Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1892-08-13
SOME CURIOUS WILLS.

VIII permit you to stroll with her alone along
the shivering sands! STERLING HH1LIa.
SOME CURIOUS WILLS.
Thellusson's Great scheme-Jeremy Ben
tham's Mummy-Napoleon's Spite.
From the London Daily Telegraph.
remarkably curious will has just been pub
lished-so remarkable, indeed, that it might
we'll be added TO the already copious catalogue
Of eccentric documents Of this nature. The
testator was . wine merchant Of Bristol, who
left personally. valued at . little less than
E16, 900. He bequeathed one-half Of his prop
erty in trust to secure an annuity Of f150 to
his wife during her widowhood, and directed
that the other moiety should be divided into
- many shares as he had children, for whom,
until they respectively attained the age of six
teen 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 conclu-
sion Of their scholastic course the boys are not
to have any payment made on their behalf. ex-
cepting such IS may be requisite for teaching
them some honest trade or handicraft, Just a.
II they were the children Of some workingman
who had only left behind him . certain sum to
pay for the education Of his offspring.
If, however, any one of the lads is found to
display exceptional capacity for q profession,
such ss to give promise that he would gain
distinction therein, the trustees are authorized
70 spare no expense in his training for such
profession, and may even, If they think it de-
sirable, trench on the capital Of bis share; but
II any one child, owing to continued ill-health,
should be incapscitated from earning his own
living the trustees may apply part Of the in
como Of his share to his maintenance. On at
tanning the age Of twenty-five years each son
and daughter is to receive his or her share Of
the testator's property, the payment Of which,
however, may be deferred, il circumstances de-
mand it, for another two wears.
This, perhaps, unprecedented will would not
on the face of it appear to comprise any clauses
contrary to public policy, such as those which
parliament contemplated when in 1900 the So
called Thellusson act was passed, restraining
testators from devising their property for pur-
poses Of accumulation for more than twenty-one
years after their death.
1t will be remembered that Mr.. Peter Isaac
Thellusson, q merchant Of Swiss extraction. who
had long carried on prosperous business in
London. who died in 1877, left f100 900 to his
widow and children and the residue Of his
property, more than f600, 900, he left to trus-
tees, to accumulate during the lives of his three
sons and the lives Of their sons; then the es-
tates directly to be purchased with the produce
OF the accumulated funds were to be conveyed
to the eldest lineal male descendant of his three
sons. with the benefit of survivalship. Peter
Ihellusson's will led to protracted and costly
until 1859, when the long-pending ques-
tons were decided on an appeal to
the house Of lords, but it was stated. when
their lordships' decision was given, that, ow-
ing to the immense sums spent in legal costs,
the value Of the estate did not very greatly
exceed the sum to which it 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 relate, Peter Thellus-
sons idea was made use Of by Eugene Sue in his
romance Of THE Wandering jew" normally
accommodating at compound interest for upward
Of two centuries. and the handspring Of the plot
was q conspiracy on the part Of the Jesuits to
st hold Of this tremendous peculium The
general Of the Jesuits did at last succeed in
clutching the precious packet Of securities rep
resenting this untold treasure, but he was
unaware Of the contents Of the parcel, which
was accidentally burned, and the untold treasure
vanished into the Infinities.
The most curious and perhaps the most spite
full will on record is that of Queen Austrigilda,
consort Of King Gontram, who by her nuncu-
pative or verbal testament enjoined her hus-
band to slay and bury in the same grave with
herself the two physicians who had attended to
her majesty during her last illness. Scarcely
less vindictive was the will Of the selfish hus-
band, who forbade his wife to marry q second
time, concluding with the threat, "If she dis
Obeys me l will come again, il can" Quite at
the opposite pole Of sentiment was the direc-
ton OF the married woman. who predeceased
her husband, to her executors to seek out some
nice, good, pretty girl who would make an
affectionate second wife to her spouse.
Eccentricity and nothing else distinguishes
the will proved in 1924 Of Henry Trigg Of
Stonage. in the county Of Hartford, grocer. who
directed that his body should be committed to
the west end Of his howell, to be decently laid
there upon q floor erected by his executors;
and only sixty years ago, it is said, the bones
Of Mr.. Trigg still remained unburied in the
rafters at the west end Of his hovel aforesaid
A provision quite bizarre was made in the
will Of the philosophic Jeremy Bentham. who
enjoined his executors to embalm his corpse and
dress II in the clothes which he was accustomed
to wear in his lifetime, in order that he might
form the text Of lecture to be delivered an
nually at a literary institute held at school Of
anatomy in Windmill street. Haymarket. On
the occasion Of one Of the lectures on Jeramy
Bentham's mummy the venerable philosophers
head fell Oh and came to irremediable grief
whereupon an artificial head was modelled in
wax by Miss Margaret Gillies, the distinguished
miniature painter. But the mummy with the
waxen head has long since faded out Of the pub
Lie ken.
Peter the Great il said to have made will in
which he exhorted his heirs to approach as
nearly As possible Constantinople and toward
India, but the authenticity Of this document
has been disputed, as it is shrewdly suspected
to have been forged late in the eighteenth CEN
fury by August Won Kotzebue. or the genuine
meas, however, Of the last will and testament Of
the first Napoleon there can be no manner Of
doubt. One Of iS clauses wns as vindictive as
the testamentary injunction Of Queen Austri-
gilda to her husband to have her two doctors
killed and buried with her. The exile Of Long
hail Int al 4 20.
fellow called Cantillon, who had been tried in
Paris for an attempt murder the Duke of Well
ington. The man was still surviving in Brus-
sells when Napoleon III came to the throne,
and Cantillon was duly paid his abouinable
legacy.
They Know How 70 Dress:
From the Chicago Mail.
''Never heard Of Chinaman collapsing from
the heat, did you?' asked . West Side doctor
- he famed himself vigorously and occasion
ally tugged away at his shirt collar. "They