Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1892-10-07
CURIOSITIES IN WILLS.
TESTAMENTS CONTAINING
STRANGE PROVISIONS.
A Merchants Idea OF Education for HIS
Children--Theilusson's 'Will-Re-
mains of Henry Trigg and
jeremy Bentham.

A remarkably curious will has just
been published remarkable in
deed that it might we'll be added to
the already copious catalogue OF &C.
centric documents OF this nature.
The testator was wine merchant OF
Bristol. who left personally valued at
little less than E16. 900. He be-
queathed one half o. his property in
trust to secure an annuity OF El40 TO
his wife during her widowhood and
directed that the other money should
be divided into as many shares as he
had children. for whom. until they re-
spectively attained the age of 16
years. the trustees are to provide
'plain food. simple clothing. and bare
necessaries together with sound
practical education at a day school or
boarding school.
AT the conclusion OF their scholas-
tie course the boys are not to have
any payment made on their behalf
excepting such as may be requisite for
teaching them some honest trade or
handicraft just as il they were the
children OF some working man who
had only left behind him certain
sum to pay for the education OF his
offspring.
IT, however any one OF the lads Is
found to display exceptional capacity
for a profession. such as to give
promise that he would gain distinc-
ton therein the trustees author
fuaH 70 in HE
ing for such a profession and may
even. il they think it des rable trench
on the capital OF his share; but If any
child. owing TO continued l.health
should be incapacitated from earn
ing his own living. the trus-
tees may apply part OF the
income of his share to his main
tenance. On attaining the age OF Is
years each son and daughter is to re-
ceive his or her hare Of the testator's
property. the payment OF which how
ever may be deferred, il circumstan-
ces demand it for another two yea s.
This perhaps unprecedented will
would not on the face OF it appear to
comprise any clauses contrary to
public policy. such rs those which
parliament contemplated when in
1900. the so-called Thellusson act was
passed restraining testators from de-
vising their property for purposes OF
accumulation for moro than twenty
one years after their death.
1t will be remembered that Mr..
Peter Isaac Thellusson a merchant
of Swiss extraction who had long
carried on prosperous business in
London who died in 1897. left f100.-
900 to his widow and children. and
the residue OF his property-more
than $500, 00O-he left to trustees to
accumulate during the lives OF his
three sons and the lives OF their sons;
then the estates directly to be pur-
chased with the produce OF the &C
cumulated funds were to be conveyed
to the oldest lineal male descendants
OF his three sons with the benefit OF
1 survivalship.
Peter Thelluss on's will led to pro.
tracted and costly litigation. which
was not concluded until 1859. when
the long pending questions were de-
clded on an appeal to the house OF
lords; but it was stated when their
lordships' decision was given that
owing TO the immense sums spent in
| legal costs the value OF the estate did
not very greatly exceed the sum to
which il had amounted sixty-two
years previously. This colossal scheme
for accommodating wealth beyond the
dreams OF avarice may or may not
have been original but curious to re-
late. Peter Thellusson's idea was made
use OF by Eugene Sue in his romance
OF The Wandering jew"
Eccentricity and nothing else. dis
tinguishes the will proved in 1924 OF
Henry Trigg OF Stonage in the coun-
ty of Hartford grocer who directed
that his body should be committed to
the west end OF his howell. to be- de-
Gently laid there upon floor erected
by his executors, and only sixty years
ago 1t Is said. the bones OF Mr.. Trigg
still remained unburied in the rafters
, at the west end OF his howell aforesaid.
A provision. quite as bizarre. was
made in the will OF the philosophic
Jeremy Bentham. who enioined his
executors 10 embalm his corpse and
dress it In the clothes which he was
accustomed 10 wear in his lifetime in
order that he might form the text OF
a lecture to be delivered annually at
q literary entertainment held Mt a
school OF anatomy in Windmill street
Haymarket On the occasion OF one
OF the lectures on Jeremy Bentham' $
mummy the head fell off and came to
immediate grief whereupon an ar
ti6cial head was modelled in wax by
Miss Margaret Gillies the distin-
guished miniature painter. But the
mummy with the waxen head has
long since faded out OF the public
ken.
The most curious and perhaps the
most spiteful will on record is that OF
Queen Austrigilda, consort o. King
Gontram who by her nuncupative or
verbal testament enjoined her husband
TO Stay and bury in the same grave
with herself the two physicians who
had attended her Majesty during
her last illness. Scarcely less
vindictive was the will OF the selfish
husband who forbade his wife TO