Ancient, Curious, and Famous WillsHarris, Virgil M. (Virgil McClure)
History
Ancient, Curious, and Famous Wills
Harris, Virgil M. (Virgil McClure)
Wills
The Rev. Mr. Pitt, an English clergyman, directed sixty penny loaves to
be given to the poor of St. Botolph’s, Bishopsgate, yearly, on Whit
Sunday, by eight o’clock in the morning, upon his tomb, in the
burying-ground, in Old Bethlem.
BLUECOAT BOYS AND PACKETS OF RAISINS
In accordance with the will of Peter Symonds, dated 1586, sixty of the
younger boys of Christ’s Hospital, London, attend divine service at the
Church of Allhallows, Lombard-street, on Good Friday, and are presented
each with a new penny, a bun, and a packet of raisins.
A FIXED PRICE FOR CORN AND WINE
A citizen of Berne, Switzerland, left this unusual will:
“Being anxious for my fellow-citizens of Berne (who have often suffered
by dearth of corn and wine), my Will is that, by the permission of
Providence, they shall never for the future suffer again under the like
calamity, to which end and purpose I give my estate, real and personal,
to the Senate of Berne, in trust for the people; that is to say, that
they receive the produce of my estate till it shall come to the sum of
(suppose two thousand pounds); that then they shall lay out the two
thousand pounds in building a town house, according to a plan by me
left; the lower story whereof to consist of large vaults or repositories
for wine; the story above I direct to be formed into a piazza, for such
persons as shall come to the market at Berne for disposing of their
goods free from the injuries of the weather; above that I direct a
council chamber to be erected for a committee of the Senate to meet in
from time to time to adjust my accounts, and to direct such things as
may be necessary for the charity; and above the council chamber as many
floors for granaries as can be conveniently raised, to deposit a
quantity of corn for the use of the people whenever they shall have
occasion for it. And when this building shall be erected, and the
expense of it discharged, I direct the Senate of Berne to receive the
produce of my estate till the same shall amount to the sum (suppose of
two thousand pounds); and when the price of corn shall be under the mean
rate of the last ten years, one fourth part, they shall then lay out one
thousand pounds in corn, and stow it in my granaries, and the same in
wine, when under one fourth of the mean rate of the last ten years; and
my Will is that none of the said corn or wine shall be sold until the
price of corn and wine shall exceed at the common market one fourth of
the mean rate for the last ten years; and then every citizen of Berne
shall demand daily (and proportionally weekly) as many pounds of wheat
and as many pints of wine as he has mouths in his family to consume, and
no more, and that for the same he pay ready money after the mean rate
that it has been at for the last ten years past, a due proportion being
allowed for waste, and that to be settled by the Senate; and that each
householder shall be so supplied as long as the price of corn and wine
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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