Chapter IV · CURIOUS WILLS (continued 2)

To Promote Brotherly Love

Robert Halliday, of Eastcheap, London, by his will, dated 6th of May, 1491, gave estates in the parish of St. Leonard, Eastcheap, the rents to be applied to various purposes, and, amongst others, 5s. to the churchwardens yearly, either to make an entertainment among such persons of his home parish of St. Clement, who should be at variance with each other, in the week preceding Easter, to induce such persons to better neighborhood, and to beget brotherly love amongst them; or if none should be found in the said parish, then to make an entertainment with the said 5s. at the tavern amongst the honest parishioners of the said parish on the day of our Lord’s Supper, commonly called Shere Thursday, that they may pray more fervently for the souls of certain persons named in his will.

Drinking

Edward Cooper, of Slinfold, Sussex, England, by his will, dated 10th of February, 1621, gave 20s. a year out of lands called Whitbers, in Slinfold, 15s. thereof to be bestowed by the churchwardens and overseers upon a drinking, for the use of the poor of the parish yearly, at the feast day of the Purification of the Virgin, in as good sort as they could, and the other 5s. to drink withal themselves, for their labor and pains therein.

The land is now called South Whitbreads, and the owner of the property regularly pays the sum of £l yearly, which is distributed amongst the poor at Christmas by the churchwardens and overseers.

Encouragement to attend Divine Service

Thomas Walker, of St. James’s, Bristol, England, by his will, dated 25th of April, 1666, ordered as follows: “I give and bequeath to that poor parish of St. James the sum of £200, to purchase for ever the sum of £10 8s. 0d. a year for eight poor house-keepers that are known to live in the fear of God, and to come unto the church every Lord’s day, a six-penny loaf of bread every Sabbath day, after morning prayer, unto these eight poor house-keepers for ever; but for God’s sake let them be no drunkards nor common swearers—no, nor that do beg in the streets from door to door, but let them be quiet people that do desire to live in the fear of God. Pray let their bread be wheaten bread, and weight as it ought to be.”

Stormy Days

Thomas Williamson, of Castlerigg, Cumberland, England, by will, dated 14th of December, 1674, gave the sum of £20 to be laid out in land to be bestowed upon poor people, born within St. John’s Chapelry or Castlerigg, in mutton or veal, at Martinmas yearly, when flesh might be thought cheapest, to be by them pickled or hung up and dried, that they might have something to keep them within doors upon stormy days.

Snuff and Tobacco for the Sick

Dr. F. W. Cumming left six hundred pounds to the Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh, to provide poor patients, male and female, with snuff and tobacco, giving the following reason for his unusual bequest: “I know how to feel for the suffering of those, who in addition to the irksomeness of pain and the tedium of confinement, have to endure the privation of what long habit has rendered in a great degree a necessity of life.”

To toll the Bell

William Minta, of Great Gonerby, Lincolnshire, who died 8th of June, 1724, gave £5 to the poor of Gonerby, to be distributed in bread to sixteen aged people, on Good Friday, yearly, a “threepenny dole a piece,” and the clerk was “to toll the bell at three o’clock, and to read the Epistle and Gospel, and sing the Lamentation of a Sinner,” and to have one shilling reward.

Christmas Festivities

William Taylor, of Shropshire, England, by will, dated 6th of February, 1735, directed that Elizabeth Leigh, then owner, and the persons who subsequently should be owners of his two freehold houses, &c., situate in High Street, in the parish of St. Leonard, should yearly, for ever, on the 26th of December, give and provide a good and wholesome dinner for the poor persons, almshouse women, inhabiting the almshouse belonging to the parish of St. Leonard, in such manner as of late years has been provided for them on that day by the testator and his late brother; and they to be so entertained in the most convenient part of the house that fronted the street; and upon every default his Will was, and he ordered the sum of £10 to be paid to, and equally divided amongst, such poor persons, and the same to be chargeable upon the said houses, &c.

Gratitude for being preserved in a Battle

Ezekiel Nash, an Englishman, of Bristol, St. James’, for a memorial of his thankfulness to Almighty God for his wonderful preservation in an engagement with a French frigate, March the 8th, 1762, gave by will, dated 27th of March, 1800, the sum of £100, to the churchwardens and overseers for the time being of such parish as he should be buried in, upon trust, to invest the same and apply the interest annually in manner following, viz., to the minister of the same parish, for preaching a sermon yearly, on the 8th of March, forever, one guinea; to the clerk and sexton for their attendance, 5s. each; the residue in the purchase of bread, to be distributed on the 8th of March, and the six Sundays next following, among such poor persons of the parish whom the minister, churchwardens and overseers should think fit objects to receive the same, not receiving alms or other charity.

The Gratitude of a Member of Parliament

Henry Archer, Esq., of Hale, England, in the county of Southampton, by will, dated the 5th of November, 1764, gave the sum of £500 to the poor of the borough of Warwick, in grateful remembrance of the very great honor conferred on him by the said borough (which he represented in Parliament) for thirty years and upwards, to be disposed of, and managed to the best advantage of the said poor by his brother Lord Archer, the Earl of Warwick, and Matthew Wise, Esq., and by the respective vicars, churchwardens and overseers of the poor of the parishes of St. Mary and St. Nicholas, in the said borough, for the time being.

The interest is employed in purchasing coals in the summer, and selling them to the poor at a reduced price in winter.

In Commemoration of John Bunyan

Samuel Whitbread, Esq., of Bedford, England, by will, dated the 13th of July, 1795, gave to the trustees of the “Old Meeting,” out of respect to the memory of John Bunyan, and for the relief of the poor of the congregation, five hundred pounds, to be laid out by his executors in the Three Per Cent. Consols, and the dividends to be annually applied in giving bread to the poor in quartern loaves every Sabbath morning, from October to May.

After the death of Mr. Whitbread, the sum of £500, instead of being laid out in stock, was, at the request of his son, the late Samuel Whitbread, Esq., allowed to remain in his hands on the security of his bond, conditioned for the investment of £980 Three Per Cent. Consols, being so much stock as the £500 would then purchase.

A bond, subject to the same condition, was executed about 1819 by William Henry Whitbread, Esq., eldest son of the late Samuel Whitbread, in lieu of the former bond.

The interest payable on the bond amounts to £29 8s. per annum, which is received regularly by the trustees of the Old Meeting, and is laid out by them in the purchase of quartern loaves, which are distributed at the meeting-house every Sabbath day, from May to October, among such poor persons of the congregation as the trustees select.

Dressing a Grave with Flowers

William Benson Earle, Esq., of Grateley, Hampshire, England, who died in 1796, gave three hundred guineas to the rector, churchwardens, and overseers of Grateley, in trust, to invest the same in their joint names, and expend half the interest thereof at Christmas, and the other half at Easter, in the purchase of the best ox-beef and cheese, together with potatoes or peas, or both, to be distributed in just proportions, at their discretion, among the poorest families in that parish, but nowhere else. And he requested that one guinea of the annual interest should be given yearly to the clerk of the parish, so long as he should cleanse and repair with flowers in the different seasons, as had before been done, the bed over the remains of Dame Joanna Elton, in the churchyard of Grateley.

Bread for the Poor

The Rev. Mr. Pitt, an English clergyman, directed sixty penny loaves to be given to the poor of St. Botolph’s, Bishopsgate, yearly, on Whit Sunday, by eight o’clock in the morning, upon his tomb, in the burying-ground, in Old Bethlem.

Bluecoat Boys and Packets of Raisins

In accordance with the will of Peter Symonds, dated 1586, sixty of the younger boys of Christ’s Hospital, London, attend divine service at the Church of Allhallows, Lombard-street, on Good Friday, and are presented each with a new penny, a bun, and a packet of raisins.

A Fixed Price for Corn and Wine

A citizen of Berne, Switzerland, left this unusual will:

“Being anxious for my fellow-citizens of Berne (who have often suffered by dearth of corn and wine), my Will is that, by the permission of Providence, they shall never for the future suffer again under the like calamity, to which end and purpose I give my estate, real and personal, to the Senate of Berne, in trust for the people; that is to say, that they receive the produce of my estate till it shall come to the sum of (suppose two thousand pounds); that then they shall lay out the two thousand pounds in building a town house, according to a plan by me left; the lower story whereof to consist of large vaults or repositories for wine; the story above I direct to be formed into a piazza, for such persons as shall come to the market at Berne for disposing of their goods free from the injuries of the weather; above that I direct a council chamber to be erected for a committee of the Senate to meet in from time to time to adjust my accounts, and to direct such things as may be necessary for the charity; and above the council chamber as many floors for granaries as can be conveniently raised, to deposit a quantity of corn for the use of the people whenever they shall have occasion for it. And when this building shall be erected, and the expense of it discharged, I direct the Senate of Berne to receive the produce of my estate till the same shall amount to the sum (suppose of two thousand pounds); and when the price of corn shall be under the mean rate of the last ten years, one fourth part, they shall then lay out one thousand pounds in corn, and stow it in my granaries, and the same in wine, when under one fourth of the mean rate of the last ten years; and my Will is that none of the said corn or wine shall be sold until the price of corn and wine shall exceed at the common market one fourth of the mean rate for the last ten years; and then every citizen of Berne shall demand daily (and proportionally weekly) as many pounds of wheat and as many pints of wine as he has mouths in his family to consume, and no more, and that for the same he pay ready money after the mean rate that it has been at for the last ten years past, a due proportion being allowed for waste, and that to be settled by the Senate; and that each householder shall be so supplied as long as the price of corn and wine shall continue above the rate of one fourth more than the mean rate; and whatsoever increase shall be made of the capital, it shall be laid out under the same restrictions, in adding to the stock of corn and wine; which, under the blessing of God, will, I hope, in a certain time reduce these two necessary articles of life to very near a fixed price, to the glory of God and the benefit of the poor.”

This legacy has existed about 300 years, and had the desired effect at Berne, and a will on the same principle has been made for purchasing fuel for the poor of Kingston-on-Thames, England.

Fish for the Poor in Lent

John Thake, of Clavering, Essex, England, by will, dated 13th of June, 1537, gave to Robert Cockerell and his heirs his house and lands called Valence, upon condition that they should forever, yearly, on Friday, the first week in Lent, give to poor people of Clavering one barrel of white herrings and a cade of red herrings (a cade is about half a barrel), always to be given by the oversight of the churchwardens and the tenants and occupiers of the lordship and parsonage of Clavering.

The owner of the farm called Valence, regularly sends to the house of the parish clerk, in Lent, a barrel of red herrings and a barrel of white, which are distributed in the church by the parish clerk and sexton, four to each married couple, two to each widow and widower, and one to each child.

Cow Charity

James Goodaker, of Woodchurch, Cheshire, England, in 1525, left a fund by will to buy twenty yoke of bullocks, which were subsequently replaced by cows, and given to the poor of Woodchurch parish: every parishioner that had a cow or cows paying yearly for each to the overseers the sum of 2s. 8d. every Friday before Whitsunday, which hire was to be a stock for the benefit of the poor forever.

The parish of Woodchurch includes ten townships, from each of which a trustee of the cow property is elected, whose duty it is to see that the animals are properly taken care of, and those persons are termed governors of the cows. There is an annual meeting, on which occasion the cows are produced and examined.

Turkeys for Parishioners

In 1691, John Hall left to the Weavers’ Company a dwelling-house, with instructions to pay 10s. per annum to the churchwardens of St. Clement, Eastcheap, to provide on the Thursday night before Easter two turkeys for the parishioners, on the occasion of their annual reconciling or love-feast (settlement of quarrels or disputes).

Bread, Beer, Beef, and Broth

John Balliston, of St. Giles’s, Norwich, by will, dated 17th of October, 1584, devised three tenements in St. Giles’s next the Gates to certain persons, upon condition that they should make distribution to the poor in manner following, viz. that in the week before Christmas, the week before Michaelmas, and the week after Easter, in the church of St. Giles, the minister should request the poor people, all that should receive or have need of alms, to come to church, and request them to pray for the preservation of the Prince, &c.; that the poor should place themselves four and four together, all that should be above the age of eleven years, and that every four of them should have set before them a two-penny wheat loaf, a gallon of best beer, and four pounds of beef and broth; that the minister should have fourpence for his pains on each of the three days.

The rent of £2 a year is paid to the parish for the premises, which, with other charities, is laid out in the purchase of coals.

Halfpenny Bread Charity

Robert Grainger of Godmanchester, Huntingdonshire, by his will, dated 10th of October, 1578, gave and appointed as much bread as could be made of a coomb of wheat, to be made into halfpenny loaves, and to be distributed among the poor of Godmanchester by the churchwardens, to be charged on his mansion house in Godmanchester.

The present owner of the house pays the value of four bushels of wheat, according to the average price of wheat at Huntingdon market, on the Saturday before Good Friday, to a baker, for supplying the bread, which is distributed on Good Friday.

Cuttings of Fish

Robert Harding, of London, by will, dated 20th of November, 1568, gave to the Company of Fishmongers an annuity of £3 6s. 8d. issuing out of his lands and tenements in Pudding Lane; and Simon Harding, his son, by deed, 7th of September, 1576, confirmed the same; to hold the said annuity to the wardens and commonalty and their successors, to the intent that they should pay in the Lent season £3, that is, in New Fish Street 30s. and in Old Fish Street 30s., to the use of the poor inhabiters and artificers compelled by necessity to repair thither, to buy the cuttings of fish and the refuse of fish; the residue to remain to the wardens for their labors in this behalf.

There being no poor persons of the description mentioned in the will, the annuity has been added to the fund distributed to the half-yearly poor at Christmas.

Bequest of White Peas

John Huntingtdon, of Sawston, Cambridgeshire, England, by will, dated 4th of August, 1554, devised lands and tenements to Joice his wife, and his heirs, upon condition that his heirs should yearly forever sow two acres of land, lying together in Linton field, with white peas, one coomb to be yearly bestowed upon each acre, for the relief of the people of Sawston.

Two acres, the property of Richard Huddlestone, Esq., the lord of the several manors in the parish, are annually sowed with white peas, as directed by the will, which are gathered green on a day fixed by the occupier of the land, by all the poor indiscriminately, when a complete scene of scramble and confusion ensues, attended with occasional conflicts.

Milk Tribute

Edmund Porter of Alresford, Middlesex, by will, dated 27th of May, 1558, directed that John Porter should have a house called Knapps, with the appurtenances, church fences, and caprons (which comprised thirty-one acres of land), to him and his heirs, upon condition that they should give forever the morning milk of two able milk beasts to the poor people of this parish, every Sunday yearly, from Whitsunday to Michaelmas, 3s. 4d. on Good Friday, and a like sum on Christmas Day.

This milk tribute has subsequently been commuted for a money payment, which is distributed in bread amongst the poor.

4 BURIAL

A Primitive Belief

There seems to have been a wide-spread primitive belief that the spirit of the departed could not rest in peace unless the obsequies were duly performed. Thus the ghost of Patroclus appeared to Achilles to request that his body might be buried in order that he might pass the gates of Hades. This belief was apparently fostered by the doctrine of the resurrection of the body.

Veteran’s Request

Robert Riedel, of Detroit, Michigan, died in June, 1910. He had fought through the Franco-Prussian War. By the terms of his will, he left to Detroit survivors of his old company, fifteen dollars with which to buy beer after they had marched to his funeral. It is said the purchase was made and duly drunk.

His Heart to be sent Home

There was filed in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on September 24th, 1910, the will of Count Julian S. De Ovies, former Chilian Consul in Pittsburgh. He left his entire estate to his wife, Minnie, his son, Rev. Raimundo B. De Ovies, and his daughter, Edith Manselea De Ovies. One curious sentence in the will reads:

“I request that my body be cremated and my heart be sent, according to family custom, to the chapel of Santa Maria, in Luanco, Conbecejo de Gozon, Province of Austria, Spain.”

Wished a Perpendicular Grave

A nobleman of the house of Du Châtelet, who died about 1280, left in his will a singular provision. He desired that one of the pillars in the church of Neufchâteau should be hollowed out and his body placed in it on its feet, “in order,” says he, “that the vulgar may not walk about upon me.” In a very different spirit was the following will.

Will of Guillaume de Champlitte

This worthy was Sire de Pontailler and de Talmai, Viscomte de Dijon, and descended from Guillaume de Champlitte II., Viscomte de Dijon, founder of the Priory of St. Marie de Pontailler, of the order “du Val des Ecoliers.” Shortly before his death in 1282, he made a will, desiring that he might be interred wearing the habit of a cordelier, and laid upon some litter. He further ordered there should be but four “chandailles,” i.e. candles, tapers, or torches employed at his funeral. He requested also that his body should be placed under the porch of the church of the Priory of Pontailler, that passers-by might walk over it. His desire was to be laid near his father, who had likewise caused himself to be buried under the porch.

Buried in Cambric

Lately, at Taunton, far advanced in years, Mrs. Mary Davis, an eccentric character, died. In her will she ordered that the expenses of her funeral should not exceed $1500, but that she should be buried in cambric, and that her coffin should be made of mahogany.

Bequeathed him Funeral Expenses

Mrs. Mary Thomas Piper, a wealthy widow of Kansas City, died in 1910. To Rollins Bingham, a nephew, she left $250 to be held in trust and used only for his funeral expenses. It appears that the conduct and habits of the nephew had not been pleasing to the testatrix, and she adopted this weird way of revenging herself upon one who had formerly been a favorite kinsman, but had subsequently incurred her displeasure.

This sum of $250 was left in trust in the hands of her executor to be held until the death of the nephew, and then applied to give him proper burial.

Rollins Bingham was a newspaper writer of Kansas City, Missouri, and his father was General George C. Bingham, a distinguished Missouri artist, who painted the well-known pictures, “General Order No. 11” and the “County Election.” He died quite recently, shortly after the above-mentioned will was probated, and the legacy at which he scoffed was used for the purpose named.

To induce People to Pray

The will of Master Robert Toste, Provost of the Collegiate Church of Wingham, dated 17th of August, 1457, recites: “My body to be buried on the uppermost step, on the north part of the high altar, where the Gospel is read in the choir on holidays in Wingham. I Will that a marble stone be laid over me, with an inscription, to induce people to pray for my soul. I bequeath part of my books to the new College of All Souls, founded by Archbishop Chicheley, part to University College, and part to the University Library of Oxford.”

Buried in an Old Chest

The Rev. Luke Imber, of Christchurch, Hants, England, one of his Majesty’s Justices of the Peace for that county, who, at the age of eighty-three, married a country girl of thirteen, desired in his will that he might be buried in an old chest which he had for some time kept by him for that purpose, and that the bearers should have each of them a pair of tanned leather gloves and a new pair of shoes, which were given accordingly.

Bribing the Children

Mr. Tuke, of Wath, near Rotherham, England, who died in 1810, bequeathed one penny to every child that attended his funeral (there came from 600 to 700); 1s. to every poor woman in Wath; 10s. 6d. to the ringers to ring a peal of grandbobs, which was to strike off whilst they were putting him into his grave; to an old woman who had for eleven years tucked him up in bed, £1 1s. per annum; to his natural daughter, £4 4s. per annum; to his old and faithful servant, Joseph Pitt, £21 per annum; forty dozen penny loaves to be thrown down from the church leads on Christmas Day forever. Two handsome brass chandeliers were also bequeathed to the church, and £20 for a new set of chimes.

Hand to be Cut Off

Mysterious directions in wills are sometimes to be met with which only a knowledge of the inner family history can explain; such as the direction in the will of the late Countess of Loudoun, the half-sister of the last Marquis of Hastings: “After my death I direct my right hand to be cut off, and buried in Donnington Park, at the bend of the hill towards the Trent, with this mottoe over it, ‘I byde my tyme.’” This direction was faithfully carried out by the lady’s husband, and the monument can now be seen in Donnington Park, in England.

An Epitaph

There was a certain missionary who was killed in India by an attendant. His epitaph reads:

Two Wives “Seven Foot” in Length

The will of John Wilcocks, of Chipping, Wycomb, England, 5th July, 1506. “My body to be buried in the Church of All Hallondon on Wye, before the rood. To the repair of our Lady’s Chapel of my grant xxiiis. ivd., I Will that my executors pay the charge of new glazing the window in the said Chapel; also I Will that an obit be kept yearly; I Will that my executors buy a marble stone to lay on my grave, with the picture of my two wives of vii foot in length, the stone mentioning her sons Thomas and Michael Wilcocks. I appoint Walter, my son, my executor, and also Robert Ashebrooke and Robert Brampton, priests, and John Aley, my executors.”

Wanted no Mourning

Theodore James Ralli, of Paris, an artist, who died at Lausanne, Switzerland, on September 26th, 1909, left personal estate in the United Kingdom valued at £8055.

The testator left to his daughter, Ina, in addition to her compulsory portion in accordance with the law of France, his automobile and the contents of his studio not otherwise bequeathed; a sum of 5000 fr. to his friend, Mr. Hawkins; 15,000 fr. to the Société des Artistes Français, the income from which is to be awarded annually as a prize to be known as The Theodore Ralli Prize; to the Fine Arts Museum in Athens, all pictures of Greek subjects and framed studies in his studio; 5000 fr. to his model if she should still be in his service at the time of his death; and the residue of his property to his brothers, Spiridon and Manati, for life, with remainder to his daughter Ina.

Appended to the will is a letter expressing his wishes in the following manner: “Let me be placed in my coffin as quickly as possible after my death, and let nobody outside the household be admitted to my death chamber before I am placed in my coffin. In a word, I do not wish anybody to attend through curiosity to see how I look. Let no photographs be made of my corpse, and let me be buried as soon as possible. For the love of God, do not weep for me. I have lived a life happy enough. The aim of my life was painting, and I gave it all of which I was capable. I might have lived twenty years more, but I could not have progressed any more, so what was the good of it? And how content I should be if no one wore any marks of mourning for me. I always had a horror of it. So, if you cannot do otherwise, wear the least of it possible.”

Ashes in a Golden Receptacle

Carl Schumann, a pedlar who died in May, 1910, at the Home for the Aged in Cincinnati, Ohio, directed that his body be cremated and the ashes tossed to the winds. The will also bequeathed the sum of Fifty Dollars to the Herwegh Maennerchor Society, with instructions that after the cremation the members spend the money having a good time.

The ceremony took place at the crematory at two o’clock in the afternoon, and was conducted by Mr. A. Goldstein, the leader of the Herwegh Maennerchor. While the body was being consumed, the society sang two German songs which were Schumann’s favorites.

When the body was reduced to ashes, they were gathered and placed in a golden receptacle, and as the final words were spoken, they were tossed into the air by Mr. R. Schueschner. The society then began the celebration.

Directions for Cremation

In these days cremation is recognized as a good and lawful way of disposing of our remains; but so late as 1855 it was not so, for we find Mr. William Kinsett, of London, in his will proved in October of that year, stating that, “believing in the impolicy of interring the dead amidst the living, and as an example to others, I give my body, four days after death, to the directors of the Imperial Gas Company, London, to be placed in one of their retorts and consumed to ashes, and that they be paid ten pounds by my executors for the trouble this act will impose upon them for so doing. Should a defence of fanaticism and superstition prevent their granting this my request, then my executors must submit to have my remains buried, in the plainest manner possible, in my family grave in St. John’s Wood Cemetery, to assist in poisoning the living in that neighbourhood.”

Some time after this the matter was frequently discussed in the papers, and public opinion grew slowly in favor of the practice. But it seemed to have been generally doubted whether such a method was in accordance with law and the words in the Church Service, “Earth to earth,” as in 1867 we find a testator directing his nephews to cause his body to be burned “if that can be legally done.” This testamentary wish to be cremated is not confined to recent times, and there seems in the 18th century to have been no difficulty in executors carrying out the directions in this respect in the wills under which they acted. In Dodsley’s “Annual Register” for 1769, under date of Sept. 26, there appears the following statement: “Last night the will of Mrs. Pratt, a widow lady, who lately died at her house in George Street, Hanover Square, was punctually fulfilled by the burning of her body to ashes in her grave in the new burying-ground adjoining to Tyburn turnpike.”

Coffin covered with Calico

Judge E. Y. Terral, of Cameron, Texas, died in August, 1910. His estate was valued at eight thousand dollars. By his will, he directed that no funeral services be had over his body, that no printed notices of his death be issued, that he be buried in a coffin made from rough pine plank covered with black calico and carried in a wagon or hack to the cemetery, and that no marble slab be erected at his grave.

Cards and Wine at his Funeral

A Frenchman, who was an enthusiastic card player, left to certain of his card-playing friends a legacy of considerable size on condition that, after placing a deck of cards inside his coffin with his body, they should carry him to the grave and should stop on the way to drink a glass of wine at a small saloon, where he had passed “so many agreeable evenings at piquet.”

Will of the Sieur Boby

An attempt to invalidate this will was made by the heirs of the testator seven years after his death, but the court pronounced in its favor. It is dated 1845.

It certainly exhibits many singularities, and there was no contesting the fact that the testator, who died at the age of ninety-six, had been remarkable for his eccentricities for many years. He had at one time possessed a fortune of about two and a half million dollars, and at his death left no more than $15,000; moreover, he had been placed under tutelage during the three last years of his life.

Several wills were found after his death, and the singularity of some of the clauses formed a plea of imbecility on the part of those who had expected to inherit his fortune.

One of these was a legacy to an old priest, to whom, although he had in his collection many paintings of sacred subjects, he bequeathed a “Cupid nestling in a bouquet of roses” to remind him, as he said, of his youthful days.

Towards the close of his life he manifested what is in France technically known as an obituary monomania, appearing entirely preoccupied with his death, and what was to become of his remains. On this subject he expressed himself thus:

“Eight-and-forty hours after my decease I desire that a post-mortem examination be made; that my heart be taken out and placed in an urn, which shall be intrusted to M. Baudoin (the undertaker). In conformity with an arrangement between him and myself, my heart is to be conveyed to a mausoleum in the department of La Mayenne, and there to be deposited as agreed.”

His epitaph was written out, and in this he had allowed himself considerable margin, as he fixed the date of his death forty-five years later than it actually occurred.

The letters of announcement were all prepared:

“M. et Madame Lappey ont l’honneur de vous faire part de la perte douloureuse qu’ils viennent de faire, dans la personne de M. Boby, décédé en sa demeure rue de Louvois 10. Les convoi, service et enterrement auront lieu le ... 1890, à midi très précis à Saint Roch.”

According to this date he would have been one hundred and forty.

Heart and Brains Bequeathed

Dr. Ellerby died in London in February, 1827. He was a member of the Society of Friends. He passed for being a very eccentric character, and all his habits bore the stamp of originality. In his will are to be found some singular clauses, among them the following:

“Item: I desire that immediately after my death my body shall be carried to the Anatomical Museum in Aldersgate Street, and shall be there dissected by Drs. Lawrence, Tyrell, and Wardrop, in order that the cause of my malady may be well understood.

“Item: I bequeath my heart to Mr. W., anatomist; my lungs to Mr. R.; and my brains to Mr. F., in order that they may preserve them from decomposition; and I declare that if these gentlemen shall fail faithfully to execute these my last wishes in this respect I will come—if it should be by any means possible—and torment them until they shall comply.”

This threat did not much alarm the above-named parties, for it appears that they unhesitatingly renounced their several legacies.

The Earth needed for Corn

John W. Wallace, of Brooklyn, New York, died on the 28th day of December, 1909; his will contained the following novel provisions, which it is reported were literally carried out:

“I direct that my body be placed in a pine box not to cost more than five dollars; placed in an express wagon and taken to a crematory; that after cremation, the ashes shall be scattered in a field. The entire cost of the disposal of my body is not to exceed fifty dollars. My reason is, that I believe a man gets out of life all that he is entitled to, according to the amount of brain and energy he puts into it, and when he dies, should not occupy ground that may be needed for highways, or for planting corn, or for any other purpose that future generations may have for it. I believe that when I die my money, if I have any, should go to those dependent upon me, and not into expensive coffins and flowers.”

Took no Chances

A horror of being buried alive so haunted Mr. R. of Chicago that on his death he left minute instructions in his will to make such a fate quite impossible in his case. His body was not to be fastened up in his coffin till thirty days after his funeral, and the vault in which the body was placed was to be kept lighted and its doors left unlocked. Provision was also made for the employment of two men—trusted employees of the deceased—who were to guard the entrance, one by day and the other by night.

Her Carriages burned and Horses Shot

Quite a number of men, both Americans and Englishmen, who have spent a great part of their lives in hunting, have wished to be buried in their hunting dress, and this desire has been shared by at least one woman. An eccentric Welsh lady, who lived at a small place called Llanrug, was buried there in 1895 in accordance with the provisions of her will, which was in keeping with the local estimate of her character. She wished to be buried in her foxhunting clothes. The rest of her clothes and her carriages were to be burned on the day of her funeral, and all her horses—six in number, varying in value from £60 to £90 each—were to be shot on the day following the funeral. The remainder of her real and personal property to the value of £90,000 was left to her “dear husband,”—a former laborer on her estate, with whom some years previously she had, on her own suggestion, contracted a marriage,—provided that he strictly and literally carried out all the orders expressed in her will.

Funeral cost Six Francs

Some very rich men during their lives seem to enjoy the luxury of preparing at great expense the mausoleums they wish to occupy after death. M. Lalanne, a wealthy Parisian, went to the other extreme. He had a horror of anything like ostentatious funerals, and after bequeathing over a million francs to the various public institutions of his native city, he directed that his body be buried as cheaply as possible—in fact, like that of a pauper. A shabby one-horse vehicle conveyed his body to the fosse commune (the Potter’s Field), and the total cost of the funeral was only six francs, that being the charge for the cheapest kind of funeral under the French system, in which the undertaker’s business is a government monopoly.

A Woman Hater

Altogether unique was the whim of a rich old bachelor, who, having endured much from “attempts made by my family to put me under the yoke of matrimony,” conceived and nursed such an antipathy to the fair sex as to impose upon his executors the duty of carrying out what is probably the most ungallant provision ever contained in a will. The words are as follows: “I beg that my executors will see that I am buried where there is no woman interred, either to the right or to the left of me. Should this not be practicable in the ordinary course of things, I direct that they purchase three graves, and bury me in the middle one of the three, leaving the two others unoccupied.”

With the Saints on Bardsey Island

The late Lord Newborough, an Englishman, made the following curious provision in his will: he gave most explicit directions that, after a certain period had elapsed, his body was to be exhumed and reinterred in Bardsey Island. This island, it will be remembered, lies to the north of Cardigan Bay, and it is reputed to have had no fewer than 20,000 saints buried in its soil.

With Both Wives

Another individual desired to be buried in the space between the graves of his first and second wives; there are numerous instances of such an adjustment in American cemeteries, and wills are not uncommon which provide for such last resting places.

Too Modest for Vivisection

The Duchess of Northumberland, widow of the Protector, concluded her will as follows:

“In nowise let me be opened after I am dead; I have not used to be very bold before women, much more would I be loth to come into the hands of any living man, be he physician or surgeon.”

The very reverse, we may remark, of the instructions given by Katherine of Aragon on her deathbed.

Wishes of an Infidel

In one of the wildest gorges of the Blue Ridge in western North Carolina, there lived, a few years ago, a man who was a violent infidel; when he died, it was discovered that in his will he directed that he should be buried on the summit of one of the loftiest peaks of the Blue Ridge, and that his epitaph should disclose that he died reviling Christianity. Instead of carrying out his wishes, his relatives buried him in a Christian cemetery, and on the spot where he desired to be buried, placed a large white cross.

Will of John Fane

John Fane, of Tunbridge, England, died April 6, 1488; his will runs:

“My body to be buried in the church of SS. Peter and Paul, of Tunbridge.... To the prior and convent of Tunbridge, to pray for my soul, xx s., to the high altar of the church of Tunbridge, xx s.; to the structure of the rood-loft thereof, v marks.... To Humphrey Fane, my brother’s son, a house in fee simple, with a garden at the town’s end of Tunbridge.”

Will of Bakhuysen the Painter

Bakhuysen, born at Emden, in 1631, died at Amsterdam, in 1709, was not only a celebrated painter, but a skilful engraver, and a not inelegant poet. There appears to have been a great fund of gayety in his character, and this cheerfulness did not forsake him even in his old age, although he suffered from a lingering disease. Finding his end approaching, he ordered some of the best possible wine to be bought, and, having had it bottled, sealed the corks with his seal; he then placed in a purse seventy-eight gold coins, having lived that number of years, and by his will he invited the same number of friends—each of whom he named—to his funeral, begging them to accept his money and drink his wine with the same cordiality with which he offered it. We should mention that it is the custom in Amsterdam to present a glass of wine to guests attending at a funeral.

Will of Heemskirk

Another Dutch painter, Martin Heemskirk, left by his will a sum to provide annually a dowry for a young girl from his native village, on condition that, on the day of the wedding, the bride and bridegroom should come and dance with the wedding-guests upon his grave. Guy Patin relates this anecdote as having occurred about the middle of the seventeenth century, and declares that the testator’s prescription was faithfully carried out as long as the foundation lasted.

Will of François, Duc De Bretagne

In the will of François, first duke of Brittany, drawn up at Vannes, January 22, 1449, occurs a curious clause relating to the foundations of certain masses, and particularly the mode in which the bells were to be rung for them:

“ ... The largest bell (sain) of the said monastery (moustier) to be rung by twelve strokes (gobetiex); one stroke distant from the other by the space commonly occupied in saying an Ave Maria, and the whole time of ringing to be equivalent to the time it may take to recite a pater, a credo, and a miserere; and for this foundation we have appointed to the said moustier a revenue of CC livres.”

Equally curious, and very similarly expressed, are the wills of Pierre II., Duke of Brittany, September 5, 1457; Marguérite de Bretagne, September 22, 1469; Ysabeau of Scotland, Duke of Brittany, November 16, 1482; François II., Duke of Brittany, September 2, 1488. For these and others consult the works of Barnabé Brisson, 1585-1731.

In the Shadow of an Obelisk

An individual desired post-mortem honors in this wise: “I desire to be buried beneath the shadow of an obelisk, the style of which has been taken from ancient Egyptian civilization. I saw these wonderful monolith obelisks in Egypt, sat in their shade and sighed to have one for my monument in my far-off home in the New World.” On this obelisk the following inscription was directed to be placed:

Will of the Duchess of Kingston

Elizabeth Chudleigh, Duchess of Kingston, was celebrated for her beauty, her eccentricities, her taste for show and dissipation, and her extraordinary propensity to indulge in masculine sports and exercises, for her travels in Italy, Germany, and Russia, and her adventures generally. She passed many years in Paris, where she resided in the Rue Coq-Héron, and died there 28th August, 1788.

Her will is altogether in accordance with the remarkable features of her character. As she was much attached to Catherine II., Empress of Russia, who reciprocated her friendship, she stipulated in her will that in case she should die at St. Petersburg she should be buried there, as it was fitting her remains should be there where her heart was. She bequeathed to the Empress a set of jewels, and to the Pope a fine brilliant; to the Countess of Salisbury she left a pair of superb earrings, because they had formerly belonged to a countess of Salisbury in the reign of Henry IV. Notwithstanding her extravagance she left a fortune of two million dollars.

Wanted a Costly Mausoleum

Elizabeth Bastian, a New York spinster, died in June, 1910. By her will she cut off her sister and two brothers with a dollar each and left the greater part of her fortune, $65,000, to build a mausoleum in order that she might “have a splendid house to live in when dead.” Her will has been attacked and her wishes may be thwarted.

The sister and brothers of the decedent, who were bequeathed one dollar each by her, recently began an action in the Surrogate’s Court to set aside the probate of Miss Bastian’s will on the ground that she was mentally incompetent at the time of its execution. They assert, through John Path, their lawyer, that the aged spinster was a monomanic who lived frugally that she might have a magnificent tomb in which to lie after death.

This contention, they claim, is supported by her habits in life and the provisions of her will. When alive, it is alleged, she delighted to take her friends to Woodlawn Cemetery, where she owned a $10,000 plot, and pointing to the spot would say: “There’s where I’m going to live in luxury when I die.”

Her will provided that a cousin with whom she lived should have $500 and his wife a like sum. Three dollars was to be distributed among her sister and brothers, “because I have been treated with abject scorn by my relatives,” and $50,000 was set aside for the mausoleum. The rest of the New York estate was left in trust to the Woodlawn Cemetery Association to ornament and care for the mausoleum.

Bequests of Skulls

Many testators have bequeathed their skulls to their friends or to public institutions.

Cartouche requested, when on the wheel, that his skull might be preserved in the Genovevan monastery at Paris, and accordingly it is to be seen to this day in the library of that building, as Eugene Aram’s skull is daily seen and handled in York Castle.

Professor Morlet of Lausanne desired that his head should be sent to the anatomical museum of Berne, and he particularly requested his name should be distinctly engraven thereon, lest it should be mistaken for that of any other individual.

Professor Byrd Powell, phrenologist and physician, bequeathed to one of his lady pupils, Mrs. Kinsey of Cincinnati, his “head to be removed from his body for her use, by Mr. H. T. Kekeler.” The task of decapitation was, however, performed (some weeks after the body had been relegated to the vault) by Dr. Curtis.

John Reed was gas-lighter of the Walnut Street Theatre, at Philadelphia, and filled this post for forty-four years, with a punctuality and fidelity rarely equalled; there is not on record a single representation at which he was not present. John Reed was somewhat of a character, and appears to have had his mute ambitions. As he never aspired, however, to appear on the stage in his lifetime, he imagined an ingenious device for assuming a rôle in one of Shakespeare’s plays after his decease; it was not the ghost of Polonius, nor yet the handkerchief of Desdemona—no; it was the skull in Hamlet, and to this end he wrote a clause in his will thus: “My head to be separated from my body immediately after my death; the latter to be buried in a grave; the former, duly macerated and prepared, to be brought to the theatre, where I have served all my life, and to be employed to represent the skull of Yorick—and to this end I bequeath my head to the properties.”

Will of John Redman

The last will of John Redman, who died in 1798, citizen of the world, of Upminster, in Essex. “ ... My body to be buried in the ground in Bunhill Fields, where my grandfather, Captain John Redman, of the navy, in Queen Anne’s reign, lies interred. My grave to be ten feet deep, neither gravestone, atchment (sic), escutcheon, mutes, nor porters at the door, to be performed at seven o’clock in the morning.... All my wine to be drunk on the premises, or to be shared by and between my four executors.... Tylehurst Lodge farm, ... I devise to the eldest son of my second cousin, Mr. Benjamin Branfill, on condition that he, the eldest son, takes the name of Redman, or to his second or third son if the others decline it. It is hereby enjoined to the Branfills to keep the owner’s apartment and land in hand to be a check on shuffling sharping tenants, who are much disposed to impoverish the land.... Having provided handsomely for my daughter, Mary Smith Ord, on her marriage with Craven Ord of the Cursetor’s Office, London, I hereby bequeath to her children born or to be born (the eldest son excepted, whose father will provide for him), the sum of two thousand pounds to each of them at the age of one-and-twenty, for which purpose I bequeath all my valuable estates at Greensted and Ongar, late Rebotiers.... Holding my executors in such esteem, I desire them to pay all the legacies without the wicked swindling and base imposition of stamps that smell of blood and carnage.... To Mr. French of Harpur Street, ... a set of Tom Paine’s ‘Rights of Man,’ bound with common sense, with the answers intended by the longheads of the law, fatheads of the Church, and wiseheads of an insolent usurping aristocracy.... To that valuable friend of his country in the worst of times, Charles Fox, Member for Westminster, five hundred guineas. To each of the daughters of Horne Tooke, five hundred pounds.”

CODICIL

“I desire and direct my executors to keep my dwelling-house on for at least a year after my decease, and also the same with my house in Essex; and I do recommend them to visit Greensted Hall at least six times in that year, and to stop from Saturday to Monday morning; to hire a light coach and an able pair of horses, set out betimes, and breakfast on the road, alternately to take one of their families, that each corner may be filled to help drink out the wine in the vault. The same to be observed in Hatton Garden. Executors to order a dinner for themselves half-score times, to consult and consider the business they have in hand, and not to spare the wine in that cellar, and the remainder at last to be divided between them and carried to their respective houses.”

This will is taken from a volume published for county circulation by Philip John Budworth, M.A., J.P., and D.L., for the county of Essex, and entitled, “Memorials of the Parishes of Greensted—Budworth, Chipping Ongar, and High Laver.”

Will of a Bruxellois

A wealthy individual of Brussels, who died in July, 1824, ordered by his will that his body should be buried in the least expensive manner possible; and that the funeral service should be that known as “third-class;” but that the difference between this and a “first-class” funeral should be computed, and the sum laid out in a thousand loaves, to be distributed to the poor of his parish on the day of his funeral, and a plaquette (value 6½ sous) to be given with each loaf.

Burial Customs in Austria

In the Austrian capital, Vienna, the undertakers have most successfully introduced the custom of dressing up the dead in satins, laces, and flowers, supplying appropriate costumes for maids, brides, wives, widows, with couches en suite, and decorations for the chamber of death, which is brilliantly illuminated, while the corpse, with face painted in the hues of health, lies there raised on satin pillows to receive the visits of a crowd of friends. All is done with great expedition, for the law only allows a delay of twenty-four hours between the death and burial, and all this finery has to be removed after the family and friends have done looking at it, and to be replaced by such grave-clothes as the undertaker chooses to exchange for it beneath the coffin-lid.

Buried in a Trunk

A very singular will was opened, on the 8th of October, 1877, in the office of Maître Robillart, a notary of Paris. It was that of a Sieur Benoît, formerly residing at Rue des Gravillers, and lately deceased. The last clause of it was thus worded:

“I expressly and formally desire that my remains may be enclosed for burial in my large leather trunk, instead of putting my survivors to the expense of a coffin. I am attached to that trunk, which has gone round the world with me three times.”

Strange Will of Jeremy Bentham

Jeremy Bentham died in 1832. He was an English jurist, philosopher and writer of great ability. In his latter years he desired that his preserved figure might be placed in a chair at the banquet-table of his friends and disciples when they met on any great occasions of philosophy and philanthropy. He died, and his wish was carefully carried out by his favorite disciple, the late Dr. Southwood Smith, to whom he bequeathed his body in his will. Dressed in his usual clothes, wearing a gray broad-brimmed hat, and with his old hazel walking-stick, called Dapple (after a favorite old horse), the farmer-like figure of the benevolent philosopher sat in a large armchair, with a smiling, fresh-colored countenance, locked up in a mahogany case with a plate-glass front. This was his actual body preserved by some scientific process. A French artist made a wax mask. The real face was underneath it.

The body of Bentham was some years ago removed to University College, and placed in an out-of-the-way corner, and “Old Bentham” was the subject of frequent jokes among the more thoughtless of the students.

This is what Dr. Southwood Smith says on the subject:

“Jeremy Bentham,” writes Dr. Southwood Smith, “left by will his body to me for dissection. I was also to deliver a public lecture over it to medical students and the public generally. The latter I did at Well Street School. After the usual anatomical demonstration a skeleton was made of the bones. I endeavoured to preserve the head untouched, merely drawing away the fluids by placing it under an air-pump over sulphuric acid. By this means the head was rendered as hard as the skulls of the New Zealanders, but all expression was gone, of course. Seeing this would not do for exhibition, I had a model made in wax by a distinguished French artist. I then had the skeleton stuffed out to fit Bentham’s own clothes, and this wax likeness fitted to the trunk. The whole was then enclosed in a mahogany case with folding glass doors, seated in his armchair, and holding in his hand his favourite walking-stick, and for some years it remained in a room of my house in Finsbury Square. But I ultimately gave it to University College, where it now is.”

A Capricious Bequest of Sixpences

A curious custom has existed from time almost immemorial at St. Bartholomew’s the Great, Smithfield, in the churchyard, which is the oldest in the city. Its anniversary is Good Friday, on which day the incumbent is enjoined, by the will of a lady who left a foundation for the purpose, to lay down twenty-one sixpences in a row on a particular gravestone, whence they are to be picked up by as many widows, kneeling, having first attended a sermon which is to be preached on the occasion.

Letters and Portraits in her Coffin

Many persons have a singular mode of disposing of objects for which they have too great a regard to destroy, or even order them after their death to be destroyed, and as a sort of half-measure, desire that they may be buried with them. Not long since a lady died, who being fondly attached to a brother she had lost, had his portrait, in a ponderous gilt frame (which she always carried about with her when she travelled), placed in her coffin at her death.

Actuated by a similar sentiment, Mrs. Anna Margaret Birkbeck, of Inverness Terrace (who died July 2, 1877, and whose will and two codicils, dated January, 1868, were proved on 29th of July, 1877), directs that the letters of her late daughters, of her late son, and of her late husband, both before and after her marriage, be buried with her.

Will of L. Cortusio, Jurisconsultus of Padua

We are indebted to several sources for the following testamentary document: mention is made of it by the celebrated Paolo de Castro; by Scardeon, who gives it more in detail in his “Vies des Jurisconsultes de Padoue,” book ii., chap. viii.; in P. Garasse’s “Doctrine Curieuse,” page 912; and in Dreux de Radier’s “Recréations Historiques,” tome i., page 232.

By his last will and testament, the testator in question, Messer Lodovico Cortusio, forbids any of his friends and relatives to weep at his funeral. He among them who shall be found so weeping shall be disinherited; while, on the other hand, he who shall laugh most heartily shall be his principal heir and universal legatee. It would have been superfluous to address to such a man Young’s apostrophe—

It is quite evident he appreciated their value.

The testator next prohibits that his house or the church in which he is to be buried should be hung with black, desiring, on the contrary, that it shall be strewn with flowers and green branches on the day of his funeral. While his body should be borne to the church, he ordered that music should take the place of tolling bells. All the musicians (or minstrels) of the town were to be invited to his burial, however, the number was to be limited to fifty, and were to walk with the clergy, so many to precede, and so many to follow the body, and they were to make the air ring with the sound of lutes, violins, flutes, hautboys, trumpets, tambourines, and other musical instruments; the performance was to wind up with a hallelujah as for an Easter rejoicing, and for their services each was to receive the pay of half-a-crown. The body, enclosed in a bier covered with a cloth of divers colors which were to be bright and striking, was to be carried by twelve young girls habited in green, who were to sing cheerful and lively songs. To each of them the testator bequeathed a certain sum as her dowry. Young boys and girls were to accompany the procession carrying branches or palms, and were to wear on their heads crowns of flowers, while their voices were to join in chorus with those of the bearers. All the clergy belonging to the church, attended by a hundred torch-bearers, were to precede the procession, with all the monks in the town, except those whose habit was black—the express desire of the testator being either that they should wear a light-colored costume or refrain from attending, in order not to sadden the spectacle by an appearance of mourning. The executor appointed by this singular testator was solemnly charged to carry out all these directions in their fullest detail, or was to have no participation in the beneficial clauses of the will. Ludovico Cortusio died on July 17, 1418, Festival of St. Alexis. Strange to say, his wishes were conscientiously complied with. He was buried in the church of Sta. Sophia, at Padua, the ceremony having the appearance rather of a wedding than of a funeral.

Will of a Conjurer

An individual exercising the calling of a conjurer at Rochdale, named Clegg, made a humorous will, in which he desired that, if he should escape hanging, and should die a natural death within two miles of Shaw Chapel, his executors, of whom he named two, should assemble threescore of the truest of his friends—not to include any woman, nor yet man whose avocations compel him to wear a white cap or an apron, nor any man in the habit of taking snuff or using tobacco. Four fiddles were to attend, and the company were to make merry and to dance. For the refreshment of the guests were to be provided sixty-two spiced buns and twenty shillings’ worth of the best ale.

The body, dressed in his “roast-meat” (or Sunday) clothes, was to be laid on a bier in the midst. As each guest arrived, sprigs of gorse, holly, and rosemary were to be distributed, and each was to receive a cake; then all were to make merry for a couple of hours.

The musicians were then to play, in lively time, the tune of “Britons, strike home,” while glasses of gin were being handed round to the company; after this the fiddlers, repeating the said tune, were to head the cortége, the guests to follow two-and-two, the whole being closed by the curate riding upon an ass, for which service he was to receive a fee of one guinea. No one was on any account to indulge in tears; and, as soon as the coffin had been covered over, they were to repair to the public-house at which the departed had been best known, and there to eat and drink as they pleased to the amount of thirty shillings, to be defrayed by the “estate.”

No Tombstone Honors

The late Jesse H. Griffen of Yorktown, New York, who was a prominent citizen of that part of the State, drew his will on a bill-head. Among other provisions were these: “I desire that my corpse be put in a plain walnut coffin and carried in an ordinary spring wagon, and that no tombstone be erected where my mortal remains are deposited. I notice that people in moderate circumstances are often distressed by expensive displays at funerals, and tombstone honors are a truer indication of the vanity of survivors than of the virtues of the dead.”

Will of Philippe Bouton

Philippe Bouton, bailli of Dijon, dying in 1515, desired by his will that fourteen girls should be found, who, being clothed in green cloth,—that hue being sacred to hope,—should attend at his obsequies, and at all the services consequent thereon. He was buried in the church of Corberon.

Will of Charles Bouton (of Poitou)

“I, Charles Bouton, Seigneur of Fay, desire by this my will and testament, that after my death the sacristans of Louhaus shall throw over my coffin a white winding-sheet, that they shall recite the psalter before carrying it into the church; that they shall have my body carried into the Church of St. Peter of Louhaus, where it shall repose one night; that on the following morning it shall be placed on a waggon, such as those used for carting manure, and borne to my chapel of Fay and deposited within its charnel-house, there to be left without any other light than that of four small tapers, each weighing half-a-pound.”

This testator does not appear to have been in any way related to the Philippe Bouton cited above: he died in 1532.

Will of an English Farmer

A Hertfordshire farmer inserted in his will his written wish that “as he was about to take a 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. However, as his death took place in 1720, and in 1750 he showed no signs of waking, his nephew, who inherited his property, after allowing him one year’s grace, caused a hole to be dug and had the coffin put into it.

Will of M. Helloin, Juge de Paix

This gentleman, well known as a magistrate, and residing on his own landed property, close to Caen, in Normandy, France, died in the month of June, 1828. He was of eccentric habits, and of the calmest and most placid disposition. Nothing was ever known to ruffle his equanimity or to disturb the repose and tranquillity of his domestic arrangements. He lived and died unmarried, and passed his life either reclining on a couch or lying in bed. Even when exercising his judicial functions he maintained this recumbent attitude; his bedroom became his audience-chamber, and he gave judgment in a horizontal position, his body lazily stretched out, and his head thrown back on a down pillow. This luxurious life, however, did not suffice to protect him from the inevitable lot of mortals; and M. Helloin, in due time, felt that his end was not far off. Under these circumstances he made his will, apparently with the intention of proving his fidelity to his traditions, for he decreed thereby that “he should be buried at night, in his bed, and in the position in which death should surprise him—viz., with his mattress, sheets, blankets, pillows—and, in short, all that constituted the belongings of a bedstead.” As there was some difficulty in carrying out such a clause, an enormous pit was dug, and the deceased was lowered into his last resting-place exactly as he had died, nothing around or about him having been altered. Boards were placed above the bedstead, in order that the earth, when filled in again, should not trouble the repose of this imperturbable Quietist.

His Ashes improved the Fishing

A German gentleman, who was a member of a New York fishing club, in his will requested his fellow-fishermen, after cremating his body, to throw his ashes into the sea on the shoals of New York Bay, where he had often fished. The will was carried out to the letter. Although it cannot be asserted that the ashes attracted the fish, the fishermen related that when they again threw out their lines where they had sprinkled the remains of their deceased friend, they made an exceptionally large catch.

Buried in his Bed

The Reverend Langton Freeman, rector of Bilton, Northamptonshire, England, desired in his will that his body should be left undisturbed on the bed whereon he died till it could no longer be kept, that it was then to be carried, bed and all, decently and privately to the summer-house in his own private garden at Whilton. The bed with the body on it was then to be wrapped in a strong double winding-sheet, and to be treated in all respects as was the body of our Lord. The doors and windows of the summer-house were then to be secured, and the building planted round with evergreens and fenced with dark-blue palings. This eccentric will was conscientiously obeyed. The fence and even the trees have now disappeared, and the summer-house is in ruins. Some years ago an entrance was effected through the roof, and the deceased was found completely mummified, without any wrappers, one arm lying down by the side, the other across the chest.

Will of a New York Spinster

A spinster of New York desired that all the money she should die possessed of, might be employed in building a church in her native city, but stipulated that her remains should be mixed up in the mortar used for fixing the first stone.

Will of a Rich Jewess

A rich Jewess residing in London died in 1794. Having all her days regretted not to have passed her life in the ancient and celebrated city illustrated by the presence and the great deeds of David, Solomon, the prophets, the Maccabees, and others, she resolved that at all events her mortal remains should await there the day of their resurrection. She accordingly ordered by her will that her body should be carried from England to Jerusalem, to be buried there. Two of her coreligionists established in London were chosen by her to accompany her body and fulfil her last wishes; these gentlemen were gratified each with a legacy of four hundred pounds to pay their expenses.

Robert Fabyan

There are some extremely curious and valuable clauses in this will which would be too long to transcribe, and probably tedious to the majority of readers. It is dated 1511. Those who wish to read it in its entirety are referred to vol. ii., “Testamenta Vetusta,” page 498.

We will confine ourselves to a portion of his instructions for his “little tumbe of freestone, upon the which I will be spent liij s. iv d. att the moast; and in the face of this tumbe I will be made too plates of laten, ii figurys of a man and a woman, with x men children and vi women children; and over and above the said figurys I will be made a figure of the Fader of Heven, inclosed in a sonne; and from the man figure I will be made a rolle toward the said figure of the Fader, and in hit to be graven, ‘O Pater in cœlis;’ and from the figure of the woman another lyke rolle, whereyn to be graven, ‘Hos tecum pascere velis;’ and at the feet of the said figurys I will be graven thes ix verses folowing:

“And before upon the said tumbys border I will be written these words following:

“‘Tumulus Roberti Fabyan dudum pannarius ac Aldermannus London qui obiit.... Fevr....’”

The above directions were to be followed in the event of the testator’s dying and being buried “within the Citye of London,” but if buried in the church of Heydon Earnon, the grave is to be much more elaborately decorated, according to instructions further given to his executors, who can have had no sinecure, for this same alderman-draper seems to have been possessed of considerable landed and other property.

We find it throughout all these earlier wills the custom to bequeath not only beds with all their furniture, but wearing apparel, which in those days were so costly as to be considered valuable heirlooms; probably also the fashion of these articles did not undergo such rapid changes as in our own day.

An Exacting and Peculiar Will

After an eventful life as soldier, linguist, “rain-maker,” Deputy Commissioner of Patents, man of affairs, and wealthy patent attorney, Robert G. Dryenforth, of Washington, D.C., died July 4, 1910. His will is one of the most unusual instruments ever offered for probate in the United States: his estate is a large one and is left to an eight-year-old foster son, Robert St. George Dryenforth, subject to conditions of a remarkable character:

The lad is to get practically the entire estate—provided he conscientiously complies with all conditions—when he reaches the age of twenty-eight. Robert St. George will be busily occupied for the intervening twenty years in complying with conditions.

Here are some of them.

He must not associate with one Jennie Dryenforth or her daughter, Rose Marie Knowlton. Should he do so, the estate goes to William H., Harold and Robert Dryenforth, who are named as executors.

The above-named executors will also share the estate in the event Robert St. George thoughtlessly dies before he reaches the given age.

The boy must be trained right from the start to shy at the wiles of women. If he must marry, he must not marry beneath him.

The will says:

“I particularly request my executors to thoughtfully and well guard my beloved son from women, and sensibly, that is, gradually, through no erratic extreme, to let him be informed and know the artful and parasitical nature of most of the unfortunate sex, and to care that he does not marry beneath him.”

The lad must keep his face between the covers of a book for a great portion of these twenty years. He will become a confirmed burner of the midnight oil. Here is the programme, duly mapped out in the will:

He must be prepared to enter high school at the age of fourteen.

At the age of eighteen he must be ready to enter Harvard, there to take a special course fitting him for Oxford University.

In the meantime, the boy must be taken to see one country in Europe each year.

As soon as he graduates from Oxford, the boy is to hasten back to these shores and to enter immediately the United States Military Academy, complete the course and serve the required time in the army.

After he has well and patiently performed these preliminary tasks, the young man is then required to take up the practice of law, at which profession he may while his time away until he reaches the twenty-eighth milestone. Upon that happy and long-delayed day, the executors will take an inventory, and if the stewardship of Robert St. George has been good, he will receive talents an hundred fold.

Scattered about through the will are minor restrictions, having to do with the boy’s religion and habits. The lad must be reared a Protestant Episcopalian. He will have no difficulty whatever in picking his faith, his father having attended to this detail before he departed this life.

In no event is the boy to be permitted to become a Catholic, and the executors are further charged with the duty of seeing that the late Lawyer Dryenforth’s remains are not interred in a Catholic cemetery nor in Arlington.

A graduating scale of allowances for the boy’s maintenance also has been carefully worked out in the will. Until he is twelve years of age Robert St. George must not overdraw an account of $50 monthly. After that age, $1000 yearly is set aside for his support and education. Later, the amount is to be increased to $1500 per year, which will help some in event Robert St. George is not immediately retained by some of the big corporations as soon as he hangs out his shingle as a lawyer.

Dame Maud De Say

Dame Maud, daughter of Guy, Earl of Warwick, widow of Geoffrey, Lord Say, Admiral of the King’s Fleet, died Tuesday next after the Feast of the Apostles Simon and Jude, 1369. Her will recites:

“My body to be buried in the Church of the Friars Preachers of London, near Edmond, my loving husband; to the Friars there X pounds, and I desire that no feast be made on my funeral day, but that immediately after my decease my corpse shall be carried to burial, covered only with a linen cloth, having a red cross thereon, with two tapers, one at the head and another at the feet.”

A Mother’s Pathetic Affection

A lady, who was a singularly affectionate mother, lost two of her children, one aged three, the other five; their remains were carried with the usual ceremonies to the family vault, but she found it impossible to part with them, and having obtained the permission of the clergyman to have them exhumed, she had the two little coffins carried back to the house, and glass lids made to them. They were kept in a room set apart for the purpose, and remained there until her death—a period of a quarter of a century. On that event they were again buried by one of her sons, a clergyman, who, having been born long after their death, used to remark: “There was not probably another clergyman who could say he had buried two people who died before he was born.”

Will of Mr. Greftulke

An individual named Greftulke, who entertained a great dread of being buried alive, added to his will this clause: “I do not wish to be buried; but desire that my body be embalmed, and placed in a coffin, the lid of which shall be glazed; also I desire it be not nailed down, so that my body may not be deprived of air and light. Ultimately it may be buried, if the law permit.”

This will was proved October, 1867, and signed John Louis Greftulke.

Will of Thomas Hollis

This testator, Thomas Hollis of Cusicombe, Dorsetshire, England, ordered his corpse to be buried in one of his cornfields, ten feet below the surface, and the ground to be immediately ploughed, so that no trace of the spot might remain.

Will of Mrs. Maria Redding

This lady’s behests are sufficiently singular to be recorded here: “If,” she writes, “I should die away from Branksome, I desire that my remains, after being duly placed in the usual coffins (i.e. first a leaden and then an elm one), be enclosed in a plain deal box, and conveyed by goods train to Poole. Let no mention be made of the contents, as the conveyance will then not be charged more for than an ordinary package. From Poole station let it be brought in a cart to Branksome tower, and it will be found the easiest way to get the coffin out of the house will be to take out one of the diningroom windows.” This will was probated in 1870.

The Will of the Dowager Countess of Sandwich

This will provides against those useless inventions, which only serve to aggravate the grief of the survivors, and to swell the extortionate charges of the upholsterers of death. She therefore forbids “all grotesque paraphernalia, desiring only to be buried quietly and decently, with no scarfs, hatbands, or other excuses for fraud and cheating.”

Horror of Darkness

A Vienna millionnaire seemed to have a horror of darkness, for he provided that not only the vault in which his body was to be placed should be lighted by electricity, but the coffin should be similarly illumined.

Will of La Duchesse D’Olonne

This lady, whose life was full of eccentricities, seems to have been determined to signalize her departure from the world by the singularity of her testamentary dispositions.

She desired in her will, probated in 1776, that her body should be carried into the principality of Lux, situated in Basse Navarre, and about two hundred and fifty miles from Paris. So far there was nothing very extraordinary; but she also desired to be followed by a very long procession, which was to consist of six mourning-coaches draped with black, for the family and the ecclesiastics, and of two hundred persons bearing torches, who were to receive a crown a day. The cortège was to walk at a solemn pace, and not to make more than five leagues per day, and at every five leagues, or as near that distance as it was possible to find a convenient resting-place, a funeral service was to be celebrated before the procession started again, and every church where such service should be held was to be hung with black.

What the cost of all this ceremony amounted to may be computed by the cost of the carriages alone, the hire of which amounted to eighteen thousand francs.

By another article in her will, the duchess devises liberal donations and annuities to her servants, proportioned to their services, but at the same time she sends them into exile; for she assigns to each a fixed residence at a certain distance from Paris, so that they shall be all separated from each other, and she specifies that they can only receive such annuities in the locality appointed them, and on condition that they shall make that their residence, because, as she alleges, she does not wish them to congregate together, and talk about her affairs and her character.

She left fifteen thousand francs to the poet Robbé, whom she lodged and supported in Paris, though it is difficult to discover on what grounds she patronized a man of such mediocre merit.

Lady Nicotine

A young lady of Kentucky exhibited a depth of sentiment rarely equalled, when she directed in her will that tobacco should be planted over her grave, that the weed, nourished by her dust, might be smoked by her bereaved lovers.

Forget John Underwood

On the 6th of May, 1735, was buried at Wittesca, Mr. John Underwood, of Lexington. The body was lowered into the grave at five o’clock, and as soon as the prayers were concluded a marble tablet was fixed at the extremity of the grave, bearing this inscription:

Non omnis moriar, JOHN UNDERWOOD May 6, 1735.

All the detail of the interment was in strict accordance with the testamentary prescriptions of the deceased, and proceeded as follows: As soon as the grave was filled up and covered with turf, the six friends who, by his desire, had attended on the occasion, sang the last stanza of the twentieth ode of the second book of Horace:

No bell was tolled; no relative was present; the bier was painted green, and the body was laid on it dressed in ordinary clothes; beneath the head was placed a copy of Horace, at his feet a Milton, on his right hand a small Greek Bible, with his name on the binding in gilt letters, on the left a smaller edition of Horace, with the inscription “Musis amicus, J.U.,” and under his shoulders Bentley’s Horace. When the ceremony was concluded, his friends returned to his house, where his sister awaited them, and all sat down to an elegant supper; after it was over, the company joined in singing the thirty-first ode of the first book of Horace:

Then they drank gayly for some time, but retired at eight o’clock. Mr. John Underwood bequeathed about fifty thousand dollars to his sister, on condition that she should carry out faithfully the conditions of his will. He left $50 to each of his friends, requesting them not to wear mourning; then came the singular directions, which were carried out as above, and the will concluded thus: “ ... This done, I request my friends to separate, after drinking cheerfully together, and to think no more of John Underwood.”

Without Pomp or Vainglory

Joan, Lady Bergavenny, whose will is dated 10th of January, 1434, wills “that my body be kept unburied in the place where it happeneth me to die, unto the time my ‘maygne’ (household) be clothed in black, my hearse, my chare, and other convenable purveyance made, and then to be carried unto the place of my burying before rehearsed, with all the worship that ought to be done unto a woman of mine estate, which God knoweth well proceedeth not of no pomp or vain glory, that I am set in for my body, but for a memorial and remembrance of my soul to my kin, friends, servants, and all other....”

Desired Beautiful Scenery

Lord Camelford, the famous duellist, wrote a codicil to his will, by which he desired that his body “should not be buried within city walls or the haunts of men, but should be removed to a far-distant spot, where the surrounding scenery might smile upon his remains.” The Lake of St. Lampierre, in Switzerland, was the spot selected. On the borders of this lake was a sloping bank marked by three trees. The testator designated the centre one as that under which he had passed many hours meditating on the mutability of human affairs, and he requested that this might be carefully removed, his body interred beneath it, and the tree replaced. These, his last wishes, were faithfully executed.

Will of Richard-sans-Peur

This brave Duke of Normandy had prepared his tomb, many years before his death, in the Abbey of Fécamp, and ordered that his burial should be conducted with the utmost simplicity. So great was his humility that he expressed his wishes as follows: “Je veulx estre enseveli devant l’huys de l’église, afin d’être coneulqué (trodden under foot) de tous les entrans dans l’église.” These, his last wishes, were executed; but some years after an Abbot of Fécamp, considering that “à si digne personnage plus décente sépulture appartenait,” had his body exhumed and buried in front of the altar.

Fifteen Maidens with Torches

François de la Palu Varembon, Seigneur de Beaumont sur Vingeanne, in Burgundy, made, in 1456, a will by which he testifies his objection to lugubrious colors at his interment; desiring that fifteen maidens of the very poorest of his vassals, clothed in white cloth at the expense of his estate, each wearing a scarlet hood and carrying a torch of three pounds’ weight, should walk in procession before the body, and that his heirs shall also wear white at his funeral and at every successive anniversary of his death. He further orders that four wax candles, of twenty-five pounds’ weight each, shall be placed at the corners of his coffin.

Body carried to a Café

One September afternoon, in 1874, an empty hearse was seen standing at about four o’clock at the entrance of the salons of the Café Riche, Rue Le Peletier. On inquiry it was found that a frequenter of this famous establishment had inserted in his will a clause to this effect:

“I desire that on the day of my burial I may be carried round by the Rue Le Peletier, to visit once more the table where I have spent so many of the pleasantest hours of my life.”

As we have seen, this singular wish was respected by the survivors of the testator.

Barber not wanted

The will, dated January 9th, 1873, of Mr. Richard Christopher Carrington, late of Churt, near Farnham, Surrey, England, astronomer, who died on the previous November 27th, was proved by Mrs. Esther Clarke Carrington, the mother of the deceased, the personal estate being sworn under £20,000. The testator desired to be buried at a depth of between ten and twelve feet in the grounds surrounding his own freehold house at Churt, at an expense not exceeding £5, without any service being read over his grave, and without any memorial being erected to his memory; and he directed that after his death neither his chin be shaved nor his shirt changed. He bequeathed to the Royal Society and the Royal Astronomical Society £2000 Three Per Cent. Consolidated Bank Annuities each, both free of legacy duty.

Young Lady’s Picturesque Funeral

A somewhat unusual funeral cortège astonished the inhabitants of Brighton, England, traversing it from the west end to the railway station, one morning in the autumn of 1879. Concerning it some very romantic, highly imaginative, but somewhat incorrect rumors gained currency. The funeral was that of a young lady, named Ellen Elizabeth Parren, the daughter of William Parren, Esq., of Beckenham, in Kent, who had arrived in Brighton that day week, on a visit to her uncle, Captain Dunhill, of Brunswick Road. Though delicate, she was thought to be in her usual health; but on the following Monday she died somewhat suddenly. The deceased young lady, being a great favorite both in her own family and amongst her friends, it was decided that the obsequies should not partake of that gloomy and melancholy character which is the usually accepted mode of burial, but that it should be more inspiring and hopeful in its tone. The handsome funeral car was drawn by four grays, in the place of black horses, and the funeral coaches were represented by three landaus, each drawn by a pair of grays. The coffin, having been placed upon the car, was covered by a handsome white-and-gold pall, upon which were laid a number of beautiful wreaths of white flowers. The cortège as thus arranged left Brunswick Road, Hove, for the railway station, and then proceeded to Croydon. Here, the funeral procession having been rearranged and augmented by two other landaus drawn by pairs of grays and a number of private carriages, proceeded to Norwood Cemetery, where the remains were laid in the grave, the service being performed by two Nonconformist ministers, the Rev. Mr. Eldridge and the Rev. Mr. Jenkinson. The coffin was of polished oak, with plated silver ornaments and inscription plate, the latter having upon it the following: “Ellen Elizabeth, daughter of Wm. Parren, Esq., died August 25, 1879, aged 25.”

To curtail Funeral Bills

The will of Mr. Francis Offley Martin, formerly of Lincoln’s Inn, but late of 89 Onslow Gardens, one of the Charity Commissioners for England and Wales, who died on December 4th, 1878, was proved by William Smith, the sole executor, the personal estate being sworn under £7000. The testator, in his directions for his funeral, provides that no scarfs or hatbands be used or given away on the occasion either to the clergyman or any other person, as he wishes to break through the custom of running up funeral bills; and he declares that this prohibition is to extend also to gloves.

Full Dress Uniform

The late Surgeon-Major Wyatt, C.B., of the Coldstream Guards, who did good service to suffering humanity in Paris after the siege in 1871, desired in his will to be buried in the full-dress uniform of the regiment in which he had passed the greater part of his useful and honorable life. A Bible presented to him by his wife was to be placed in his coffin, and the horses used at his funeral were not to be “decorated”—plumed and draped, we presume—in any manner; the mutes and other attendants were not to wear hatbands or scarfs; each person attending his funeral was to wear in token of mourning only a black band of medium width—crape for relatives and cloth for friends; the gloves were to be black; but each person in the procession was to wear a camellia or other white flower in his buttonhole, as it was the worthy surgeon-major’s wish that the ceremony “should be as free as possible from all gloomy associations, and to be considered more as an occasion for rejoicing than for mourning.” Consonant with this leading idea was the expressed wish that no kind of widow’s cap or weeds should be worn by his relict, and no particle of crape should appear on the garments of his relations. Side by side with this, publication was given to a will announcing the desire of another testator to be buried with a hearse surmounted by sable ostrich-plumes, with horses duly panachés and caparisoned, mutes and bearers and “pages,” scarfs and flowing hatbands and brazen-tipped staves, and all the rest of that elaborate panoply of woe which finds so much favor in the eyes, and affords such comfortable entries in the books, of old-established undertakers. Quot homines, tot sententiæ, thus every man seems to be of a different mind concerning the ordering of his funeral.

Under the Oak Trees

Sir Charles Hastings requested that his body might “not be coffined, but swathed in any coarse stuff that would hold it together, and then buried in a spot designated by him. That the ground should then be planted with acorns, so that he might render a last service to his country by contributing to nourish some good English oaks.”

An Abnormal Burial

Lord Truro, of England, whose residence was at Falconhurst, on the summit of Shooter’s Hill, afforded a novel example of funeral simplicity. On the demise of Lady Truro, Lord Truro having, according to her desire, placed the body in a lightly constructed box, so that the process of decay might not be arrested, buried it himself in a grave dug in the lawn fronting the house, at a spot she had selected for the purpose. The grave is about four feet deep, and a marble monument has been raised upon it.

Protected his Whiskers

Valentine Tapley, owner of the longest beard in the world, died Saturday, April 2, 1910, at his home, Spencerburg, Pike County, Missouri. He was eighty years old. It is said that when Lincoln was a candidate for the Presidency, Mr. Tapley, who was a Democrat, made a vow that if Lincoln was elected he would never cut his beard. The length of his beard was 12½ feet for several years prior to his death. This is said to be longer than any other beard known. Mr. Tapley took great pride in his whiskers, and wore them wrapped in silk and wound about his body. During the latter part of his life he was apprehensive his grave would be robbed for his whiskers, and in his will he made provision for a tomb of extra strength to guard against this. Mr. Tapley declined several offers to exhibit his beard. He was a large owner of Pike County farming land, and died wealthy.

Dastards and Fools

In France, not long ago, died an eccentric Frenchman who declared the French to be “a nation of dastards and fools.” For that reason, he devised the whole of his fortune to the people of London, and directed that his body be thrown into the sea a mile from the English coast. An attempt was made to have him adjudged insane when he made the will, but it failed.

Recipe and Restitution

Another Frenchman directed that a new cooking recipe should be pasted on his tomb every day; and still another Frenchman, a lawyer, left fifty thousand dollars to a lunatic asylum, declaring that it was simply an act of restitution to the clients who were insane enough to employ his services.

To the Four Winds

A queer request was made by a German who died in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1887. By his will, he directed that his body should be cremated and the ashes forwarded to the German Consul at New York, who was to deliver them to the captain of the steamship Elbe. When in mid-ocean, the captain was to request a passenger to dress himself in nautical costume, and, ascending with the funeral urn to the topmast, to scatter the ashes to the four winds of heaven. And these strange directions were literally carried out.