will was contested Of course, but the
Courts have recently held it valid. In the
last century Sir Joseph Jeckyll did the
same thing in England. When LORD
Mansfield heard of it he said: SSH
Joseph was very good man and good
lawyer, but his bcquest was a very foolish
one he might as well have attempted tc
stop the middle arch of B!ackfriars bridge
with his full buttoned wig"
Simple m1tter as it rally is, lawyers
have not always been successful in draw ing
their own wills. Lord St. Leonard, High
Chancellor of England, who, as Edward
Sugden, was the most efficient chancery
lawyer in England, and who wrote a mum
Der of law books, one particularly with o
very elaborate chapter on drawing wills,
drew his OVID will, and it required an ex-
pensive lawsuit AMI the decision of a Court
of Chancery to give it proper effect. The
will of Lord Westbury, another Lord High
Chancellor, drawn By himself, met with
the same fate. could give you many
similar instances.
There have been devises to animals or
for their benefit which hare been held
valid-to cats, dogs, horses and even par
rots. Not inlrcqucutly people have under
taken to show their spite and hatred, and
sometimes their humors, in wills.
The will of Lord Pembroke, in the
seventeenth century, has several items of
that kind-for instance Il give nothing
to my Lord Sayc, and do make him this
legacy willingly, because know that he
will distribute it unto tho poor. Itcm-.I
give up the ghost
Lord Bacon had no property to leave,
but he left a regularly executed will, in
which he bequeathcd his name and men,
ory to "men's charitable speeches, to for
elgn nations and the next ages Shakes
pearc left an elaborate will, which contains
clause that has puzzled the Shakcspear-
cans not little:
81 give unto my wife my second best
bed, with the furniture" Why did he
give Ann Hathaway his second best, and
not his best bed Nothing else did she
get: and the world has sought in vain to
know the reason why.
Lord Nelson left will, drawn lust be-
orc he went into the battle of Trafalgar,
~ which ho bcqucathcd Lady Hamilton
md her daughter to his King and country,
out neither King nor country accepted the
egacy, and they both came to want, Lady
Hamilton dying ip abect poverty.
cgS5E SaP42SSn Is wig9tchh 9t hhi nSssa S left Mo
nad attempted the assassination of Wei
Iiugton.
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: 81 go to see the
great Perhaps" A famous French abbc
had this pilhy clause iu his will "To my
steward leave nothing because he has been
in my service for eighteen years"
1t is not unusual for a man to leave all
his property to his wife, with the proviso
that if she marrcs again she is to have
only what the law allows her | have
drawn number of such wills. Governor
Morris, the celebrated American statesman,
did not treat his wife so. lie had married
very late in life, Ann Randolph, cousin
of John, Of Roanoke, woman much
younger than himself and with whom he
lived very happily. lie bcqucathcd a very
handsome income to her, and then provi-
dcd that in case sho married again the in
come should be doubled
\ soldier cr sailor is allowed to make
a nuncupativc will-that is, will by word
of mouth, by which personal estate may be
disposed Of, but you, being a civilian, must
make yours in writing. 1t don't matter
much what the writing is ON it may
bo on a slate, or table top, or even wall
though it is advisable that it should be on
paper OF parchment. You may write it
and sign your name in pencil if you like,
but it is better to do it in ink.
Nou moy ,""'o your will in Chocta", il
you happen to understand that language, or
it may, as Hamlet says, "bo writ in the
choicest Italian - you may write it in
Shorthand, or in abbrcviations, or in either
so long as you leave the key behind you
Courts are not martincts as to the spelling
and if your orthography is not perfectly