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

considerable litigation the case was com.
promised, aud tho Home Of the Frieude.s
got 100000, and the heirs the remainder
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 tho
last century Sir Joseph Jeokyll did the
Same thing in England. When Lord
Mansfield heard of it he said: "Sir
Joseph was very good man and a good
lawyer, but his bequest was very foolish
one /; he might as well have attempted to
stop the middle arch of B!ackfrars bridge
with his fullbuttoned wig"
Simple matter as it really is, lawyers
have not always been successful in drawing
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 mum.
Der of law books, one particularly with a
very elaborate chapter on drawing wills,
drew his OVID will, and it required an ex-
pensive lawsuit AMI the decision of Court
of Chaucery to give it proper effect. The
will of Lord Westbury, another Lord High
Chancellor, drawn by himself, met with
the same fate. I could give you many
similar instances.
There have been devises to animals or
for their benefit which have been held
valid-to oats, dogs, horses and even par
rots. Not infrequeutly 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 II give nothing
to my Lord Saye, and do make him this
legacy willingly, because know that he
will distribute it unto the poor. Item-.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.
ory to "men's charitable speeches, to for.
eign nations and the next ages" Shaker
peare left an elaborate will, which contains
a clause that has puzzled the Shakespear-
cans not little
IL 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 olso did she
get, and tho world has sought in vain to
know the reason why.
Lord Nelson left will, drawn just be-
fore he went into the battle of Trafalgar,
by which he bequeathed Lady Hamilton
aud her daughter to his King and country,
but neither King nor country accepted the |
legacy, and they both came to.want, Lady
Hamilton dying in abject poverty.
legacy gSsdePQa{Ssssnw Qa{Ss biz ahSsAea Kill nast6n, Who
had attempted the assassination of Wei
lipgton.
The will of Rabelais has this clause ri
havo no available property l owe great
deal; the rest give to the poor" Hi, last
words when dying were "I go to see the
great Perhaps" A famous French abbe
had this pithy clause in his will "To my |
steward leave nothing because ho has been
in my service for eighteen years"
1t is not unusual for man to leave all
his property to his wife, with the proviso
that if she marries again she is to have
only what tho law allows her. 1 have
drawn q number of such wills. Governor
Morris, the celebrated American statesman,
did not treat his wife 80. He had married,
very late in life, Ann Randolph, q cousin
of John, Of Roanoke, q woman much
younger than himself, and with whom he
lived very happily. He bequeathed very
handsome income to her, and then provi-
ded that in case she married again tho in
come should be doubled.
A soldier or sailor is allowed to make
a nuncupative will-that is, will by word
of mouth, by which personal estate may be
disposed Of, but you, being q civilian, must
mako yours in writing. 1t don't matter
much what the writing is ON il may
bo on slate, or table top, or even wall,
though it is advisable that it should be on
paper or parchment. You may write it
and sign your name in pencil if you like,
but it il better to do it in ink.
You nay mako your will in Ohoctuwy ~
you happen to understand that language, or
it may, as Hamlet says, "be writ ia the
choicest Italian" you may write it in