Ancient, Curious, and Famous Wills

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Ancient, Curious And Famous Wills

“A truce to jesting; let me have a confessor to confess me, and a notary to make my will."

Ancient Curious And Famous Wills

By Virgil M. Harris

MEMBER OF THE SAINT LOUIS BAR, LECTURER ON WILLS IN THE SAINT LOUIS UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE OF LAW, TRUST OFFICER OF THE MERCANTILE TRUST COMPANY OF SAINT LOUIS, MISSOURI, AND AUTHOR OF “THE TRUST COMPANY OF TO-DAY,” ETC.

“The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, And all that beauty, all that wealth e’er gave, Await alike the inevitable hour: The paths of glory lead but to the grave.”

Boston Little, Brown, And Company 1911

Copyright, 1911, By Little, Brown, And Company.

_All rights reserved._

Printed by C. H. Simonds &. Co. Boston, U. S. A.

TO THE LATE HONORABLE JACOB KLEIN OF SAINT LOUIS, MISSOURI WHOSE LONG AND USEFUL CAREER AT THE BAR AND WHOSE STERLING CHARACTER, LEARNING AND WISDOM ENTITLE HIS NAME TO A PLACE IN THE GALAXY OF GREAT AMERICAN LAWYERS THIS BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED

Preface

“Let’s choose executors, and talk of wills; And yet not so,--for what can we bequeath, Save our deposed bodies to the ground?”

An addition to the fifteen millions of books of which the world is now possessed demands an explanation, if not an apology.

In my experience as a lecturer on the Law of Wills, and in the practical administration of estates controlled by wills, in which I have been engaged for many years, it has been a subject of surprise to me that no one in America has seriously undertaken the collection of curious and famous wills. It has occurred to me that I might discharge the duty which every lawyer owes to his profession by making such a collection. The subject is very comprehensive, and the material required has been obtained, in most instances, from the original records of Probate and Court Registers in various parts of the world, by exhaustive research in libraries at home and abroad, and by reference to magazine and newspaper files.

It has been my effort to select from this collection the wills which appeared most interesting and entertaining. I recognize quite fully the wisdom of Lord Coke’s remark, that

“Wills, and the construction of them, do more perplex a man than any other learning; and to make a certain construction of them exceedeth _jurisprudentum artem_.”

Perplexity has likewise beset me in an attempt to classify the wills in this work and place them under convenient and appropriate headings.

It must not be forgotten that while all men may make wills, and should do so, yet all men have _not_ done so. It is a remarkable trait in human character that wills are for the most part postponed, and that many men of wealth and distinction die without them. So great a man as Abraham Lincoln left no will, though he had a considerable estate. General Grant also died intestate, but his estate was small. It is to be regretted that men fail to perform the duty of making their wills, as history and experience demonstrate that this neglect has often resulted in a disastrous train of consequences.

The subject of Wills is not so prosaic as might be supposed; in fact, there are few subjects of more general interest. Wills reflect, as a mirror, the customs and habits of the times when written, as well as the characters of the writers.

Our earthly possessions are, after all, but life-holdings, and the grace with which we part with them at the end of life’s journey shows the heart in its least disguised form. The moment of will-writing is a solemn one. The insight we get into the character of the testator is genuine and unvarnished. Property does not always bring with it comfort and happiness, and those who have to deal with wills find that it is frequently as difficult to dispose of one’s possessions as it is to acquire them.

In this work, it has been deemed inadvisable to cite many authorities. The author has experienced too much embarrassment in his researches to ask others to follow in his footsteps. The wills found in these pages have been conscientiously copied and compared; in many cases, they have been obtained in places not easily accessible to the average reader. A number of wills set forth have been abridged, where found to be too voluminous in their entirety; and, in some instances, parts which were not of general interest have been omitted.

The wills have not been created by the author, but have been taken from trustworthy sources; some of them have appeared in English works, but very few in American publications.

I desire to acknowledge my obligations for material assistance, particularly to the late Hon. Jacob Klein of Saint Louis, Mr. John Marshall Gest of Philadelphia, Mr. Daniel Remsen of New York, Messrs. Harper & Brothers of New York, the Editors of the “Green Bag” of Boston and other legal publications, and to the valuable works of Mr. Proffatt, Mr. Tegg, Julia Clara Byrne, Mr. Nicholas and Mr. Nichols.

Virgil M. Harris.

Saint Louis, Missouri,

March 1, 1911.

Contents

Page

INTRODUCTION xi

Chapter I

The Importance Of The Last Will And Testament 1

Chapter II

Ancient Wills 10

Chapter III

Wills In Fiction And Poetry 49

Chapter IV

Curious Wills 73

1. Relating to Husbands, Wives, and Children 73 2. Relating to Animals 90 3. Relating to Charity 102 4. Relating to Burial 122 5. Miscellaneous 158

Chapter V

Testamentary And Kindred Miscellany 203

Chapter VI

Wills Of Famous Foreigners 249

Chapter VII

Wills Of Famous Americans 324

Index 455

Introduction

“The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ, Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it.”

The history of wills and their study, as reflecting the character of the makers, and in throwing, as they do, a strong light on the customs and manners of the times in which they were written, are subjects profoundly interesting both to the lawyer and to the layman.

Lord Rosebery, in an address on the character of Byron, said:

“I will go a step further, and affirm that we have something to be grateful for even in the weaknesses of men.... We grope blindly along the catacombs of the world, we climb the dark ladder of life, we feel our way to futurity, but we can scarcely see an inch around or before us; we stumble and falter and fall, our hands and knees are bruised and sore, and we look up for light and guidance.... And, at the end, man is reaped--the product, not of good alone, but of evil; not of joy alone, but of sorrow--perhaps mellowed and ripened, perhaps stricken and withered and sour. How, then, shall we judge any one?”

Can we not judge a man by his will? Does not such an instrument reflect his character, his nature, and his eccentricities? A writer on the subject of Wills says:

“So surely as the berry indicates the soundness of the root, the flower of the bulb, so does man’s last will tell of the goodness or foulness of the heart which conceived it. The cankered root sends up only a sickly germ, which brings forth no fruit in due season; whilst the wine that maketh glad the heart of man, the oil which maketh him a cheerful countenance, and the bread that strengthens his heart, have burst from roots which mildew has never marred, nor worm fretted.”

Testamentary dispositions of property in some form are of very ancient origin; even in the Biblical period we find the statement in Genesis to the effect that Jacob gave to Joseph a portion above his brethren. Solon is said to have introduced wills into Greece, and there is good reason to believe that wills were known in Egypt ages before they were used in Europe. Charles Dufresne Du Cange, a most learned philological writer who died at Paris in 1688, mentions wills written on bark or wood in the seventh century. There are historians who gravely and learnedly assert that Adam made a will; that Noah also left one; and that Job likewise made testamentary disposition of his all. Roman wills were sealed, after they had been securely fastened and other precautions taken against forgery: the poet Horace explains how wills were drawn and secured, and Cicero also refers to the same subject. Anglo-Saxon wills were made in triplicate, and consigned to separate custodians. Tacitus records that wills were not recognized by the ancient Germans. In France, at an early date, the clergy were intrusted with the duty of looking after wills and the disposition of property under them. In England, wills were known before the Conquest, though subsequently, for a time, their use was forbidden by law.

The works of Barnabé Brisson, published in 1583 at Paris, are excellent sources for information on the subject of ancient wills. In fact, both in England and in France, authors of the highest learning and ability have done much for history and literature in the matter of collecting wills, ancient and modern.

Our form of testamentary disposition comes to us from the Roman law. In the present age, both in England and in the United States, a full and absolute disposition of property is permitted, subject to certain conditions, which are hereinafter noticed. That this general right to dispose of earthly possessions is exercised with many strange vagaries, and for objects showing many eccentricities, yet withal, in most cases, with much benevolence and generosity of nature, the following pages will fully attest. The disposition of property by will does not show that the good men do is “oft interred with their bones,” but rather that the world has yet a good conscience in benefactions, and that humanity broadens and grows kindlier with the years. It may be observed that the mean and hateful traits of human nature are more frequently shown by heirs and legatees than by testators. It is true that the “ruling passion strong in death” shows itself in wills, and many testators evince a strong desire to take with them to the next world the substance collected in their dusty lives; but the law has placed hindrances, and, as Pope says:

“The laws of God as well as of the land Forbid a perpetuity to stand.”

There are on file in the office of the Register of Wills in Washington City a number of wills of famous Americans; a copy of the will of Washington is there, as well as the wills of several other presidents; also, there are to be seen those of many statesmen and other eminent persons: likewise, in London, in the Registry of Wills, there are on file the original wills of great men, which the British nation has jealously guarded; all nations are interested in them, and they could not be allowed to perish. Those who desire it may in London see the will of the painter Vandyck, of Doctor Johnson, of Lord Nelson, of William Pitt, of Edmund Burke, of Izaak Walton, of the Duke of Wellington, and, greatest of all, that of William Shakespeare. The last, being of unusual interest, has been exceptionally treated, and the three folio pages of which it consists are placed under an air-tight frame made of polished oak and plate glass. The will of the Great Napoleon was to be seen for many years at old Doctors’ Commons, but it was restored to the French nation in compliance with the request of the Emperor Louis Napoleon.

A chapter with the title, “The Importance of the Last Will and Testament,” containing general suggestions as to the preparation of wills, has been introduced into this work, with the belief that it may prove useful to some readers; likewise a chapter on “Testamentary and Kindred Miscellany,” which embraces subjects closely akin to those under consideration, and which it is hoped may not prove uninteresting.

The collecting of interesting and unusual wills is by no means an easy undertaking: the information as to their location and contents, even those of famous men, is surprisingly limited; digesting and arranging them has been a tedious but interesting task. It will be seen by the collection submitted, that all avenues of information have been sought and critically examined. If some minor errors have crept in, the indulgence of the reader is asked for a work largely on original lines, and one which covers a wide field of investigation, research, and comparison.

Ancient, Curious, And Famous Wills

Chapter I

The Importance Of The Last Will And Testament

“To put off making your Will until the hand of death is upon you evinces either cowardice or a shameful neglect of your temporal concerns.”

It has been thought appropriate, within a brief space, to introduce into this work some general observations on the importance and preparation of wills. For that purpose, the following address, under the title given this chapter, recently delivered before the Missouri Bankers’ Association, has been selected. It will be seen that the subject-matter is general in character, and this monograph has been favorably received by the legal profession and the legal and financial journals of the United States.

“No doubt most of my audience will regard my subject a lifeless, if not a commonplace one. Yet it is of daily and vital importance to bankers and business men generally, and it is to be regretted that there exist so many inaccurate impressions regarding wills.

“The _North American Review_ in a recent editorial said, ‘The writing of a will is a serious and formal matter, and into one a man puts his deliberate and well-reflected intentions. This makes a will stupendously revealing, and to read one over is to come very close to the spirit of the man who wrote: to know his treasures, to understand his feeling toward men, and to measure his fitness for adventures among seraphic and angelic beings. The words a man desires to have read when he lies dumb, the gifts he leaves, the grace with which he gives, all these lay bare the spirit, the heart of disposition, as few other things can. For a will is that which is to live after one, and it is written knowing that no wound inflicted can be remedied, no neglect repaired. How egotism, or miserliness, or conceit, or self-satisfaction can shine out in a will! How little exalting it is in most cases to read wills, and how often they turn us back to the authoritative statement, that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle.’

“The power to dispose of property by a written will in the form known to us does not appear in any of the primitive systems of law, except in Egypt; yet testamentary dispositions in some form have come down to us from the earliest times. In the year 1902, the French government sent out a commission to make archæological investigations in Persia. At the city of Susa, they uncovered a stone on which was written the laws of Hammurabi, who reigned twenty-three hundred years before Christ, or one thousand years before Moses received the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai. This code was translated by Professor Robert Francis Harper, of the Chicago University, and furnishes one of the most remarkable and readable books which has ever come into my hands; it treats of the laws of money, banking, inheritance, weights and measures, divorce, dower, crimes, and, singularly enough, some of its provisions are present-day law. There is, however, no mention of wills.

“In fact, the will, as we know it, is a Roman invention. Free liberty of disposition by will is by no means universal at this time. Complete freedom in this respect is the exception rather than the rule. Homesteads generally, estates of dower and curtesy frequently, as well as other portions of an estate, are not the subject of devise or bequest.

“There never was a fitter application of Pope’s line, ‘A little learning is a dangerous thing,’ than in the preparation of wills; and it is a most astounding fact that men who have lived prudently, who have been conservative and successful in business, who have accumulated large wealth, who have been buffeted by every wave of misfortune, will attempt, by their own hands or through incompetent agents, to write their wills. It is always a hazardous undertaking, unless the instrument is of the simplest character. If one’s child is sick, a doctor is called; if a man’s roof is defective, a carpenter is sent for; if a horse throws a shoe, the animal goes to the blacksmith; yet, when it comes to the making of a will, perhaps the most solemn and consequential act of a man’s life, the testator takes his pen, and frequently without aid or counsel does that which experience and our court records fully demonstrate he is incompetent to do.

“Mr. Daniel S. Remsen, of New York, an author of high repute on the preparation of wills, says that fully fifty per cent of wills contain some obscurity or omission. With this statement I find myself in complete accord. I believe that nearly half the wills written are open to attack and a large portion of them fatally defective. I have never seen more than a dozen perfectly drawn wills, gauged by the standards of perfect clearness, precision and legality.

“As stated by Mr. Remsen, ‘A will is an ex-parte document and is written from one point of view; it is the expression of the wishes of the testator regarding the work of a lifetime; upon its legality depends the future happiness and welfare of the persons and objects most dear to the testator; and whether viewed from a property or a family standpoint, it is often the most important document a man of large or small means is ever called upon to prepare.’

“How many are there, in this audience of a thousand bankers, who can tell me the manner in which, under the laws of descent and distribution, is to be divided an estate consisting of five thousand dollars in cash, and real estate of the value of five thousand dollars, the testator leaving a wife and two children?

“Unfortunately the idea prevails that a will is a very simple instrument to prepare. Nothing in business life can be further from the truth; on the contrary, a will may be, and usually is, the most intricate of all legal documents. This is always true where there are gifts or devises depending upon contingencies, or where trusts are created. A deed or a contract may be changed; not so with a will, after the death of the maker. Therefore, foresight in its preparation is imperative.

“There is a well-marked legal distinction between the words, heirs, devisees, legatees, distributees, and legal representatives. Each of these terms has a clear and well-defined signification. One who has the preparation of wills must deal with the law against perpetuities. An estate cannot be tied up for a longer period than ‘a life or lives in being and twenty-one years thereafter.’ This is the general law of our country. The law of dower and curtesy is by no means simple. The law of vested and contingent remainders is a most intricate subject and requires years of legal study to comprehend, and cannot be simplified. The creation of life estates and trusts demands the most careful inquiry. There are spendthrift provisions which are easier to break than to prepare. The statute of uses cuts an important figure in testaments. The provisions with reference to the powers of executors and trustees are very comprehensive and must be framed with great care and precision. The subject of joint tenants, and tenants by the entirety, frequently requires the most profound consideration in the interpretation of wills.

“I recently saw a decision of one of our highest courts, where a testator gave a large sum of money by will to his wife ‘to hold, possess and enjoy during her natural life’; at her death, the fund was to go to a certain college. The widow promptly set about to ‘enjoy’ the fund by spending it; the court held, and properly, that she had a right to do so, and that the college got nothing. The will was improperly drawn. Had it been stated that she might ‘enjoy the income,’ a different result would have followed.

“A few months ago I saw a will in which an estate of one million dollars was disposed of: the testator under the will divided the estate into ten parts, but overlooked the disposition of one of these parts; the omitted part passed under the general laws of inheritance, doubtless contrary to the wishes of the testator.

“There came under my observation not long ago a will drawn in Michigan: the testator owned property in Michigan and also in Missouri and South Carolina. The will had but two witnesses; it was effective in Michigan and Missouri, but in South Carolina, where three witnesses are required, it was inoperative.

“Within the last few days, I examined the will of one of our most gifted and eloquent United States senators, now deceased; an ample provision for his wife was followed by this clause: ‘The acceptance by my wife of the provisions for her benefit, contained in this will, shall bar all claim by her for dower in any real estate heretofore or hereafter conveyed by me to any one.’ This attempted exclusion of the wife’s dower was well-nigh meaningless: his intent was to preclude her right of dower in any real estate owned by him at the time of his death; but he said ‘conveyed by me to any one’; all real estate possessed by him at the time of his death was subject to dower and not excluded, because it had not been conveyed.

“A will was lately presented to me where the testator left a large estate,--one-third to his wife, one-third to a son, and one-third to a grandson; the wife predeceased the testator. The question arose as to what became of the one-third given to the wife.

“Generally speaking, under a bequest or devise to a ‘child, grandchild or other relative,’ the property passes to the lineal descendants of these, in the event the legatee or devisee dies before the testator; but it is otherwise as to all other persons: as to them, the devise or gift lapses; even the children of stepchildren would not take under these conditions.

“It is said ‘a will has no brother,’ meaning that no two are alike. The general rules of construction are too numerous and complex for a discussion here. Technical words are presumed to be used in their technical sense, unless a clear intention to use them in another is apparent from the context. Our courts are always busy in an endeavor to ascertain the intentions of testators. The truth is, few men write accurately and precisely. The proper use and selection of words in the construction of wills is a very grave duty.

“A general outline of the framework of a will may be stated as follows:

“(_a_) A will should revoke all former wills; if this is not done, the last will may be taken in connection with others. If the testator is unmarried, he should state that fact. His statement does not make it true, but it may serve a very excellent purpose in thwarting the claims of designing persons.

“(_b_) There may be a provision for funeral expenses, and suggestions with regard to a burial place and a monument.

“(_c_) A provision for the payment of debts should be made, and the executor given full power to pay debts and to sell and convey any portion of the estate.

“(_d_) A provision should be made for bequests and legacies to relatives and friends, and for charitable purposes.

“(_e_) Suitable provisions for the wife and children should be made.

“(_f_) Adequate provisions should be inserted for trust features; these are operative only after the probate administration is ended, unless otherwise directed, and they should be full, definite and clear.

“(_g_) There should be a residuary clause which catches up and disposes of any portion of the estate not already disposed of, including lapsed legacies and devises.

“(_h_) The executor should be named.

“(_i_) The date and signature.

“(_j_) Finally, the attestation.

“To me it is incomprehensible that nine men out of ten who make their wills, seek to hamper and restrain the remarriage of their widows; neither the age of the husband nor of the wife seems to deter a testator in this direction: on the other hand, I have never seen but one such restriction in the will of a married woman; and this spirit of faith and trust, in a comparative view of the sexes, is, I believe, quite as marked in the daily walks of life, notwithstanding the lines of Saxe which run:

‘Men dying make their wills, but wives Escape a work so sad; Why should they make what all their lives, The gentle dames have had?’

“It may be said that a condition subsequent in general restraint of the marriage of a person who has never married, annexed to a gift, is contrary to public policy and void.

“A man should make his will when he is in a normal and healthy condition; it should be done timely and deliberately. A prominent legal writer says: ‘It is astounding how frequently from indolence, procrastination, or superstition, men will postpone this needful act until the last. Some, like old Euclio in Pope, with the ruling passion strong in death, cannot endure the thought of parting with their possessions, even post mortem, and die intestate. Few testators know their own minds, and a deathbed will is as sorry a substitute for a carefully prepared instrument, as a deathbed repentance is for a well-ordered life.’ A sick man or a very aged man, as a rule, is not in a condition to judge fairly of the affairs of human life. He is apt to be unconsciously influenced and misled, or even coerced. He may be diverted from the natural channels of affection, right and justice. Frequently the result is disastrous litigation, the breaking of domestic ties, and the exposure of family skeletons.

“Lord Coke said a long time ago, ‘Few men, pinched with the messengers of death, have a disposing memory.’ ‘Such a will, he adds, ‘is sometimes in haste and commonly by slender advice and is subject to so many questions in this eagle-eyed world. And it is some blemish or touch to a man well esteemed for his wisdom and discretion all his life, to leave a troubled estate behind him, amongst his wife, children or kindred, after his death.’

“A man may work out his religion from within and for himself, but when it comes to writing a will, the advice of a good, level-headed friend cannot be overestimated.

“The will, unlike other instruments, is usually not open to criticism, and in my opinion, the testator will act wisely, who takes into his confidence some trusted friend who has good judgment and just ideas, whether he be a lawyer or a layman: this would be a poor world indeed, if such were not to be found.

“Statistics show that out of every hundred persons dying in modern times, sixty-five per cent leave no estate at all, and this is true in the most prosperous and wealthy portions of the United States. Out of the hundred mentioned, about thirty-five leave estates, but less than ten per cent leave estates exceeding five thousand dollars.

“Gifts through wills to charitable, educational and kindred institutions, in recent years, have been larger than during any other period in the history of this country. In the year 1909 the value of such gifts exceeded a hundred million dollars, according to the best statistics obtainable; yet it is much to be regretted, that testators who have been blessed with fortunes, do not leave more to charitable and public uses. Very little, if any regret would be expressed by beneficiaries under wills, if testators would set aside a few hundred or a few thousand dollars for such objects: a fountain in one’s native town, a scholarship, a hospital, or a park or plot of ground where the aged might rest, children play, and birds sing. Such gifts show noble natures, and all communities are proud to remember and honor the donors.

“Although the laws of our States differ somewhat in the matter of descent and in the rules as to the construction and requirements of wills, it may be stated that it is not generally necessary to mention or provide for any other persons than children or their descendants.

“The French author, Balzac, regarded by many critics as one of the keenest observers of the impulses that actuate human life, has one of his characters, a lawyer, say: ‘There are in modern society three men who can never think well of the world, the priest, the doctor and the man of law; and they wear black robes, perhaps because they are in mourning for every virtue and every illusion; the most hapless of these is the lawyer; he sees the same evil feelings repeated again and again; nothing can correct them; our offices are sewers which can never be cleansed; I have known wills burned; I have seen mothers robbing their children; wives kill their husbands; I could not tell you all I have seen, for I have seen crimes against which justice is impotent. In short, all the horrors that romancers suppose they have invented are still below the truth.’

“Whether this conclusion is correct or not, the fact is, that the law seals the lips of the priest, the doctor and the lawyer. The human heart is never completely revealed; there is always a nook or a corner that is closed to the world. But the lawyer does know human nature; and, take it all in all, I do not believe there is any class of men more outspoken, and who do more in the long run to uphold our rights, our morals and our liberties, than lawyers. The lawyer will tell you to have your will written and to have it well written; he will tell you that human nature is strongly marked in wills; he will tell you that his profession knows no more complicated and perplexing a document to prepare than a will; he will tell you that wills are frequently destroyed by unauthorized hands; he will tell you that when a provision is made by will which gives less than that which is allowed by law, that that provision will be attacked; he will tell you that wills are filed in probate in nearly every instance before the dust has adjusted itself on the grave of the testator; he will tell you, if candid, that lawyers are, in a measure, responsible for poorly written wills.

“No lawyer should be asked to write a will cheaply or hastily; the testator who has no proper appreciation of this service, and who drives a bargain for ten dollars, for that which is worth a hundred or more, usually gets about what he pays for.

“In law, as in other professions, ability and experience are essential to perfect work; when you seek a lawyer to write your will, see that he has these qualifications.

“Witnesses to wills should never be interested in the instrument. If the testator is aged, the witnesses should be those well acquainted with him; in fact, this is always a good rule, whether the testator be old or young; this precaution may prevent much trouble and complication, and it has the sanction of our highest courts.

“There is a class of gifts to which I wish to call your attention, and I refer to gifts _causa mortis_. A gift _causa mortis_ is a gift of personal property by a person about to die and in view of death. If there is an actual or constructive delivery of the property, the gift is good, notwithstanding the law of wills. The gift, however, must be absolute and the giver must die of that sickness.

“In making provision for children in wills, the corpus or principal fund is not infrequently to be turned over to them on arriving at legal age. According to my observation, the age of thirty is much preferable. It is not possible for any young man or woman at the end of minority to be possessed of much wisdom with reference to the care of property. Worldly knowledge is not congenital, and we have high authority that ‘in youth and beauty, wisdom is but rare.’

“Even you and I, my friends, have picked up some business knowledge since we passed the line of twenty-one.

“I cannot too highly recommend trust provisions in wills, where it is sought to make allowances to children or others; the use of the income for a time or for life, instead of an absolute gift of the principal, has in many cases a most beneficial result. In the selection of an executor, my judgment is that it is better to have one than two, and unless that one is a corporation of high standing and ample capital, I would always require a bond. This works no hardship, for bonds are readily obtainable by reputable persons.

“A codicil is a supplemental will. Its object may be to explain, modify, add to or take from a will. It should be written with care and precision and its execution is attended with the same formalities as the will itself.

“A well known author on wills says:

“‘In short, a will may be a man’s monument or his folly. Prudence, therefore, demands that the testator plan wisely, and frame his testamentary provisions with great care. That is, he should, if possible, use such words that his plan shall not be misunderstood and shall be carried into effect without dispute or litigation, for unlike instruments between living persons, it is only after the testator is dead and cannot explain his meaning that his will can take effect, or be open to dispute.’

“I recommend that of each will there be made a copy; the original should be placed in one safe place, and the copy in another. This very much lessens the chance of its being destroyed or falling into bad hands.”

Chapter II

Ancient Wills

“For we brought nothing into the world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.”

Will Of Adam

The Mussulman claims that our forefather, Adam, left a will, and that seventy legions of angels brought him sheets of paper and quill pens, nicely nibbed, all the way from Paradise, and that the Archangel Gabriel set his seal as a witness.

It may be added, however, that the authenticity of this will has not been established.

Will Of Noah

It is claimed that Noah left a will, but of course this is an apocrypha. It is said that he divided his landed possessions, the globe, into three shares, one for each son. America was not included in this division for obvious reasons.

Will Of Job

There exists a very curious and ancient testament of Job, which was discovered and published by Cardinal Mai in 1839; it relates many details which we may look for in vain in the Canonical Book. In it Job’s faithful wife, when reduced to the utmost poverty, sold the hair of her head to procure bread for her husband.

Will Of Jacob

Jacob, the third of the Hebrew Patriarchs, died in Egypt at the age of 147, but was buried by his sons in the Cave of Machpelah at Hebron, in Palestine, the traditional burial place of the Prophets and other Biblical characters of their time.

It can be stated that the very earliest reference to an actual testamentary disposition is by the words of this Patriarch:

“And Israel said unto Joseph, Behold, I die; but God shall be with you and bring you again unto the land of your fathers.”

“Moreover, I have given to thee one portion above thy brethren, which I took out of the hand of the Amorite with my sword and with my bow.”

“And Jacob called unto his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days.”

In the 48th and 49th chapters of Genesis are these words of the dying Patriarch; and here is found not only the disposition of a “portion” to Joseph, but the character of each son is shown, the virtue or fault of each is described, to each a symbolic emblem is assigned, and to each a future is prophesied.

Here is a will, in fact, and in prophecy.

Will Of Telemachus

Homer cites this will, made in favor of Piræus, to whom Telemachus bequeaths all the presents that had been made to him by Menelaus, lest they fall into the hands of his enemies; but he adds, “In case I should slay _them_ and survive, you are then to restore them to me in my palace, a task as joyous to you to accomplish as to myself to profit by.” Perhaps, however, this may be objected to as proceeding from fabulous history. In Biblical tradition, however, we find very early evidence of oral bequests.

Will Of Eudamidas

To Lucian we are indebted for the noble, touching, and certainly eccentric will of Eudamidas of Corinth.

This philosophical individual, who was extremely poor, was on terms of close and intimate friendship--friendship in the full and true acceptation of the term--with Arethæus and Charixenes of Sycion. Finding himself on his deathbed, he made a will, which, while exciting only the ridicule of the thoughtless or the worldly-wise, calls for respect and admiration in the breasts of those who know the value of real cordiality, and can appreciate his simple confidence in its sincerity.

“I bequeath to Arethæus my mother to support; and I pray him to have a tender care of her declining years.

“I bequeath to Charixenes my daughter to marry, and to give her to that end the best portion he can afford.

“Should either happen to die I beg the other to undertake both charges.”

When this will, continues the narrator, was read in the public square (this being the accepted mode of proceeding at that time), all those who were aware of the poor circumstances of the testator, but were incapable of recognizing the ties which linked him to his friends, turned these unusual clauses into a joke; and there was not one who did not go away laughing and observing: “Arethæus and Charixenes will be lucky fellows if they accept their legacies, and he’s no fool to have made himself their heir, though he be dead and they living.”

But these honest legatees no sooner learned what was expected of them by their deceased friend than they hastened to put his wishes into execution.

Charixenes, however, only survived Eudamidas five days; and then Arethæus, acting in exact conformity with the will he had undertaken to execute, assumed the share bequeathed to his co-executor. He supported the mother of Eudamidas; and in due time found a suitable husband for his daughter. Of five talents of which his fortune consisted, he gave her two, and two others to his own daughter, and celebrated the two marriages on the same day.

The Oldest Written Will

William Matthew Flinders Petrie, the famous English Egyptologist, unearthed not many years ago at Kahun a will which was forty-five hundred years old; there seems no reason to question either the authenticity or antiquity of the document. The will therefore antedates all other known written wills by nearly two thousand years. That excellent authority, the _Irish Law Times_, speaks of the will so entertainingly that its comments are here reproduced:

“The document is so curiously modern in form that it might almost be granted probate to-day. But, in any case, it may be assumed that it marks one of the earliest epochs of legal history, and curiously illustrates the continuity of legal methods. The value, socially, legally and historically, of a will that dates back to patriarchal times is evident.

“It consists of a settlement made by one Sekhenren in the year 44, second month of Pert, day 19,--that is, it is estimated, the 44th of Amenemhat III., or 2550 B.C., in favor of his brother, a priest of Osiris, of all his property and goods; and of another document, which bears date from the time of Amenemhat IV., or 2548 B.C. This latter instrument is, in form, nothing more nor less than a will, by which, in phraseology that might well be used to-day, the testator settles upon his wife, Teta, all the property given him by his brother, for life, but forbids in categorical terms to pull down the houses ‘which my brother built for me,’ although it empowers her to give them to any of her children that she pleases. A ‘lieutenant’ Siou is to act as guardian of the infant children.

“This remarkable instrument is witnessed by two scribes, with an attestation clause that might almost have been drafted yesterday. The papyrus is a valuable contribution to the study of ancient law, and shows, with a graphic realism, what a pitch of civilization the ancient Egyptians had reached,--at least from a lawyer’s point of view. It has hitherto been believed that, in the infancy of the human race, wills were practically unknown. There probably never was a time when testaments, in some form or other, did not exist; but, in the earliest ages, it has so far been assumed that they were never written, but were nuncupatory, or delivered orally, probably at the deathbed of the testator. Among the Hindus to this day the law of succession hinges upon the due solemnization of fixed ceremonies at the dead man’s funeral, not upon any written will. And it is because early wills were verbal only that their history is so obscure. It has been asserted that among the barbarian races the bare conception of a will was unknown; that we must search for the infancy of testamentary dispositions in the early Roman law. Indeed, until the ecclesiastical power assumed the prerogative of intervening at every break in the succession of the family, wills did not come into vogue in the West. But Mr. Petrie’s papyrus seems to show that the system of settlement or disposition by deed or will was long antecedently practised in the East.”

Will Of Sennacherib

(681 B.C.)

The will of the Assyrian monarch is the next earliest written will which can be cited. It was found in the royal library of Konyunjik, where we read that to his favorite son, Esarhaddon, not being yet heir-presumptive, he bequeaths “certain bracelets, coronets, and other precious objects of gold, ivory, and precious stones, deposited for safe-keeping in the temple of Nebo.”

Sennacherib was assassinated in the year 681 B.C. by two of his sons; he was succeeded by Esarhaddon.

The Will Of Plato

(348 B.C.)

We give this will, handed down to us by Diogenes Laertius, being of interest, not from anything it contains, but curious, whether from its antiquity or as an illustration of the very simple form employed by the Greeks three hundred and fifty years before the Christian era. Of its intrinsic value as coming from the mind and the hand of Plato we need say nothing.

“These things hath Plato left and bequeathed: The farm of Hephæstiades bounded, etc. It is forbidden to sell or alienate it; but it shall belong to my son Adimantes, who shall enjoy the sole proprietorship thereof. I give him likewise the farm of Hereusiades, situated, etc. It is the one I acquired by purchase.

“Further, I give to my son Adimantes, three mines in cash, a silver vase weighing one hundred and sixty-five drachmæ, a cup of the same metal weighing sixty-five, a ring and pendant in gold weighing together four drachmæ, with three mines due to me from Euclid the gem-engraver.

“I free from slavery, Diana; but for Tychon, Bietas, Dionysius, and Apolloniades, I will they continue the slaves of my son Adimantes, to whom I bequeath also all my chattels as specified in an inventory held and possessed by Demetrius.

“I have no debts; and I appoint as executors and administrators of these bequests Speusippus, Demetrius, Hegias, Eurymedon, Callimachus, and Thrasippus.”

Such is the will of the grand old philosopher; and we may suppose that by those simpler minds, even the date was considered unnecessary, as we find none appended to this document.

Will Of Aristotle

(322 B.C.)

The will of this famous Peripatetic philosopher is like that of Plato, more remarkable for its antiquity and the interest attaching to the testator than for its contents. He was sixty-eight years of age at the time of his death, and according to his biographer, Timotheus of Athens, he cannot have been very attractive in his personal appearance. He had small eyes, a cracked voice, and thin limbs; but he was always well dressed and wore rings on his fingers; we are also told that he shaved his chin. The document in question begins thus:

“Greeting. Aristotle disposes as follows of what belongs to him. In case death should surprise me, Antipater will undertake to execute generally my last wishes and is to have the administration of everything.

“Until Nicanor can take the management of my affairs, Aristomenes, Timarchas, Hipparchus, and Theophrastus will, with his consent, assist him to take care of my property, as much on behalf of my children, as on behalf of Herpylis. As soon as my daughter shall be marriageable she is to be given Nicanor; and in case, which I do not think likely, she should die before her marriage or before she has children, Nicanor is to inherit all that I possess, and to dispose of my slaves and all the rest as he pleases.

“Nicanor will then take charge of my son Nicomachus, and of my daughter, so that they may want nothing; and he will act towards them as a father and a brother.

“Should Nicanor die before marrying my daughter, or having married her should he leave no children, he must decide what is to be done after his death.

“If, then, Theophrastus should wish to take my daughter to his home, he will enter into all the rights I give to Nicanor; or if not, the curators will dispose of my children as they shall consider for the best.

“I recommend to their guardians, and to Nicanor, to remember for my sake the affection Herpylis has always borne me, taking care of me and of my affairs. If after my death she should wish to marry, they will see that she does not marry any one below my condition. In that case, besides the presents she has already received, she is to have a talent of silver, three slaves besides the one she has, and the youth Pyrrhæus. If she wishes to live at Calchis, she can have the suite of rooms communicating with the garden; if at Stagyra, she can occupy the house of my fathers, and the curators will suitably furnish whichever of these residences she may select.

“Nicanor will take care that Myrex is sent back to his parents in a respectable and suitable way, with all that I have belonging to him.

“I give Ambracis her liberty, and assign to her, as a marriage portion, 500 drachmæ or five mines and a slave.

“I bequeath to Thala, besides the bought slave she has, a young female slave and 1000 drachmæ.

“As regards Simo, besides the money already given him to buy another slave, let one more be bought for him or let him have the value in money.

“Tacho is to have his freedom when my daughter marries. Philo, and Olympias with his son, shall also be made free at the same period. The children of my slaves shall pass into the service of my heirs, and, when they become adults, they shall be freed if they have deserved it.

“Let the statues I have ordered be finished and placed as I have instructed Gryllo, viz. those of Nicanor, Proxenes, and the mother of Nicanor; also that of Arimnestes to serve as a monument for him as he left no children.

“Also let the Ceres, belonging to my mother, be placed in the Nemea. Let the bones of my wife, Pythias, be placed in my tomb, even as she desired. I further wish the four stone animals, promised by me as votive offerings for the preservation of Nicanor, to be placed at Stagyra to Jupiter and Minerva. They are to be four cubits high.”

Will Of Virgil

(10 B.C.)

A singular trait in the character of this great poet was that which appeared by the clause in his will which ordered the Æneid to be burnt: “Ut rem emendatam imperfectamque.” Tucca and Varus, however, his executors and friends, and, we may add also, the friends of literature and of the civilized world, assured him Augustus would never consent to this barbarous behest. On this he bequeathed to them his Mss., but on the express condition that if he should die before he had time to revise and finish them, and they should think proper to publish them, they should change nothing and should leave the imperfect and incomplete verses just as they were.

He ordered his body to be “carried to Naples, and there interred near the road to Puzzuoli, by the second milestone.” The epitaph which was engraved on it was written by himself:

Mantua me genuit, Calabri rapuere, tenet nunc Parthenope: cecini pascua, rura, duces.

He divided his property, which was considerable, between Valerius Proculus, his half-brother, to whom he left half; Augustus, to whom he gave a quarter; Mecænas, who got a twelfth; and the rest to Varus.

Will Of Augustus

(13 A.D.)

Augustus Cæsar made his will under the consulate of Silius and Plancus in the year A.D. 13, and one year and four months before his death.

It is much to be regretted that this important and interesting document should not have reached our times in its entirety; nevertheless, by collating the passages relating to it by several historians, we arrive at a considerable portion of it.

When Augustus had made his will, he deposited it, according to custom and the example of his uncle Julius Cæsar, in the sacred Temple of Vesta, under the care of the most ancient of the priestesses. The act was in two parts, and was written, partly by his own hand and partly under dictation to his two freedmen, Polybius and Hilarion. It was accompanied by four other portions sealed with the same seal.

As soon as Augustus was dead, Tiberius commanded that the first day of the meeting of the Senate should be consecrated to his memory; whereon the Vestals solemnly brought the will and the four appendices belonging to it, which were opened, and they then proceeded to the verification of the will; then Polybius, the freedman before mentioned, was charged to read it aloud.

The first lines were thus conceived:

“Since Heaven has taken from me my two grandchildren, Caïus and Lucilius, I declare Tiberius my successor, and I transmit to him all my rights....”

He then passes to the disposal of his goods; he appoints as his heirs the above-named Tiberius and Livia, the former to receive two-thirds, the latter one-third; he then desires they should bear his name, or rather, as says Tacitus, he desires Livia to assume the title of Augusta.

In case of the death of Tiberius and Livia he replaces them by appointing one-third to Drusus, son of Tiberius, and the rest to Germanicus and his three sons.

In short, he substitutes to these, as a third arrangement, his relatives; that is to say, his grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and they defaulting, his friends, _amicos complures_.

He leaves “to the Roman people,” _quadringentos sestertium_.

Item: to the Latin tribes, _tricies quinquies sestertium_.

Item: to the soldiers of his body-guards, per head, _i.e._ to each pretorian soldier, _millia nummorum_.

Item: to those of the municipal guard, the urban cohorts, _quingenos nummos_.

Item: to the soldiers of the legion, _trecentos nummos_.

But he orders all these military legacies to be paid at once, having taken the precaution to put by the sums required for this object.

As to the other legacies to different private individuals, and of which the majority of the amounts exceeded twenty sesterces, he allows a period of a year after his death for the payment of them, and he excuses himself for their smallness on the plea of the moderate amount of his fortune.

“I leave, in all, to my heirs, no more than one hundred and fifty million sesterces, although I have received by testamentary donations more than five milliards of sesterces, but I have employed the whole of this in the service of the State, as well as my two paternal patrimonies (that of Caïus Octavius, his own father, and that of Julius Cæsar, his adoptive father), and my other family inheritances.”

By another clause of his testament Augustus leaves a small legacy to his daughter Julia, but he does not recall her from exile; he even forbids that her ashes, and those of the second Julia, his granddaughter, as debauched as her mother, should be placed in the tomb of the Cæsars.

Augustus also ordered that if there were any children living of those who had left him their money, such money should be restored to those children, but only on their attaining their majority, and together with the arrears of revenue; and he was accustomed to say that a father of a family only deprived his children of the inheritance they were entitled to when the prince was a tyrant.

When the Senate had verified and confirmed this will by a _senatus consultum_, they presented to the conscript-fathers the four rolls above mentioned; they were partly written by the emperor’s own hand. It was Drusus who made the Senate acquainted with their contents.

In the first, Augustus prescribed the order that was to be observed at his interment.

The second was a journal of his most memorable actions, destined to be engraved on bronze and placed on the façade of his mausoleum. An ancient marble, found in the excavations of the city of Ancyra in the sixteenth century, has preserved to us a portion of this journal; and this monument, mutilated as it is, becomes precious from the certainty it gives us as to the dates of certain events in the history of Augustus.

The third contained a statement of the forces of the empire, of the troops then constituting the standing army, of the sums contained in the public treasury and in that of the emperor, of the tributes and imposts still due, and of the expenses required in times of peace and in times of war.

The fourth was a collection of instructions, addressed equally to Tiberius and to the republic, to maintain both the splendor and the tranquillity of the empire. Among other counsels he advised them to choose only wise, discreet, and virtuous men for the administration of every department of the state; he added at the same time that it was dangerous to confide to any single individual the entire authority, for then it might be feared that the power of the monarch might degenerate into tyranny, and that its ruin might involve that of the state and precipitate the Romans into irretrievable misfortunes. He recommended, above all, to those who should follow him in the cares of the government, not to preoccupy themselves about extending the limits of the empire by new conquests, but rather to apply themselves to the maintenance and good government of what they already held.

The remainder of these councils was simply the summary of the policy he had himself pursued during his reign.

These books as well as his will were approved and indorsed by the Senate. They then decreed him a costly and magnificent funeral; his corpse, or rather its image in wax, was laid upon an ivory bed, incrusted with massive gold and draped with a tissue of purple silk woven with gold; the procession, of the same extent as a triumphal progress, traversed the streets of Rome with great pomp. It halted twice; on the first occasion Drusus pronounced the funeral oration over the body; on the second Tiberius spoke another, which has been preserved, and may be considered a model of eloquence.

When the procession arrived at the Campus Martius the body was enclosed in a bier, and placed on a funeral pile to which the centurions set fire; while the clouds of smoke and flame were ascending to the sky an eagle suddenly appeared in the midst of them and took its flight to heaven, in the midst of the acclamations of the assembled people, who declared that the bird sacred to Jupiter was carrying the emperor’s soul aloft to the bosom of the king of the gods.

Will Of A Pig

This is a very ancient document. Mr. S. Baring-Gould in his unique work “Curiosities of Olden Times,” says of it:

“S. Jerome speaks of it, saying, that in his time (fourth century) children were wont to sing it at school amidst shouts of laughter. Alexander Brassicanus, who died in 1539, was the first to publish it. He found it in a Ms. at Mayence. Later, G. Fabricius gave a corrected edition of it from another Ms. found at Memel and since then it has been in the hands of the learned.”

With slight modifications, the will runs as follows:

“I, M. Grunnius Corcotta Porcellus, have made my testament, which, as I can’t write myself, I have dictated.”

Says Magirus, the cook: “Come along, thou who turnest the house topsy-turvy, spoiler of the pavement, O fugitive Porcellus! I am resolved to slaughter thee to-day.”

Says Corcotta Porcellus: “If ever I have done thee any wrong, if I have sinned in any way, if I have smashed any wee pots with my feet, O Master Cook, grant pardon to thy suppliant!”

Says the cook Magirus: “Halloo, boy! go bring me a carving-knife out of the kitchen, that I may make a bloody Porcellus of him.”

Porcellus is caught by the servants, and brought out to execution on the xvi before the Lucernine Kalends, just when young colewort sprouts are in plenty, Clybaratus and Piperatus being Consuls.

Now when he saw that he was about to die, he begged hard of the cook an hour’s grace, just to write his will. He called together his relations, that he might leave them some of his victuals; and he said:

“I will and bequeath to my papa, Verrinus Lardinus, 30 bush. of acorns.

“I will and bequeath to my mamma, Veturina Scrofa, 40 bush. of Laconian corn.

“I will and bequeath to my sister, Quirona, at whose nuptials I may not be present, 30 bush. of barley.

“Of my mortal remains, I will and bequeath my bristles to the cobblers, my teeth to squabblers, my ears to the deaf, my tongue to lawyers and chatterboxes, my entrails to tripemen, my hams to gluttons, my stomach to little boys, my tail to little girls, my muscles to effeminate parties, my heels to runners and hunters, my claws to thieves; and, to a certain cook, whom I won’t mention by name, I bequeath the cord and stick which I brought with me from my oak grove to the sty, in hopes that he may take the cord and hang himself with it.

“I will that a monument be erected to me, inscribed with this, in golden letters:

“M. GRUNNIUS CORCOTTA PORCELLUS, who lived 999 years,--six months more, and he would have been 1000 years old.

“Friends dear to me whilst I lived, I pray you to have a kindness towards my body, and embalm it well with good condiments, such as almonds, pepper and honey, that my name may be named through ages to come.

“O my masters and my comrades, who have assisted at the drawing up of this testament, order it to be signed.

(Signed) LUCANICUS. PERGILLUS. MYSTIALICUS. CELSANUS. LARDIO. OFFELLICUS. CYMATUS.”

Wills Of The Earl Of Mellent And Others

(1118)

Robert, the famous Earl of Mellent and Leicester, one of the early crusaders in the Holy Land, died in 1118, in the abbey of Preaux, where his body was buried; but his heart, by his own order, was conveyed to the hospital at Brackley, to be there preserved in salt. Isabella, daughter of William E. Marshall, Earl of Pembroke, who died at Berkhampstead in 1239, ordered her heart to be sent in a silver cup to her brother, then Abbot of Tewkesbury, to be there buried before the high altar. The heart of John Baliol, Lord of Barnard Castle, who died in 1269, was, by his widow’s desire, enclosed in an ivory casket, richly enamelled with silver. There are many bequests of hearts on record other than the above.

Will Of Saladin

(1193)

Interesting to record is the last will and testament of the celebrated Saladin, born in 1136; he died in 1193, after filling the two continents of Europe and Asia with his fame.

Sultan of Egypt, he conquered Syria, Arabia, Persia, Mesopotamia, and took possession of Jerusalem in 1187. His conquests suffice to enable us to judge of the extent of his power and wealth; at his death, however, he showed that no one was more intimately convinced of the utter hollowness of the riches and greatness of the world and the vanity of its disputes.

He ordered, by his will, first, that considerable sums should be distributed to Mussulmans, Jews, and Christians, in order that the priests of the three religions might implore the mercy of God for him; next he commanded that the shirt or tunic he should be wearing at the time of his death should be carried on the end of a spear throughout the whole camp, and at the head of his army, and that the soldier who bore it should pause at intervals and say aloud, “Behold all that remains of the Emperor Saladin! Of all the states he had conquered; of all the provinces he had subdued; of the boundless treasures he had amassed; of the countless wealth he possessed, he retained in dying, nothing but this shroud!” To this we may add:

“ ... Behold his origin and end! Milk and a swathe at first, his whole demand; His whole domain, at last, a turf or stone, To whom, between, a world had seemed too small.”

Will Of William De Beauchamp

(1268)

“Will of William de Beauchamp, dated at Wauberge, upon the morrow after the Epiphany, anno 1268, 53 Henry III. My body to be buried in the Church of the Friars-Minors at Worcester. I Will that a horse, completely harnessed with all military caparisons, precede my corpse; to a priest to sing mass daily in my Chapel without the city of Worcester, near unto that house of Friars which I gave for the health of my soul, and for the souls of Isabel my wife, Isabel de Mortimer, and all the faithful deceased, all my rent of the fee of Richard Bruli, in Wiche and Winchester, with supply of what should be too short out of my own proper goods; to Walter, my son, signed with the cross, for a pilgrimage to the Holy Land on my behalf and of Isabel, his mother, two hundred marks; to Joane, my daughter, a canopy, some time belonging to St. Wolstan, and a book of Lancelot, which I have lent them; to Isabel, my daughter, a silver cup; to Sibill, my daughter, all the money due to me from my son William, towards her marriage, and XL marks more, with the land which I bought in Britlamton, to enjoy it until she be married, and no longer; to Sarah, my daughter, one hundred marks for her marriage; to William, my eldest son, the cup and horns of St. Hugh; to my daughter the Countess, his wife, a ring with a ruby in it; to Sir Roger de Mortimer and Sir Bartholomew de Suley a ring each; to the Friars-Minors of Worcester forty shillings; to the Friars-Minors of Gloucester one mark; to the Friars-Carmelites there one mark; to the Hospital of St. Wolstan at Worcester one mark; to the Hospital of St. Oswald there ten shillings; to the Canons of Doddeford one mark; to the Church and Nuns of Cokehill x marks; to Isabel, my wife, ten marks; to the Church and Nuns of Westwood one mark; to the Church and Nuns without Worcester one mark; to every Anchorite in Worcester and the parts adjacent four shillings; to the Church of Salewarp, a house and garden near the parsonage, to find a lamp to burn continually therein to the honor of God, the Blessed Virgin, St. Katherine, and Saint Margaret; and I appoint my eldest son William Earl of Warwick, Sir Roger Mortimer, Sir Bartholomew de Sudley, and the Abbots of Evesham and of Great Malverne, my executors.”

Will Of William De Beauchamp, Earl Of Warwick

(1296)

“Will of William De Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, dated Holy Rood Day, 1296, 25 Edward I. being in perfect health. My body to be buried in the quire of the Friars-Minors, commonly called the Gray-friars at Worcester, if I die within the compass of the four English Seas; otherwise, then in the house of the Friars-Minors nearest to the place in which I may happen to die, and my heart to be buried wheresoever the Countess, my dear consort, may herself resolve to be interred; to the place where I may be buried two great horses, viz., those to the which shall carry my armour at my funeral, for the solemnizing of which I bequeath two hundred pounds; to the maintenance of two soldiers in the Holy Land, one hundred pounds; to Maud my wife, all my silver vessels, _with the cross, wherein is contained part of the wood of the very cross whereon our Saviour died_; likewise the vestments of my Chapel, to make use of during her life; but afterwards the best suit to belong to Guy, my eldest son; the second best to my Chapel of Hanslape; and the third best to my Chapel at Hanley; to Guy, my son, a gold ring with a ruby in it, together with my blesing; to my said wife a cup, which the Bishop of Worcester gave me, and all my other cups, with my lesser sort of jewels and rings, to distribute for the health of my soul, where she may think best; to my two daughters, nuns at Shouldham, fifty marks.”

Will Of Edward I

(1307)

This will seems entitled to find a place among those which may be regarded as abnormal, and when we come to the record of it in the simple and _naïf_ style of that matchless old chronicler Froissard, we are irresistibly tempted to make a transcript of the few lines which in describing it carry us back to the days of that turbulent and brilliant monarch.

“Le bon roy,” he writes, “trépassa en la cité de Warvich. Et quend il mourut il fit appeler son aisné fils (Edouard II. qui après luy fust roy) pardeuant ses barons, et luy fit iurer sur les saincts, qu’aussitost qu’il seroit trespassé il le feroit bouilleir dans une chaudière, tant que la chair se departiroit des os: et après ferait mettre la chair en terre et garderoit les os: et toutes les fois que les Escoçois de rebelleroient contre luy, il semondroit ses gens et porteroit avesques luy les os de son père. Car il tenoit fermement que tant qu’il auroit ses os avesques luy les Escoçois n’auraient poinct de victoire contre luy. Lequel n’accomplit mie ce qu’il auait iuré: ains fit rapporter son père à Londres et là enseuelir; dont luy meschent.”

Will Of Guy De Beauchamp, Earl Of Warwick

(1315)

“Will of Guy de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, dated at Warwick Castle, Monday next after the Feast of St. James the Apostle, 1315. My body to be buried in the Abbey of Bordsley, without any funeral pomp; to Alice, my wife, a proportion of plate, with a crystal cup and half my bedding, and also all the vestments and books belonging to my Chapel; the other half of my beds, rings, and jewels, I bequeath to my two daughters; to Maud, my daughter, a crystal cup; to Elizabeth, my daughter, the marriage of Astley’s heir; to Thomas, my son, my best coat of mail, helmet, and suit of harness, with all that belongs thereto; to John, my son, my second coat of mail, helmet, and harness; and I Will that all the rest of my armour, bows, and other warlike implements, shall remain in Warwick Castle for my heir.”

Dukes Of Lancaster

(1360)

Henry, Duke of Lancaster, who died in 1360, thus begins the second clause of his will: “Item: we will _that our body be not buried_ for three weeks after the departure of our soul.”

(1399)

John, Duke of Lancaster, better known as John of Gaunt, directs as follows in his will: “If I die out of London I desire that, the night my body arrives there, it be carried direct to the Friars Carmelites, in Fleet Street, and the next day be taken straight to St. Paul’s, and _that it be not buried for forty days_, during which I charge my executors that there be no embalming of my corpse.”

Will Of Sir Robert Launde

(1367)

“Will of Sir Robert Launde, alias Atte Launde, Knt., Citizen of London, on our Lady’s Eve, 1367. My body to be buried in the quire of St. Mary’s, of the Charterhouse in London; to Christian, my wife; to Ada Launde, my mother; to Robert Watfield, late my servant, c _l._; to Rose Pomfret, my sister, of Berdfield, CXL _l._; to Richard, her son, and William, her brother; to Margaret Biernes, their sister; to Margaret, her sister, married to Aksted; to Agnes, my niece, at Hallewell; to the high altar of Hempsted, in Essex; to the poor there, by gift of Robert Watfield; to Joane Launde, of Cambridgeshire; to my noble Lady the Countess of Norfolk; to John Southcot, to find him at school; to the building of the cross in Cheapside; and I appoint Sir John Philpot, Knt., overseer of this my Will.”

Will Of Lady Joan De Cobham

(1369)

“Will of Joan De Cobham, of Starburghe. August 13, 1369. My body to be buried in the church-yard of St. Mary Overhere, in Southwark, before the church door, where the image of the blessed Virgin sitteth on high over that door: and I Will that a plain marble stone be laid over my body.

“I Will that VII thousand masses be said for my soul by the Canons of Tunbrugge and Tanfugge, and the four Orders of Friars in London, viz., the Friars-Preachers, Minors, Augustines, and Carmelites, who for so doing shall have xxix _l._ iii _s._ iv _d._ Also I Will that on my funeral day twelve poor persons, clothed in black gowns and hoods, shall carry twelve torches; I bequeath to the Church of Lyngefeld a frontore with the arms of Berkeley and Cobham standing on white and purple; to Reginald, my son, a ring with a diamond; to Sir Henry Grey and Dame Joan, his wife, and to that Joane my daughter; to Joane, daughter to that Joane. I Will that my house in Southwark be sold to pay my Lord’s debts, and to found prayers in the parish church of Langele-Borell for the souls of Sir John de la Mare, Knt., some time lord there, Sir Reginald Cobham, Sir Thomas Berkeley, and for the souls of my benefactors. If Reginald, my son, or any other of my heirs, shall appropriate that church for the maintenance of two priests to celebrate divine service there for ever, as it was intended and conditioned by the said Sir John de la Mare when he sold that lordship of Langele, with that of Lye, to my husband, in the presence of the Lord Berkeley, my father, then I Will that my Executors shall enfeoffe the said Reginald, or his heirs, in my water-mill at Edulme Bridge, and in my house at Southwark, for ever; to Sir John Cobham; to John de Cobham, of Devonshire.”

The Will Of Petrarch

(1370)

To the cultivated reader everything relating to a man who may be considered the phenomenon of his age must be interesting. The document we subjoin is especially valuable as supplying the key to a mind which has drawn to itself our warmest sympathies, and whose written thoughts are among the most attaching bequests of poetry.

The will of the poet-philosopher of Vaucluse is dated “pridiè nonas Aprilis, 1370,” four years before his death, when he was sixty-six years of age, having been born at Arezzo, 20th of July, 1304.

He prefaces it with moral reflections on the certainty of death, but the uncertainty of its summons, and the necessity of putting one’s affairs in order. He then proceeds to state that what he possesses is of so little value that he is in some sort ashamed to make a will; “sed,” adds he, “divitum atque inopium curæ, de rebus licet imparibus, pares sunt.”

After recommending his soul to Jesus Christ and imploring the succor of Mary, of St. Michael, and all the Saints, he orders very expressly that he may be buried without any sort of pomp,--“absque omni pompa et cum summa humilitate et abjectione, quanta esse potest, ...” and renders his heir and his friends responsible for the execution of this clause. He claims no tears, as useless to the departed, but begs the prayers of the survivors, of which he has need.

Not knowing where he may be at the time of his death, he designates in different cities the spot he would choose for his burial, naming Padua, Venice, Milan, Rome, and Parma, and leaves a legacy of 200 gold ducats to the church at Padua, and 20 to the church in which he shall be interred.

Among special bequests is one to the Governor of Padua, of a very fine picture of the Virgin Mary--“opus Joctii, pictoris egregii”--which had sent been him from Florence by his friend Michael Navis. “In beholding this painting,” he says, “pulchritudinem ignorantes, non intelligunt; magistri autem, artis, stupent.”

He desires that all the horses he may possess at the time of his decease may be divided between his two friends, Bonzanello and Lorbardo, and acknowledges a debt to the latter of 334 gold ducats and 16 sous, which he nevertheless hopes to pay before his death.

He bequeaths to the same Lorbardo his small round goblet of silver-gilt that he may drink as much water as he likes, knowing that he prefers water to wine.

To the Sacristan, Giovanni Bocheta, he gives his large breviary, which cost him 100 livres at Venice; but desires that after the death of the Sacristan the volume may be deposited in the sacristy of the church for the use of all priests attached to that church and who will pray for him to God and the Virgin Mary.

He leaves to Giovanni di Certaldo, otherwise Boccaccio,--(_verecundi admodùm tanto viro, tam modicum_, says he),--200 gold florins of Florence, to purchase him a winter robe suitable for his studious vigils. The words “_tanto viro_” are significant of the great esteem in which he held the genius of Boccaccio.

To Tomaso Bambasia, of Ferrara, he leaves his lute, which he describes as “good”--_leutum meum bonum_--but for singing the praises of the Lord, and by no means _pro vanitate seculi fugacis_.

To Johannes _de Horologio_--to whom he gives the title of “_physicum_”--he bequeaths 50 gold ducats to buy a ring which he will wear on his finger in memory of the testator.

As for his servants, he gives first to Bartolomeo di Siena, surnamed Pancaldus, a sum of 20 ducats, but on condition that he will not gamble with it. To Litius, he gives the same, etc.

In fine, he institutes as his heir and residuary legatee, Francesco di Borsano, residing at Milan. He names “a small property he has near Vaucluse” of which he desires to make a hospital for the poor, and if this could not be done he devises it to the son of Raymond de Clermont, surnamed Moneto. There are other unimportant clauses, after which comes the date, signature, and names of witnesses; he adds to it, however, a request to his heir to write as soon as possible after his death to his brother--a Carthusian in a convent at Marseilles (_in conventu de Materino_)--and to propose to either pay down to him a sum of 100 gold florins or an annuity of ten, as he might please. The whole terminates with these words: _Ego Franciscus Petrarca scripsi, qui testamentum aliud fecissem, si essem dives, ut vulgus insanum putat_.

Curious and suggestive as is this relic, the illustrious reformer of philosophy, eloquence, poetry, and--shall we not even add--of love, has left a yet more engaging clew to his grand character, not only in his simple and almost _naïf_ “Epistle to Posterity,” but in a third paper consisting of the private memorandum written in the fly-leaf of his Virgil, evidently the outpouring of his heart and intended for no human eye. The concluding lines are touching in the extreme. What, indeed, can be more sublime than the lifelong devotedness of such a soul as Petrarch’s to the noblest and most beautiful, because the most disinterested, of sentiments--an all-absorbing and unaltered, yet pure and passionless, affection, and though surviving its object, losing none of its intensity!

“ ... This loss,” he says, writing of the death of Laura, “always present to my memory, will continually remind me that there is no state here below worthy to be called happy, and that it is time I should renounce the world since the dearest tie that linked me to it is snapped. I hope, by the help of Heaven, this resignation may become possible. My mind, in reverting to the past, will find that the solicitudes which occupied it were vain; the hope it cherished delusive; that the plans it formed were never to be realized, and could only lead to disappointment and distress.”

Petrarch was found dead in his library, his head resting on an open book, on the 18th July, 1374. He was within two days of seventy.

Will Of Sir Walter Manney

(1371)

“Will of Sir Walter, Lord of Manney, Knight, London, St. Andrew’s Day, 1371. My body to be buried at God’s pleasure, but if it may be in the midst of the Quire of the Carthusians, called Our Lady, near West Smithfield, in the suburbs of London, of my foundation, but without any great pomp; and I Will that my Executors cause twenty masses to be said for my soul, and that every poor person coming to my funeral shall have a penny, to pray for me and the remission of my sins; to Mary, my sister a nun, x pounds; to my two bastard daughters, nuns, viz., to Mialosel and Malplesant, the one cc franks, the other c franks; to Cishbert, my cousin; to Margaret Mareschall, my dear wife, my plate which I bought of Robert Francis; also a girdle of gold, and a hook for a mantle, and likewise a garter of gold, with all my girdles and knives, all my beds and dossers in my wardrobe, excepting my folding bed, paly of blue and red, which I bequeath to my daughter of Pembroke; and I Will also that my said wife have all the goods which I purchased of Lord Segrave and the Countess Marshal. Also I Will that a tomb of alabaster, with my image as a knight, and my arms thereon, shall be made for me, like unto that of Sir John Beauchamp in Paul’s, in London. I Will that prayers be said for me, and for Alice de Henalt, Countess Marshal. And whereas the King oweth me an old debt of a thousand pounds, by bills of his wardrobe, I Will that, if it can be obtained, it shall be given to the Prior and Monks of the Charter-house. And whereas there is due to me from the Prince, from the time he had been Prince of Wales, the sum of c marks per annum, for my salary as Governor of Hardelagh Castle, I bequeath one half thereof to the said Prior and Monks of the Charter-house before mentioned, and the other half to the executors of my Will. To my wife, and my daughter Pembroke, fifteen M florins of gold, and five ‘vesseux estutes ph,’ which Duke Albert oweth me by obligation; to Sir Guy Bryan, Knt., my best chains, whom I also appoint my Executor.”

Will Of Edward, Prince Of Wales

(1376)

“In the name, &c., We, Edward, eldest son of the King of England and France, Prince of Wales, Duke of Cornwall, and Earl of Chester, the 7th June, 1376, in our apartment in the Palace of our Lord and Father the King at Westminster, being of good and sound memory, &c. We bequeath to the altar of Our Lady’s chapel at Canterbury two basons with our arms, and a large gilt chalice enamelled with the arms of Warren. To our son Richard the bed which the King our father gave us. To Sir Roger de Clarendon a silk bed. To Sir Robert de Walsham, our Confessor, a large bed of red camora, with our arms embroidered at each corner; also embroidered with the arms of Hereford. To Mons. Alayne Cheyne our bed of camora powdered with blue eagles. And we bequeath all our goods and chattels, jewels, &c., for the payment of our funeral and debts; after which we Will that our executors pay certain legacies to our poor servants. All annuities which we have given to our Knights, Esquires, and other our followers, in reward for their services, we desire to be fully paid. And we charge our son Richard, on our blessing, that he fulfil our bequests to them. And we appoint our very dear and beloved brother of Spain, Duke of Lancaster; the Reverend Fathers in God, William Bishop of Winchester, John Bishop of Bath; William Bishop of Asaph; our Confessor, Sir Robert de Walsham; Hugh de Segrave, Steward of our Lands; Aleyn Stokes; and John Fordham, our executors. In testimony of which we have put to this our last Will our privy seal, &c.”

“Published by John Ormesheved, Clerk, in the year 1376, in the presence of John Bishop of Hereford, Domini Lewis Clifford, Nicholas Bonde, and Nicholas de Scharnesford, Knights, and William de Walsham, Clerk; and of many other Knights, Clerks, and Esquires. Proved 4 idus June, 1376.”

Will Of Lady Alice West

(1395)

Some wills, although they cannot be called curious, are highly interesting, and excite great curiosity in the reader. For instance, Lady Alice West, widow of Sir Thomas West who fought at the Battle of Crecy, and an ancestress of the De la Warr family, by her will, dated July 15, 1395, and proved on September 1 following, bequeaths to “Johane my doughter, my sone is wyf, a masse book, and alle the bokes that I have of latyn, englisch, and frencsh, out take the forsayd matyns book that is bequeth to Thomas my sone.” Who can help wondering what books, and particularly what English books, this good old lady had at a period five years before the death of Chaucer, and nearly eighty years before the first book was printed in England? Perhaps two of them were Robert of Gloucester’s “Rhyming Chronicles of England,” and Robert Langland’s “The Vision of Piers Ploughman.”

Will Of Lady Alice Wyndsore

(1400)

“Will of Alice, widow of William Wyndsore, Knight, at Upmynster, on the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, August 15th, 1400, 1 Henry IV. My body to be buried in the parish Church of Upmynster on the north side before the altar of our Lady the Virgin; to the said Church one of my best oxen for a mortuary; for wax to burn about my body forty shillings; for ornaments to the said Church ten marks; for repairing the highways near the town forty shillings; I Will that ten marks be distributed to the poor on the day of my sepulture; to the Chaplain six marks; to John Pelham, Sacrist of that Church, three shillings and four pence; to Joane, my younger daughter, my manor of Gaynes, in Upmynster; to Jane and Joane, my daughters, all my other manors and advowsons which John Wyndsore, or others, have, by his consent, usurped, the which I desire my heirs and executors to recover and see them parted between my daughters, for that I say, on the pain of my soul, he hath no right there nor never had; my manor of Compton Murdac; to the poor of Upminster xx shillings. And I appoint Joane, my youngest daughter; John Kent, Mercer of London, my Executors; and Sir John Cusson, Knight, and Robert de Litton, Esquire, Overseers of this my Will.”

Will Of Lady Joane Hungerford

(1411)

“Will of Joane Lady Hungerford, February 1, 1411. My body to be buried in the Chapel of St. Anne, in the Parish Church of Farleigh, Hungerford, next to the grave of my husband. I Will that, with all possible speed after my decease, my executors cause three thousand masses to be said for my soul, and for the souls of all the faithful deceased. Also I desire on my burial day that twelve torches and two tapers burn about my body, and that twelve poor women, holding the said torches, be cloathed in russet, with linen hoods, and having stockings and shoes suitable. I Will that ten pounds be bestowed to buy black cloth for the cloathing of my sons and daughters, as likewise for the sons and daughters of all my domestic servants. I Will that the two hundred marks now in the hands of my son, Sir Walter Hungerford, be given to found a perpetual chantry of one chaplain, to celebrate divine service in the Chapel of St. Anne, in the north part of the said Church of Farleigh, for the health of my soul, and the soul of my husband, and for the souls of all our ancestors forever; to Katherine, the wife of my said son Walter, my black mantle furred with minever, and to Thomas his son a green bed, embroidered with one greyhound.”

Will Of Richard Berne

(1461)

“Will of Richard Berne, of Canterbury, 28th April, 1461. My body to be buried in the aisle before the cross, in the south part of St. Paul’s, at Canterbury. To the rebuilding of the bell tower of the monastery of St. Augustine ix _l._ to be paid as soon as the said work shall be begun; to the prisoners of the Castle of Canterbury and of Westgate vi _s._ viii _d._ each; to the Prioress of the Church of St. Sepulchre, towards the works of her Church, xiii _s._ iv _d._; to the repair of the highway leading towards Sandwich, by St. Martin’s Hill and the Fishpoole, x _l._; towards the repair of the highway in the Winecheape, between Bircholle’s Place and St. James’s Hospital, x _l._; to Joan, my wife, my furniture and my best cart, and my five horses fit to draw it, with all their harness; to the building of the new bell tower of Tenterden vi _s._ viii _d._”

The Will Of Thomas Windsor, Esq.

(1479)

“Item. I Will that I have brennying (burning) at my burying and funeral service four tapers and twenty-two torches of wax, every taper to contain the weight of ten pounds and every torch sixteen pounds, which I Will that twenty-four very poor men and well disposed shall hold, as well at the time of my burying as at my _monethe’s minde_ (month’s remembrance).

“Item. I Will that after my _monethe’s minde_ done, the said four tapers be delivered to the church-wardens, &c.

“And that there be 100 children within the age of 16 years, to be at my _monethe’s minde_ to pray for my soul ... that against my _monethe’s minde_ the candles bren (burn) before the rude in the Parish Church.

“Also that at my _monethe’s minde_ my executors provide 20 priests to sing _plucebo dirige_, &c.”

The Will Of Sir Richard Hamerton, Knt.

(1480)

This will be found interesting from the characteristic style and quaint orthography in which it is penned; the detail, too, is eminently suggestive of a simplicity in the individual mind of the testator as well as of the social tone of the times, much at variance with the more complicated habits of our own day. Sir Richard, it must be remarked, was “the head of one of the most ancient and illustrious of the Craven families, the representatives of which still flourish and count up to more than twenty generations of Hamerton’s.”

“Richard Hamerton, knyghte, in my hole mynde and witt. To be beryed in the kirke of Preston in Craven, in the chapell of Our Ladye and Seignt Anne, in the southe syde of the saide kirke, wherein a chauntery is founded for a prest in perpetuite to syng for Lawrence Hamerton, esquier, and me, the said Richard Hamerton, knyghte, our wyffes, our childre, and all our ancestres.

“Item: I gyff in the name of my mortuary my beste hors, with my sadell, bridell, and othre thingis pertenying to the same.

“Item: I bequeth to the abbot and convent of the monastery of Sallay a standing maser covered and gilted, to pray for me.

“Item: I bequeth to my son William my best whyte cupp of sylver standing.

“Item: To my son Sir Stephen my salet gilted, ij basyns, ij lavers, ij chafours, ij pottes, vj doublers, xij dysshes, and vj sausers, according to my fader will, as apperith folowyng: _i.e._ to the saide Sir Stephen and to the heires male of his body; and for defaute, then to Raner Hamerton, son of John Hamerton, broder to the saide Sir Stephen; then to Roger Hamerton, broder to the saide Raner; then to William Hamerton, broder to the saide Sir Stephen; and for defaute I wille that the saide sylver plate shalle remayne to the abbot and convente of the monastery of Sallay for evermore; for which the saide abbot and convente and ther successoures shall praye for the saules of the said Lawrence Hamerton and Isabell his wyffe, and me, the saide Richarde and Dame Elizabeth my wyffe, our childre saules, and all our auncestres, and for those saules whose bodyes we wer most behalden unto in ther lyffes, and for all Cristen saules.

“Item: I bequeth to my saide son, Sr. Stephen, the tabel in the chapell, wt. all thingis belongyng the same, a ladell, ij brasse pottes of the grettest, ij garingsshe of pewder vessell, a chargiom, a handreth of yern iiij fete, iiij lange spyttes of yren. To my nevewe, John Hamerton, my grete countour in the hall. To my nese, his wyffe, a standing cuppe of sylver dim gilt.

“To my broder James ij oxen, and also my wyffe hath given to hym ij whyes.

“To Raner Hamerton a horse of ij yeres olde ambulyng, another of the same age that ambulys to Roger Hamerton.

“To Cristofer Jakson, a stot and xiij _s._ iiij _d._ of money. To Richard Clerk a don hors and xiij _s._ iiij _d._

“To John Rayngill, a stot and whye. To Thomas Kay a stot of ij yeres olde. To William Iveson a styrk.

“To William Fisshe a whye styrk. To Robert Coke a styrk and a whye. To Majory Stowte a whye of age. To William Standen an oxe.

“Item: I bequeth to a priest xij mark to syng ij yeres for my saule, and my wyffe, and all Cristen saules. To iiij orders of Freres iiij _l._ To the Prior and Convent of the Monastery of Bolton xl _s._ I bekueth x marke to be distribute emonge my pore tennantes and neghtburs. I bequeth x marc to be distribute emonge pore falkes at the daye of my burying. I ordene and mak my wyffe, Dame Elizabeth, my sones, Sir Stephen and William Hamerton, myn executors. I bequeth ij stottes to William Scarburgh. To Richard Hamerton, my broder James son, a fylle of iij yere. To my wyffe a wayne wt. vj oxen. To my son William an othir wayne and vj oxen. To John Ellis the yonger a mair.

“Testibus Ricardo Parisshe, Ablate de Sallay, et Willelmo Scarburgh generoso.”

Will Of “Arlotto, The Parson”

(1483)

“Arlotto, the Parson,” who is described as an Italian priest of “infinite jest and most excellent fancy,” who died in 1483, left among his testamentary documents a wish that the following words should be placed upon his tomb: “This sepulchre was made by the parson Arlotto, for himself and for any other man who may desire to enter therein.” These words remained upon his tomb until they were obliterated by time.

Will Of John Turvyle

(1500)

In a will written about the year 1500, that of John Turvyle, of Newhall, Leicestershire, “Squyer,” there is a bequest to William, his “son and heire apparant,” of “a bason and an ewer of silver, warnyng and chargyng him, on my blessyng, and as he will answere afore God at the day of dome, that he shall bequeith them after his decesse to his son and heire apparant, and so under this manner and condicion the forsayd basyn and ewer of silver to go from heire to heire while the world endureth.” Which seems to show that the modern system of making particular articles heirlooms to go with the estates, so that they should be kept in the family, had not then been invented.

Will Of Alice Love

(1506)

A specimen of a lady’s will gives some idea of the costumes and fashions of the day, and the store placed upon their wardrobes, which were not so easily replenished as they are now:

“In the name of God, amen--the 6th daye of the moneth of Octobre in the yere of our Lord God a thousand fyve hundred and sixe, I, Alice Love, the wife of Gyles Love of Rye, by the speciall license of my said husband, asked and opteyned [_What does the modern woman think of this?_], bequeath my parapharnalle--that is to seye, myn apparaill to my body belonging. First, I bequeith my sowle unto Almighty God, to our blessed Lady and to alle Saynts, my body to be buried in the chirch yarde of Rye nigh my husband’s Thomas Oxenbridge. [_It will be seen that Gyles Love was this Lady’s second husband._] Item, to my moder my graye furred gowne with a long trayne; also a gowne clothe of russet, not made. Item, to my suster Mercy my best violet gowne furred with shanks. Item, to Margarette Philip my best wolstede kyrtill. Also I gyve to my suster Mercy my dymysent with peerles and a corse of gold. Item, to Thomas Oxenbridge my best gilt gyrdell that my husband Thomas Oxenbridge bought me to my wedding. Item, to Robert Oxenbridge a rede powdred corse, with a good harness, and to everiche of them a paire of bedys of rede corall. Item, to Besse Love my best crymsyn gowne, also her moder’s best girdell and her best bedys. Also to my suster Elizabeth Duke a long girdell gilt with a golden corse.”

Will Of Christopher Columbus

(1506)

There seems to be much confusion as to the will of Columbus, although, in 1498, he made one, and it is known to have existed in 1530; but it is asserted that it was unsigned, and, moreover, that it was nullified by a later will he made in 1502, but which also is not to be found at the present time.

The only authentic will of his, therefore, that has descended to us is that preserved at Genoa, but which can only be called a codicil.

It is written on the fly-leaf of a book of “Hours,” richly bound and adorned, which Columbus had received from Pope Alexander VI., and to which he attached the greatest value; indeed, this is apparent, from the fact that it is the first object of which he disposes in this same codicil:

Codicillus more militari Christopheri Colombi.

Cum SS Alexander, PP. VI., me hoc devatissimo precum libello honoravit, summum mihi præbente solatium in captivitatibus, præliis et adversitatibus meis, volo ut post mortem meam pro memoria tradatur amantissimæ meæ patriæ republicæ Genuensi; et ob beneficia in eadem urbe recepta volo ex stabilibus in Italia redditibus erigi ibidem novum hospitale, ac pro pauperum in patria meliori substentatione, deficientique linea mea masculina in admiraltu meo Indiarum et annexis juxta privilegiis dicti regis insuccessorem declaro et substituo eamdem rempublicam Sancti Georgii.

Datum Valledoliti, 4 Maii, 1506.

S. S. A. S. X. M. V. Xpoferens.

The initial letters which precede the signature of the Christian name of Columbus (altered, however, into Christo-_ferens_) have never been explained, any more than the two eagles which also precede it; this spelling, however, need throw no doubt on its authenticity, as it is identical with the signatures of two letters, dated respectively 1502 and 1504, addressed to the Ambassador, Nicolas Oderigo.

Will Of Henry VII

(1510)

Henry VII. desires in his will that “our executors and supervisors and executors of our testament have a special respect, in our funeral, to the laud and praising of God, the health of our soul, and somewhat to our dignity royal, but avoiding damnable pomp and outrageous superfluities.”

Will Of Erasmus

(1536)

The town of Bâle possesses together with the will of Erasmus, the ring, seal, sword, knife, pen, and the portrait by Holbein of that great and celebrated man.

The will was drawn up in Latin, five months prior to his decease, 12th February, 1536; we subjoin a literal translation of this interesting document.

“In the name of the Holy Trinity,

“I, Dediderius Erasmus of Rotterdam, honoured with the flattering diplomas of the Emperor, the Sovereign Pontiff, and renowned magistrate of the celebrated city of Bâle, declare that this act, written in my own hand, contains my last wishes; and I desire that they may be ratified and confirmed in every particular, annulling all previous dispositions that I may have made.

“Certain as I am that I have no legitimate heir (Erasmus was a natural son, and was never married), I appoint as my universal heir, the very honourable Boniface Amerbach; and I name as my testamentary executors Jerôme Froben and Nicholas Biscop, brother-in-law of Froben.

“I have already sold my library to Jean de Lasco, a Pole, as may be seen by an act passed between us, and signed by both; but my books are only to be delivered to him when he shall have handed over two hundred florins to my heir; and in case he should have destroyed the act above named, or should die before me, my heir is at liberty to dispose of my books as he may please.

“I bequeath and give to Louis Ber my gold watch; to Beatus Rhenanus a golden spoon, and a fork of the same metal; to Pietro Veteri one hundred and fifty gold crowns; to Philip Montanus the same sum; to my servant Lambert--should he still be in my service at the time of my death--two hundred gold florins, unless I should give them to him during my life; to Jehan de Brisgaw my scent-bottle of silver; to Paul Voltzius one hundred gold florins; to Sigismund Gelenius five hundred ducats; to Jehan Erasmus Froben, two rings, of which one has no stone, the other a green (?) stone called by the French _turquoise_.

“I bequeath and give to Jerôme Froben all my garments and all my furniture; _i.e._ all that composes it, whether in woollen or linen for the former, in wood or other material for the latter. I give him besides, my goblet marked with the arms of the Cardinal de Mayence. I give to his wife my ring, bearing the effigy of a woman looking behind her.

“I give to Nicholas Biscop, my cup with its cover, on the foot of which there are verses engraved; and to Justine, his wife, two gold rings of which one has a diamond, the other a small turquoise. I give to Conrad Goclenius my silver cup, surmounted by a figure of Fortune. If one of my legatees should come to die, I leave the legacy thus lapsed at the disposition of my heir.

“My said heir is to have, besides the objects already devised to him, all that shall remain of my _tazzas_, rings, and other similar articles, including the medals bearing the effigy of the King of Poland, Severin Boner, etc.; and all the double and quadruple ducats. He is to have the money I have deposited with Conrad Goclenius that he may dispose of it in Brabant, as I have recommended to him. If there should be anything of mine still remaining with Erasmus Schet, he is to demand it of him. He will employ this money and any other sums remaining over, according to the advice of the executors, in distributing alms to the poor, whom age or infirmity has rendered impotent, also for marrying young girls or assisting young people, who may show an industrious disposition, to start in the world.

“Such is the act of my last will, written by own proper hand, and sealed with my own private seal belonging to my ring, and representing the god Terminus. Let all faith be accorded to it. Given at Bale, in the house of Jerôme Froben, 12th February, 1536.”

Will Of Katherine Of Aragon

(1536)

“In the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, Amen. I, Katherine, &c. supplicate and desire King Henry VIII. my good Lord, that it please him of his grace, and in alms, and for the service of God, to let me have the goods which I do hold, as well in gold and silver as other things, and also the same that is due to me in money for the time passed, to the intent that I may pay my debts and recompense my servants for the good service they have done unto me, and the same I desire as effectuously as I may, for the necessity wherein I am ready to die and to yield my soul unto God.

“First, I supplicate that my body be buried in a Convent of Observant Friars. Item, that for my soul may be said c masses. Item, that some personage go to our Lady of Walsingham, in pilgrimage, and in going by the way dole xx nobles. Item, I appoint to Mistress Darell xx £ for her marriage. Item, I ordain that the collar of gold which I brought out of Spain be to my daughter. I ordain to Mistress Blanche x £ sterling. Item, I ordain to Mistress Margery, and to Mistress Whiller, to each of them x £ sterling. Item, I ordain to Mistress Mary, my physician’s wife, and to Mistress Isabel, daughter of Mistress Margery, to each of them xl £ sterling. Item, I ordain to my physician the year’s coming wages. Item, I ordain to Francisco Philippe all that I owe unto him, and besides that xl £ sterling. Item, I ordain to Mr. John, mine apothecary, his wages for the year coming, and besides that all that is due unto him. Item, I ordain that Mr. Whiller be paid of expense about the making of my gown, and besides that of xx £ sterling. Item, I give to Philip, to Anthony, and to Bastian, to every of them xx £ sterling. Item, I ordain to the little maidens x £ to every of them. Item, I ordain that my goldsmith be paid of his wages for the year coming, and besides all that is due to him hitherto. Item, I ordain that my launderer be paid of that is due unto her, and besides that of her wages for the year coming. Item, I ordain to the Sabell of Vergas xx £ sterling. Item, to my ghostly father his wages for the year coming. Item, it may please the King my good Lord, that the house ornaments of the church to be made of my gowns, which he holdeth, for to serve the convent thereat I shall be buried. And the furs of the same I give for my daughter.”

Katherine was the youngest daughter of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile. She was born about 1483 and died in 1536. On November 14, 1501, she was married to Arthur, Prince of Wales, then about fifteen years of age, the eldest son of King Henry VII., who died about five months later. The King, unwilling to return her dowry, forced her to marry his remaining son, Henry, who was created Prince of Wales, February 18, 1503, succeeding to the throne as Henry VIII. on April 21st, 1509. On the 24th of June in the same year, they were crowned at Westminster. Her only child, Mary, was born on February 15, 1518, and succeeded her half-brother, King Edward VI., as Queen of England July 6, 1553. The history of this unfortunate, but worthy queen, is too well known to need further comment.

Will Of Sir William Pelham, Knt.

(1538)

“In the name of God. Amen. 26th Oct., the yeare of our Lord God a thousande fyve hundred thirty and eight. I, William Pelham, Knt., in the countie of Sussex, being hole in mynde and of good memory, doth make and ordeign my last will and testament in manner and fourme followinge:

“First: I bequeth my soule to Almighty God my Creator, and to all the Company of Hevyn; and my body to be buried in the Chauncel of Laughton.

“Item: I bequeth vi. _l._ xiii _s._ ii _d._ for twenty sermons to be preached in Laughton, and in the parishes thereabouts.

“Item: I will that my three sonnes, William, Francis, and Edwarde, shall have twenty poundes sterlinge by the yere during their lvyes, owte of my lands, to be divided equally between them into three parts, and my wyffe to have the same, twenty poundes, every yere during the tyme of their nonage, towards their fyndinge, forthwith after my deth.

“Item: I bequeth a thousande marks sterlinge to be levyed upon my woods, to the marriage of my fyve daughters, that is to say: Bryget, Margaret, Mary, Anne, and Jane, and to be equally between them.

“Item: I bequeth to John Devynyshe, my best geldinge.

“The residue of all my goodes, debts, stuffe, and substance, I geve unto Mary my wyffe, whom I make myn executrix of this my last will.

“These being witnesses, Mary my wiffe, Nicholas my sonne and his wyffe, John Devynyshe, gentilman, Sir Robert Fourde Preest, with many other.”

Will Of Martin Luther

(1542)

There seems to be considerable obscurity about the authenticity of this document. The learned Dutchman, M. Van Proet (who gives as _his_ authority the Dutch translation of the “History of the Reformation”), says that “the will of Luther is to be found in its entirety in the eighth volume of the works of Luther (Altenburg edition); that the original, on parchment, was formerly in the hands of Carpzovius, and that that original, signed by Melancthon, Crucigerus, and Bugenhagenius (or Pomeranus) differed in some places from the printed copy.”

Seckendorff of Bâle, in his Commentary, lib. iii. sects. 36 and 135, p. 651, speaks thus of it, and it will be seen that Luther does not err on the side of modesty:

“_De Testamento Lutheri._--Testatus est, ut exemplar, tom. viii. Altenb. fol. 846, relatum ostendit, anno 1542, die Euphemiæ (16 Septembris), uxoris potissimum gratiâ, cui testamentum perhibet probitatis, fidelitatis et honestatis, et quòd ab eâ semper amatus et omnibus officiis cultus sit; nec fecunditatem tacet, quòd quinque liberos tum viventes ediderit. (Observatum est ex litteris Pontani post mortem Lutheri ad electorum scriptis, quòd uxor Lutheri animum paulò elatiorem et imperiosum habuisse visa sit, et quòd tenax in victu domestico sumptuosa tamen fuerit in ædificia, imprimis in prædium illud Zeüsldorff quod ei in hâc dispositione suâ dotali nomine Lutherus assignaverat. Sed tolerabiles illi nævi fuerunt, nec ab omnibus immunem eam judicavit ipse Lutherus, licèt eam tenere amaret....) Non tam conditionem adjecit iis quæ uxori destinaverat, quàm fiduciam testatus est: quòd uxor, si ad secunda vota transiret (id quod ipsius voluntati et divinæ providentiæ prorsus committit), omnia cum liberis divisura sit. Liberos verò mavult à matre quàm hanc ab illis dependere, exemplis se territum dicens, quàm iniquè sæpè liberi tractent. Denique omissâ omni solemnitate legali confidere se ait, majorem fidem se mereri quàm notarium quemque.

“Notus sum,” inquit “in cœlo, in terrâ, et in inferno, et auctoritatem ad hoc sufficientem habeo ut mihi solo credatur, cùm Deus mihi homini licèt damnabili et misera peccatori, ex paternâ misericordiâ Evangelium filii sui crediderit, dederitque ut in eo verax et fidelis fuerim, ita ut multi in mundo illud per me acceperint, et me pro doctore veritatis agnoverint, spreto banno papæ, Cæsaris, regum, principum et sacerdotum, imo omnium dæmonium odio: Quidni igitur ad dispositionem hanc in re exiguâ sufficiat, si adsit manus meæ testimonium et dici possit, hæc scripsit D. Martinus Lutherus, notarius Dei et testis Evangelii ejus.

“Additae tamen sunt subscriptiones Melancthonis, Crucigeri et Pomerani, sed alio tempore.

“Elector vero Saxoniæ rogatus à vidua diplomate domino judica hoc anno (10 April) dato, testamentum Lutheri conservavit, jubens ut illud etsi solemnitates à legibus requisitæ abessent validum haberetur et observaretur....”

* * * * *

Our readers will doubtless remember that this curious and characteristic fragment has been quoted by Robertson, in a note to his history of Charles Quint, vol. v.

Some time ago the Evangelical Church in Hungary believed itself possessed of the original last will and testament of the great Protestant reformer, Martin Luther. The genuineness of the document was, in fact, attested as undoubted by a special commission appointed to determine that question. The members of this body, however, did not consist of historical scholars, but chiefly of noted members of Parliament. Accordingly, before long it was shown, upon the evidence of Professor Rancke’s researches, that the only real testament of Luther--that written with his own hand--is, as a matter of fact, in the Heidelberg Library, and is there kept in a glass case for the inspection of visitors. It has also been satisfactorily proved that the will in the possession of the Hungarian Evangelicals, though written in a hand exactly like Luther’s, is not his, but the work of one of his disciples, Henterus, who introduced the reformation into Transylvania; he made a true copy, even to the very handwriting, of the last will and testament of his master.

Will Of Hans Holbein

(1543)

Hans Holbein, the younger, belonged to a celebrated family of German painters. His great paintings are scattered throughout the galleries of the world; his last years were spent in England, where he gained both success and fame. He died in London, of the plague, in 1543. His will, written shortly before his death, was found in the archives of St. Paul’s Cathedral in 1861 and bears evidence of having been written in haste, as it probably was.

It reads as follows:

“In the name of God the Father, Sonne, and Holy Ghoste, I, Johan Holbeine, servante of the King’s Majistie, make this my testamente and will, to wyt, that alle my goodes shall be sold, and also my horse; and I will that my debtes be payd to wyt: furste to Mr. Anthony the kynges servant of Greenwiche, ye summe of ten poundes thirtien shyllinges and sewyne pence sterlinge.

“And, moreover, I will that he shal be contented for all other thynges between him and me.

“Item: I do owe unto Mr. John of Anwarpe, Goldsmythe, saxe pounds sterling, which I will alsoe shalle be payde unto hyme with the fyrste.

“Item: I bequeathe for the kypyng of my two chylder, which be atte nurse, for every monthe, seyvene shellinges, and sexpence styrlynge.

“In wytnes I have sealed and sealed thys my testamente, thys sexthe daye of October, in the yeare of our Lorde MIVCXLIIJ.

“Wytnes, Anthony Snetcher, Armerer, Mr. John of Anwarpe, aforesaid, Goldsmythe, Obrycke Obynger, Merchante and Harry Maynaert, Paynter.”

Will Of King Henry VIII

(1547)

The greatest testamentary powers ever conferred on an English king were given to Henry VIII. by 25 Henry VIII. c. 7, empowering him to limit and appoint the succession to the Crown by will, in default of children by Jane Seymour.

This will of Henry VIII. is to be found in full in Nicolas’s “Testamenta Vetusta,” a collection of famous wills, a work of great excellence, prepared in 1825. There are also to be found the Wills of Henry II., Henry III., Henry IV., Henry V., Henry VI., and Henry VII., as are those of other Kings and Queens of England.

Will Of Rabelais

(1553)

The will of this ingenious satirist is adorned (or disfigured) by a very characteristic clause: “I have no available property, I owe a great deal; the rest I give to the poor.”

We cannot affirm that this bull, worthy of an Irishman, is well authenticated, any more than Rabelais’s facetious reply to the messenger of Cardinal du Belay, whom he sent to see how he fared in his last illness: “Je vais chercher un grand peutêtre; tirez le rideau, la farce est jouée.”

Will Of Mary Queen Of Scots

(1587)

Mary Stuart was beheaded in 1587. Her will is to be found in a collection entitled: “Pièces fugitives pour servir à l’Histoire de France, avec des notes historiques, par M. le Baron d’Aubais,” 1759. This work is in 5 vols. 4to, and the will is in the second.

It is prefaced by a short note explanatory of the attendant circumstances, viz. that it was written by the ill-fated queen on the eve of her execution, and after she had been curtly, unceremoniously, and unexpectedly informed it was to take place at eight the following morning. The writing out of this, and of an extremely touching letter to her brother-in-law, Henri III., occupied her until two o’clock in the morning, when she bathed, selected and put on her costliest dress, head-dress, and costume, distributed her little store of ready money and jewels to her attendants, retired to her oratory and prepared herself for death. All this is minutely related, also the manner of her death; for to the last moment the queen was unaware whether she were to be beheaded standing or with her head on the block. It was, however, to be by the latter mode; and the headsman proved so inexperienced, and his weapon so clumsy, that the operation was only completed after three blows.

Mary’s will is written in French, and is word for word as follows:

“Au nom du Père, du Fils, et du Sainct Esprit:

“Je, Marie, par la grâce de Dieu royne d’Ecosse, douarière de France etc.: Estant preste à mourir, et n’ayant moyen de faire mon testament, j’ay mis ces articles par escrit, lesquels j’entens et veulx avoir meme force que si ilz étaient mis en forme.

“Protestant, premier de mourir en la foi chatolique apostolique romaine.

“Premier, je veulx qui’il soit faict un service complet pour mon ame a l’église Sainct Denys en France, et l’autre a Sainct Pierre de Reims, où tous mes serviteurs ce trouveront en la manière qu’il sera ordonné a ceulx a qui j’en donne la charge issi dessouts nommez.

“Plus, qu’un obit annuel soit fondé pour prier pour mon ame à perpetuité, à lieu et en la maniere qui sera advisé le plus commode.

“Pour a quoy fournir je veulx que mes maysons de Fontayne-beleau soient vendues, esperant que au surplus le roy m’aydera, comme par mon memoyre je le requiers.

“Je veulx que ma terre de Jespagn demeure a mon cousin de Guise pour une de ses filles, si elle venoit a estre mariée en ces quartiers; je quitteray la moitié des arerages qui me sont deus, ou une partie, a condition que l’autre soit payée, pour estre par mes executeurs employée en aumosne annuelle.

“Pour a quoi mieulx provoir, les papiers seront recherchez et delivrez selon l’affination pour en faire poursuite.

“Je veulx aussi que l’argens que ce retirera de mon procès de secondat, soit distribué comme s’en suit.

“Premier, a la descharge du poiement de mes dettes et mandemens si aprez nommez, qui me seront ja paiez, premier, les deux mille esqus de Courle que je veulx luy estre payez sans nulle contradiction, comme estantz en faveur de mariage sans que nous au aultre luy en puisse rien demander, quelque obligation qu’il en aye d’autant qu’elle n’est que feincte é que l’argent estoit à moy é non emprunté, lequel je ne fis que luy montray, é lé depuis retiré, et me on pris avecque le reste à Chasteley, lequel je lui donne si il le peut recovrer, comme il a esté promis pour payement ces quatre mille franks promis, pour payement ces quatre mille franks promis par mort, et mille pour marier une siene sœur, et m’ayant demandé le reste pour ses despans en prison; quant a l’assignation de pareille somme a nous, elle n’est pas d’obligation, et pour ce a toujours esté mon intention que elle fust la dernière payée et encore en cas qu’il fasse aparoir n’avoir faict contre la condition pour la quelle je les luy avoist donnéz au temoignasge de mes serviteurs.

“Pour la partie de douze cens esquus que il m’a faict alleuer par lui empruntée pour mon service de Beauregard, jusques à six sens esqus et de Gervays trois cents, et le reste je ne sais d’ou, it faut qu’il les repoye de son argent et que j’en soyes quitte é l’assignation cassée, car je n’en ay rien resceu, mais est le fond en ces coffres, si ce n’estoit que ils en soient payez par dela; comme que ce soit; it faut que cett partie me revienne bonne, n’ayant rien receu, et si elle estoit payée je doits avoir recours sur son lieu, é de plus, je veulx que Pasquier compte les deniers que il a despandus é receus par le commandement de nous, par les mains des serviteurs de M. de Chasteauneuf, l’ambassadeur de France.

“Plus, je veulx que mes comptes soyent ouys é mon tresorier payé.

“Plus, que les gages et parties de mes gens tant de l’année passée que de la presente, soyent tous payez avant toute autre choze, tant gages que pensions, parmis les pensions les pensions de Jean et de Courle, jusques a ce que l’on sasche ce qui en doit advenir et ce qu’ils auront meritez de moy pour pensions si ce n’est que la fame de Courle soyt en nécessité, ou luy maltraicté pour moy; des gages de Jean de mesme.

“Je veulx que les deux mille quatre cens franks que j’ay donnais a Jène Kenedi luy soyent payez en argent, comme il estoit porté en son premier don, é quoy fesant la pension de Willi Guillaulme Douglas me reviendra, laquelle je donne a Fontenoy pour ces services é despens non recompansez.

“Je veulx que les quatre mille esqus de ce banquier soyent sollisitez é repayez, duquel j’ay oublié le nom; mais l’evesque de Glascou s’en resoviendra assez; é si l’assignation premiére venoit à manquer, je veulx qu’il leur en soyt donné une sur les premiers deniers de secondat.

“Les dix mille franks que l’ambassadeur avoyt receux pour moy, je veulx qu’ilz soyent employez entre mes serviteurs qui s’en vont à present à scavoir, premier, deux mille franks à Elizabeth Courle; deux mille franks à Basten Pages; deux mille à Marie Pages, ma filleule; mille à Gourgon; mille à Gervays.

“Plus, sur les aultres deniers de mon revenu, à Beauregard, mille franks; à Monthay mille franks.

“E reste de Secondat et de toutes mes casualitez, je veulx estre employez sinq cens franks à la misericorde des enfans de Reims; à mes escoliers, deux mille franks; aux quatre mandians, la somme qu’il sera nécessaire; à mes executeurs, selon les moyens qui ce trouveront, sinq cens franks aux hospitaulx.

“A l’esquier de cuisine Martin, je donne mille franks; mille franks à Hambel, e le laisse à mon cousin de Guise, son parein, a le mettre en quelque lieu en son service.

“Je laysse sinq cens franks à Robin Hamilton et prie mon filz le prendre, é Monsieur de Glascou faulte de luy, ou l’evesque de Rosse.

“Je laysse à Didier son grefe sous la faveur du roy.

“Je donne sinq cens franks à Jean Landere, é prie mon cousin de Guise ou d’Humaine (pour du Maine) le prendre en leur service, é a Messieurs de Glascou et de Rosse qu’ils ayent soing de le voir preveu; je veulx que son père soyt payé de ces gages, et luy laysse sinq cens franks.

“Je veulx que mille franks soyent payez à Gourgeon, pour argent et aultres chozes qu’ils m’a fournies en ma nécessité.

“E je veulx que si Bourgoin accompli le voiage du vœu qu’il a faict pour moy à S. Nicolas, que quinze franks lui soyent livrés à cet effet. Je laysse selon mon peu de moyen six mille franks à l’evesque de Glascou, troys mille à celuy de Rosse. E je laysse la donaison des alsualities et droicts seigneriaux recelez à mon filleul, filz de M. Duruisseau.

“Je donne troys cens franks à Laurents, plus troys cens franks à Suzanne, é laysse dix mille franks entre les quatre parties, qui out esté respondant pour moy é au solliciteur parmy.

“Je veulx que l’argent provenant des meubles que j’ay ordonnez estre vendus à Londres soyt pour defroyer le voyage de mes gens jusques en France.

“Ma cosche je la laysse pour mener mes filles, é les chevaulx pour les vendre ou aultrement en faire leur commoditez.

“Il y a environ cent esqus des gages des années passées deus à Bourgoin, que je veulx luy estre payez.

“Je laysse deux mille franks à Meluin, mon maystre d’hostel.

“Je ordonne pour principal exécuteur de ma volonté mon cousin le Duc de Guise, é aprez luy l’Archevesque de Glascou, l’evesque de Rosse, et M. Duruisseau, mon chancelier.

“J’entends que sans faulte le preau jouisse de ces deux prependes.

“Je recommande Marie Pages, ma filleule, à ma cousine Madame de Guise, é la prie de prendre en son service; é ma tante de S. Pierre fayre mettre Montbraye en quelque bon lieu, ou la retenir en service pour l’honneur de Dieu.

“Faict ce jourd’hui 7 Feubrier, mil sinq cens octante é sept.

“Marie R.”

Will Of Alessandro Tassoni

(1635)

Tassoni was an Italian diplomat, poet and critic; he was born at Modena in 1565 of an old patrician family. His greatest work was the publication, “The Stolen Bucket.” The following are excerpts from his will:

“I leave my soul--the most precious thing I possess--to its first great cause, the invisible, ineffable, eternal.

“As for my body, destined as it is to corruption, my own desire would have been that it should be burned; but that being contrary to the custom of the religion in which I was born, I beg those in whose house I should die--for I have none of my own--to bury me by preference in consecrated ground; or if I should be found dead, without any other roof over me than the vault of heaven, I entreat the charitable neighbors or passers-by to render me this last service.

“My wish would be that my funeral should only employ one priest, that there should be simply the small cross and a single candle, and that as regards expense no more shall be incurred than will pay for a sack to stuff my remains into, and a porter to carry it.

“I give twelve gold crowns to the parish, because I cannot carry them away.”

Chapter III

Wills In Fiction And Poetry

“This brief abridgment of my will I make, My soul and body to the skies and ground.”

On Will-Making

An excellent treatise on the foibles of testators and the motives which prompt devises, legacies and bequests, is to be found in the work of William Hazlitt, “Table Talk or Original Essays,” under the title, “On Will-making,” a portion of which is here subjoined. The fame of the author and the merit of the essay justify its introduction.

“Few things show the human character in a more ridiculous light than the circumstance of will-making. It is the latest opportunity we have of exercising the natural perversity of the disposition, and we take care to make a good use of it. We husband it with jealousy, put it off as long as we can, and then use every precaution that the world shall be no gainer by our deaths. This last act of our lives seldom belies the former tenor of them, for stupidity, caprice, and unmeaning spite. All that we seem to think of is to manage matters so (in settling accounts with those who are so unmannerly as to survive us) as to do as little good and to plague and disappoint as many people as possible.”

* * * * *

“The art of will-making chiefly consists in baffling the importunity of expectation. I do not so much find fault with this when it is done as a punishment and oblique satire on servility and selfishness. It is in that case _Diamond cut Diamond_--a trial of skill between the legacy-hunter and the legacy-maker, which shall fool the other. The cringing toad-eater, the officious tale-bearer, is perhaps well paid for years of obsequious attendance with a bare mention and a mourning-ring; nor can I think that Gil Blas’ library was not quite as much as the coxcombry of his pretensions deserved. There are some admirable scenes in Ben Jonson’s ‘Volpone,’ shewing the humours of a legacy-hunter, and the different ways of fobbing him off with excuses and assurances of not being forgotten. Yet it is hardly right after all, to encourage this kind of pitiful, bare-faced intercourse, without meaning to pay for it; as the coquette has no right to jilt the lovers she has trifled with. Flattery and submission are marketable commodities like any other, have their price, and ought scarcely to be obtained under false pretences. If we see through and despise the wretched creature that attempts to impose on our credulity, we can at any time dispense with his services; if we are soothed by this mockery of respect and friendship, why not pay him like any other drudge, or as we satisfy the actor who performs a part in a play by our particular desire? But often these premeditated disappointments are as unjust as they are cruel, and are marked with circumstances of indignity, in proportion to the worth of the object. The suspecting, the taking it for granted that your name is down in the will, is sufficient provocation to have it struck out; the hinting at an obligation, the consciousness of it on the part of the testator, will make him determined to avoid the formal acknowledgment of it, at any expense. The disinheriting of relations is mostly for venial offences, not for base actions: we punish out of pique, to revenge some case in which we have been disappointed of our wills, some act of disobedience to what had no reasonable ground to go upon; and we are obstinate in adhering to our resolution, as it was sudden and rash, and doubly bent on asserting our authority in what we have least right to interfere in. It is the wound inflicted upon our self-love, not the stain upon the character of the thoughtless offender, that calls for condign punishment. Crimes, vices may go unchecked, or unnoticed: but it is the laughing at our weaknesses, or thwarting our humours, that is never to be forgotten. It is not the errors of others, but our own miscalculations, on which we wreak our lasting vengeance. It is ourselves that we cannot forgive.”

* * * * *

“An old man is twice a child: the dying man becomes the property of his family. He has no choice left, and his voluntary power is merged in old saws and prescriptive usages. The property we have derived from our kindred reverts tacitly to them: and not to let it take its course, is a sort of violence done to nature as well as custom. The idea of property, of something in common, does not mix cordially with friendship, but is inseparable from near relationship. We owe a return in kind, where we feel no obligation for a favour; and consign our possessions to our next of kin as mechanically as we lean our heads on the pillow, and go out of the world in the same state of stupid amazement that we came into it!... Cetera desunt.”

Human nature is ever the same: William Hazlitt wrote the above lines one hundred years ago, and yet as we read them, there appears an emphasized truth in the sentiment contained in a verse from “Mortality,” a composition by William Knox, which was the favorite poem of Abraham Lincoln:

“For we are the same our fathers have been, We see the same sights that our fathers have seen; We drink the same stream, and view the same sun, And run the same course our fathers have run.”

It is said of Hazlitt that his domestic life was infelicitous; that he had a temperament which was erratic and self-tormenting and estranged him from his friends, even for a time from Charles Lamb. He died on September 18, 1830, with Lamb at his bedside, and though disappointed and harassed by anxiety and suffering as he had been, yet his last words were: “I’ve had a happy life.” How many of us would have said as much!

Wills Of The Novelist

The _Green Bag_ says:

“Where would the novelist of the period be without the disinheriting will, the manipulated will, the secreted will, and all kinds of wills in every style of obliteration and in every stage of destruction? Why, he would be nearly as bereft of staple stock in trade as if he had lost the lovelorn maiden, the tender-hearted soldier, or the grand old hall of our ancestors. Even writers of a higher grade find it convenient to make use of such machinery to help make the story go.”

Old Noirtier’S Will

Romancers and writers of fiction have taken much interest in, and considerable liberty with, wills; for instance, old Noirtier, a character in the “Count of Monte Cristo,” the great novel by Dumas, wrote his will. He was paralyzed, and his only means of communication was by the eye: to shut the eye, meant “yes”: to wink the eye, meant “no.” His granddaughter had no trouble when the notaries appeared in convincing them that her grandparent knew exactly what he was doing; so, in spite of opposition and in the presence of seven witnesses, the will was executed; and as no signature was required under the French law, the act was legally accomplished.

Dr. Jekyll’S Will

Then there was the famous will in “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”: the very worthy lawyer, Mr. Utterson, who was “lean, long, dusty, dreary and, somehow, lovable,” refused to write this will, wherein Dr. Jekyll left his possessions to his friend and benefactor, Edward Hyde. Mr. Hyde was also to be the possessor of this property if Dr. Jekyll should disappear for a period exceeding three calendar months, the same to be free from burden or obligation, beyond the payment of a few small sums to members of the Doctor’s household.

The Will Of Lord Monmouth

In “Coningsby,” by Disraeli, the reading of Lord Monmouth’s will is a feature. The document is lengthy, and numerous codicils have been added from time to time, involving many modifications. The last codicil of all, however, was the most startling, for under it all former dispositions were upset.

Mr. Casaubon’S Will

In George Eliot’s “Middlemarch,” we find the will of Mr. Casaubon. This gentleman had married a girl, Dorothea Brooke, who was very much younger than himself. By his will, he very properly gave her all his property. However, on reflection, and for reasons best known to himself, he added a codicil and placed the legacy given to his wife, upon the condition that she did not marry one Ladislaw.

It would further appear that until the reading of this codicil, it had not occurred to Dorothea that Ladislaw might be a possible lover; but he became one, and the very suggestion of the testator caused the defeat of the latter’s wishes.

Anthony Trollope’S “Orley Farm”

Our author tells us of a forgery of a codicil by the second wife of the testator: a son by a first wife is cut off, and the farm is left to a son by the second wife. This codicil is in the handwriting of the widow, witnessed by an attorney whose daughter received a handsome legacy, the other witnesses being a clerk and a maidservant. The widow swears that the codicil was drawn at the attorney’s dictation, in the husband’s hearing, and that she was present when it was signed by all the parties. The witnesses gave evidence as to the due execution of the codicil. The instrument was admitted to probate. It developed, however, that there was another paper, a dissolution of partnership, signed on the same day by the same witnesses. The result was, that the charming widow was found guilty of perjury.

Mr. Meeson’S Will

The following description of this famous will is taken from the _Green Bag_:

“In ‘Mr. Meeson’s Will,’ Rider Haggard tells of a fiendish publisher and a lone island and a tattooed will. It is the particular delight of this issuer of books, though he largely sends forth works of a religious cast, to crush all the originality out of his authors and turn them into literary hacks, so that they may become dreary drudges in his vast establishment, sinking even their names in numbers, and losing every atom of individuality and every symptom of spirit. He makes a shamelessly cruel contract with the heroine, who writes novels; and the hero, his nephew, protests and is driven out of the concern. But he is driven into love with the reciprocating maker of manuscript. Then the heroine embarks for distant lands; and it happens, to the great good fortune of the inventor of the story, that the publisher sails on board the same vessel. The vessel is wrecked and these two are cast on a desert island, where they manage to get along after the style of ‘Robinson Crusoe’ with variations. But the publisher, upset in body and mind by these experiences, dies, pursued by ghastly visions of the suffering authors he has driven to desperation.

“Yet these very visions make him see the error of his ways, and prompt him to do justice. It is plain to him that he must set all things right by making a will in favor of the nephew whom he had disinherited. But how to carry out the plan on this spot is the question. At last a happy thought strikes the lady. The will shall be tattoed across her shoulders, and this is done, though she endures no end of agony, and faints away when the job is over.

“Of course she is rescued by a passing vessel, rejoins her lover, and seeks to establish his rights. For this purpose the will must be probated, and the law requires the original will to be filed in the office. But the Registrar, touched by ‘Beauty in distress,’ allows a photograph of the will to be filed. The will is contested by the other heirs, but after an exciting trial, described at length in the story, victory perches on the shoulders of the lady.

“This is the real climax of the story, but we are carried on through the ringing of the marriage bells, to learn that they lived happy ever after.”

His Request Disregarded

Horace Walpole writes that a certain testator who was apprehensive that his will would not be upheld, prefaced that document with these words:

“In the name of God, Amen! I am of sound mind. This is my last will and testament, and I desire the courts not to trouble themselves to make another for me.”

His request seems not to have been taken in his favor, for the courts did make another will for him.

In ancient Greece, it was quite usual to introduce into wills the most formidable imprecations on those who should attempt to violate the wishes of the testator; in modern times pecuniary penalties, instead of curses, are more in favor with distrustful will-makers.

Jerome On Wills

Mr. Jerome K. Jerome, after months of study, inspired by a determination to get to the bottom of Stage law, mentions among the few points on which he is at all clear, the following:

That if a man dies without leaving a will, then all his property goes to the nearest villain.

But that if a man dies and leaves a will, then all his property goes to whoever can get possession of that will.

Must Not Remarry

“Iris,” in one of Pinero’s plays of the same name, is a beautiful young widow of twenty-one. She finds herself much hampered by the terms of her husband’s will, which deprives her of its benefits if she remarries. Such a provision is in law perfectly legal and its use much indulged in by dying husbands, but whether wisely or justly is a matter of serious doubt.

“The Thunderbolt”

Pinero’s latest play, “The Thunderbolt,” is a study of the manners and respectability of the middle-class of England. The play was not received with favor in London, but has been granted a hearing by the “New Theatre” of New York, and by competent judges is said to be the masterpiece of its author.

The play is based on a stolen will: the first act shows a family gathered around the bier of Edward Mortimore, who had accumulated wealth in the brewing of beer, which, during his life, was regarded by his family as rather a disreputable business. There is absent from the gathering, only one interested person, and that is an illegitimate daughter, Helen Thornhill, who is an art student in Paris. Helen arrives and is much surprised that her father has not remembered her, for the announcement is made that he left no will; and she wishes that “every ill that’s conceivable” should come upon the heads of those who will inherit. It quickly develops, however, that the father did leave a will, in these words:

“I leave everything I die possessed of to Helen Thornhill, spinster, absolutely, and she is to be my sole executrix.”

A confession discloses the fact that the will has been destroyed by Phyllis, wife of Thaddeus, a brother of the testator. Helen refuses to bring disgrace on the family by a prosecution, and a compromise is effected, by which she receives a substantial portion of the estate.

Dickens A Will-Maker

Dickens was a great will-maker. We know that if Dick Swiveller had been a steadier youth he would have inherited more than one hundred and fifty pounds a year from his Aunt Rebecca. The loyal-hearted lover, Mr. Barkis, made Peggotty his residuary legatee. The litigation in Jarndyce _v._ Jarndyce arose out of a disputed will. The various wills left by old Harmon in “Our Mutual Friend” bring about no end of complications, there being at least three wills in existence at one time, and each one believed by the person discovering it to be the final will.

Mr. George W. E. Russell says that perhaps Dickens’s best piece of will-making is given in the case of Mr. Spenlow, who, being a practitioner in Doctors’ Commons, spoke about his own will with “a serenity, a tranquillity, a calm sunset air” which quite affected David Copperfield; and then shattered all poor David’s hopes by dying intestate.

Perplexities Of Poor Cecilia

All the perplexities and distresses of poor Cecilia, in Frances Burney’s “Memoirs of an Heiress,” grew out of a clause in her uncle’s will, imposing the condition that if she married, her husband should take her family name of Beverly. Poor Cecilia! What doubts and difficulties beset her by reason of this unfortunate provision; and too, it gives the authoress an excellent opportunity to harrow up the reader on account of these delicate uncertainties and distresses.

Olivia’S Will

It was suggested to Olivia in “Twelfth Night,” that her graces would go to the grave and no copy be held; she responds:

“O, Sir, I will not be so hard hearted; I will give out divers schedules of my beauty; It shall be inventoried, and every particle and utensil labelled to my will; as, item, two lips indifferent red; item, two gray eyes with lids to them; item, one neck, one chin, and so forth.”

_Portia and Nerissa_

In the “Merchant of Venice” Portia is much concerned over the will of her father with reference to the caskets:

“_Portia._ But this reasoning is not in the fashion to choose me a husband.--O me! the word choose! I may neither choose whom I would, nor refuse whom I dislike; so is the will of a living daughter curbed by the will of a dead father.--Is it not hard, Nerissa, that I cannot choose one, nor refuse none?

“_Nerissa._ Your father was ever virtuous, and holy men at their death have good inspirations; therefore, the lottery, that he hath devised in these three chests of gold, silver, and lead (whereof who chooses his meaning, chooses you) will, no doubt, never be chosen by any rightly, but one whom you shall rightly love. But what warmth is there in your affection towards any of these princely suitors that are already come?”

Will Of Nicholas Gimcrack

The will of Nicholas Gimcrack, Esq., is a curious document, and reflects the mind of the worthy virtuoso, and in it his various follies, littlenesses and quaint humors are contained in an orderly and distinct fashion. This will appears in the _Tatler_, Vol. IV, No. 216, and is here written, minus certain parts which are of no great concern:

“The Will Of A Virtuoso

“I Nicholas Gimcrack, being in sound Health of Mind, but in great Weakness of Body, do by this my Last Will and Testament bequeath my worldly Goods and Chattels in Manner follows:

“Imprimis, To my dear Wife, One Box of Butterflies, One Drawer of Shells, A Female Skeleton, A dried Cockatrice.

“Item, To my Daughter Elizabeth, My Receipt for preserving dead Caterpillars, As also my preparations of Winter May-Dew, and Embrio Pickle.

“Item, To my little Daughter Fanny, Three Crocodiles’ Eggs. And upon the Birth of her first Child, if she marries with her Mother’s Consent, The Nest of a Humming-Bird.

“Item, To my eldest Brother, as an Acknowledgment for the Lands he has vested in my Son Charles, I bequeath My last Year’s Collection of Grasshoppers.

“Item, To his Daughter, Susanna, being his only Child, I bequeath my English Weeds pasted on Royal Paper, With my large Folio of Indian Cabbage.

* * * * *

“Having fully provided for my Nephew Isaac, by making over to him some years since

A Horned Scarabæus, The Skin of a Rattle-Snake, and The Mummy of an Egyptian King,

I make no further Provision for him in this my Will.

“My eldest son John having spoken disrespectfully of his little sister, whom I keep by me in Spirits of Wine, and in many other instances behaved himself undutifully towards me, I do disinherit, and wholly cut off from any Part of this my Personal Estate, by giving him a single Cockle-Shell.

“To my Second Son Charles, I give and bequeath all my Flowers, Plants, Minerals, Mosses, Shells, Pebbles, Fossils, Beetles, Butterflies, Caterpillars, Grasshoppers, and Vermin, not above specified: As also all my Monsters, both wet and dry, making the said Charles whole and sole Executor of this my Last Will and Testament, he paying or causing to be paid the aforesaid Legacies within the space of Six Months after my Decease. And I do hereby revoke all other Wills whatsoever by me formerly made.”

Eustace Budgell

Pope was an excellent satirist; he writes:

“Let Budgell charge lone Grub Street on my quill, And write whate’er he please,--except my will.”

Eustace Budgell was born at St. Thomas near Exeter, England, in 1685, and died in 1737. He was an essayist and miscellaneous writer, and a friend and kinsman of Joseph Addison, who was for a time Secretary of State for Ireland: he accompanied Addison to Ireland as Clerk, and later became under Secretary of State: he was, however, forced to resign his post, and returned to England.

Budgell is said to have lost a fortune in the notorious scheme known to history as the “South Sea Bubble.” He published the _Bee_, a periodical which brought him into considerable notoriety. He studied law and was called to the bar, but attained little success. By the will of Dr. Matthew Tindal, who died in 1733, he was left a legacy of 2000 Guineas: it was claimed that Budgell himself inserted this legacy in the will, which was successfully disputed by the heirs to the Tindal Estate: his prospects and future being ruined, he fell into disgrace and debt, and determined upon self-destruction. Accordingly, 1737, he took a boat at Summerset Stairs, after filling his pockets with stones, and drowned himself in the Thames. On his desk was found a slip of paper on which were written these words:

“What Cato did and Addison approved cannot be wrong.”

Will Of A Child

In “Little Women,” by Louisa M. Alcott, we find Amy’s will, and it is a pretty reflection of the sweet and ingenuous spirit of a child. And humanity would be the happier for it if we could take with us into maturer years, the open hand and the self-forgetfulness of childhood.

Amy decided to follow the example of her Aunt March in will-making, though it cost her many a pang to part with her little treasures. Here is the paper Laurie was asked to read:

“My Last Will And Testament

“I, Amy Curtis March, being in my sane mind, do give and bequeethe all my earthly property--viz. to wit:--namely

“To my father, my best pictures, sketches, maps, and works of art, including frames. Also my $100, to do what he likes with.

“To my mother, all my clothes, except the blue apron with pockets,--also my likeness, and my medal, with much love.

“To my dear sister Margaret, I give my turquoise ring (if I get it), also my green box with the doves on it, also my piece of real lace for her neck, and my sketch of her as a memorial of her ‘little girl.’

“To Jo I leave my breast-pin, the one mended with sealing wax, also my bronze inkstand--she lost the cover--and my most precious plaster rabbit, because I am sorry I burnt up her story.

“To Beth (if she lives after me) I give my dolls and the little bureau, my fan, my linen collars and my new slippers if she can wear them being thin when she gets well. And I herewith also leave her my regret that I ever made fun of old Joanna.

“To my friend and neighbor Theodore Laurence I bequeethe my paper marshay portfolio, my clay model of a horse though he did say it hadn’t any neck. Also in return for his great kindness in the hour of affliction any one of my artistic works he likes, Noter Dame is the best.

“To our venerable benefactor Mr. Laurence I leave my purple box with a looking glass in the cover which will be nice for his pens and remind him of the departed girl who thanks him for his favors to her family, specially Beth.

“I wish my favorite playmate Kitty Bryant to have the blue silk apron and my gold-bead ring with a kiss.

“To Hannah I give the bandbox she wanted and all the patchwork I leave hoping she ‘will remember me, when it you see.’

“And now having disposed of my most valuable property I hope all will be satisfied and not blame the dead. I forgive every one, and trust we may all meet when the trump shall sound. Amen.

“To this will and testament I set my hand and seal on this 20th day of Nov. Anni Domino 1861.

“Amy Curtis March.

“_Witnesses_: { ESTELLE VALNOR, { THEODORE LAURENCE.

“Postscript: I wish all my curls cut off, and given round to my friends. I forgot it; but I want it done, though it will spoil my looks.”

The Will Of Don Quixote

“I feel, good sirs,” said Don Quixote, “that death advances fast upon me. Let us then be serious, and bring me a confessor, and a notary to draw up my will, for a man in my state must not trifle with his soul. Let the notary be sent for, I beseech you, while my friend here, the priest, is taking my confession.”

The priest, having listened to his dying friend’s confession, came out of the room and told them that the good Alonzo Quixano was near his end, and certainly in his right senses; he therefore advised them to go in, as it was full time that his will should be made. These tidings gave a terrible stab to the overcharged hearts of the two ladies and his faithful squire, whose eyes overflowed with weeping, and whose bosoms had well-nigh burst with a thousand sighs and groans; for, indeed, it must be owned, as we have somewhere observed, that whether in the character of Alonzo Quixano the Good, or in the capacity of Don Quixote de la Mancha, the poor gentleman had always exhibited marks of a peaceable temper and agreeable demeanor, for which he was beloved, not only by his own family, but also by all those who had the pleasure of his acquaintance.

The notary entering the apartment with the rest of the company, wrote the preamble of the will, in which Don Quixote disposed of his soul in all the necessary Christian forms; then proceeding to the legacies, he said:

“Item: Whereas, Sancho Panza, whom, in my madness, I made my squire, has in his hands a certain sum of money for my use; and, as divers accounts, disbursements, and pecuniary transactions have passed between us, it is my will that he shall not be charged or brought to account for the said money; but, if there be any overplus after he has deducted the payment of what I owe him, the said overplus, which must be a mere trifle, shall be his own, and much good may it do him; and as, during my disorder, I contributed to his being made governor of an island, I would now, while I enjoy my perfect senses, confer upon him, were it in my power, a whole kingdom, which he richly deserves for the innocency of his heart and the fidelity of his service.”

Then turning to the disconsolate squire, “Forgive me, friend,” said he, “for having been the cause of thy appearing in the eye of the world a madman like myself, by drawing thee into my erroneous notions concerning the existence and adventures of knights-errant.”

“Gentlemen,” said Don Quixote, “let us proceed fair and softly. I was mad, I am now sane; I was Don Quixote de la Mancha; I am now, as formerly styled, Alonzo Quixano the Good. And may my repentance and sincerity restore me to the esteem you once had for me. Now let the notary proceed.

“Item: I bequeath to Antonia Quixano, my niece, here present, all my estate, real and personal, after the payment of all my debts and legacies; and the first to be discharged shall be the wages due to my housekeeper for the time she has been in my service, and twenty ducats besides for a suit of mourning.

“I appoint for my executors signor the priest and signor bachelor Sampson Carrasco, here present.

“Item: It is also my will that, if Antonia Quixano, my niece, should be inclined to marry, it shall be only with a man who, upon the strictest inquiry, shall be found to know nothing of books of chivalry; and, in case it appear that he is acquainted with such books, and that my niece, notwithstanding, will and doth marry him, then shall she forfeit all I have bequeathed her, which my executors may dispose of in pious uses as they think proper.

“And, finally, I beseech the said gentlemen, my executors, that if haply they should come to the knowledge of the author of a certain history dispersed abroad, entitled, ‘The Second Part of the Achievements of Don Quixote de la Mancha,’ that they will, in my name, most earnestly entreat him to forgive me for having been the innocent cause of his writing such a number of absurdities as that performance contains; for I quit this life with some scruples of conscience arising from that consideration.”

The will being thus concluded, he was seized with a fainting-fit, and stretched himself at full length in the bed, so that all the company were alarmed and ran to his assistance. During three days which he lived after the will was signed and sealed, he frequently fainted, and the whole family was in confusion. Nevertheless, the niece ate her victuals, the housekeeper drank to the repose of his soul, and even Sancho cherished his little carcass; for the prospect of succession either dispels or moderates that affliction which an heir ought to feel at the death of the testator.

At last Don Quixote expired, after having received all the sacraments, and in the strongest terms, pathetically enforced, expressed his abomination against all books of chivalry; and the notary observed, that in all the books of that kind which he had perused, he had never read of any knight-errant who died quietly in his bed as a good Christian, like Don Quixote; who, amidst the tears and lamentations of all present, gave up the ghost, or, in other words, departed this life. The curate was no sooner certified of his decease, than he desired the notary to make out a testimonial, declaring that Alonzo Quixano the Good, commonly called Don Quixote de la Mancha, had taken his departure from this life, and died of a natural death; that no other author, different from Cid Hamet Benengeli, should falsely pretend to raise him from the dead, and write endless histories of his achievements.

This was the end of that extraordinary gentleman of La Mancha, whose birthplace Cid Hamet was careful to conceal, that all the towns and villages of that province might contend for the honor of having produced him, as did the seven