The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1912-08-08
WHIMSICAL WILLS.
Human Nature as Shown in Queer
Requests and Bequests.

The remarkable will of man who
died not long ago directing the un-
dertaker to stab him through the
heart after he had been pronounced
| dead by his physician is not a unique
| one. The fear of being buried alive
has driven many g man to stipulate
in his will that extraordinary steps
be taken to make sure of death.
Thus, for instance, a magnate of
Plymouth, England, decreed by his
will that his wife should cut off one
of his toes or fingers to make sure he
was dead, adding that he made the
request so that "as she had been
troubled with one fool she will not
think of marrying second"
The will of Lord Lytton contained
special directions as to the examina-
ton of his body in order to provide
against the possibility Of his being
buried while in a trance, which ap-
peared to be an apprehension of his.
A farmer of Hertfordshire, Eng
land, who died in 1920, was so GER
tain that his lethal slumber was to
be not really death, that he inserted
in his will his written wish that, "as
he was about to take thirty years
nap, his coffin might be suspended
from a beam in his barn and by no
means nailed down." He, however,
permitted it to be locked, provided
a hole were made in the side,
through which the key might be
pushed, so that he might let himself
out when he awoke. His nephew,
who inherited the property, obeyed
his whim and did not bury the cof
fin till 1851, allowing him an extra
year of grace.
The Sieur Boy, who died in 1845
at the age of SO, said in his will:
Eight and forty hours after my de-
cease, 1 desire that a post mortem
examination be made, that my heart
be taken out and placed in an urn,
which shall be intrusted to Mr.. Bau-
doin (the undertaker.) In conform
ity with an arrangement between
him and myself my heart is to be
conveyed to a mausoleum in the de-
partment of La Maoenne and there
to be deposited, as agreed"
Robert, the famous Earl of Mellent
and Leicester, one of the early cru
saders in the holy land, died in 111S
in the abbey in Preaux, where his
|body was buried, but his heart was
conveyed to the hospital at Brackley,
there to be preserved in salt. Isabel
la, daughter of the Earl of Penn
broke, who died in 1889, ordered her
(heart to be sent in silver cup to her
brother, then abbot of Tewkesbury,
to be buried there before the high
altar. The heart of John .Baliol,
lord of Barnard castle, who died in
1859, was by his widows desire in
closed in an ivory casket rich enam-
eled with silver.
But all these examples, strange as
they may be, are not especially re-
markable among the countless num-
bers of curious wills which are re-
corded through many generations.
There is, for example, the will of
a rich old bachelor, who, incensed at
what he considered the attempts of
his family to put him under the yoke
of matrimony, vented his spite on the
whole sex of women by saying in his
will: II beg that my executors will
see that 1 am buried where there is
no woman inferred, either to the
right or to the left of me. Should
this not be practicable in the ordin-
ary course of things I direct that they
purchase three graves and bury me
in the middle one of the three, leav-
ing the two others unoccupied."
John Reed, gaslighter of the Wal
nut Street theater, Philadelphia, fill
ed that post for "A years. There is
not on record a single performance
at the theater at which he was not
present. He never aspired to appear
on the stage in his lifetime, but he
was not without his mute ambitions,
and before he died he contrived in
geniously to make sure of assuming
a Shakespearan role after his death.
A clause in his will read:
my head is to be separated from
my body Immediately after my death,
the latter to be buried in grave,
the former, duly macerated and pre-
pared to be brought to the theater,
where I have served all my life, and
to be employed to represent the skull
of Yorick, and this end 1 bequeath
my head to the proprietors. IN Y.
Sun.