Ancient, Curious, and Famous WillsHarris, Virgil M. (Virgil McClure)
History
Ancient, Curious, and Famous Wills
Harris, Virgil M. (Virgil McClure)
Wills
In one of the wildest gorges of the Blue Ridge in western North
Carolina, there lived, a few years ago, a man who was a violent infidel;
when he died, it was discovered that in his will he directed that he
should be buried on the summit of one of the loftiest peaks of the Blue
Ridge, and that his epitaph should disclose that he died reviling
Christianity. Instead of carrying out his wishes, his relatives buried
him in a Christian cemetery, and on the spot where he desired to be
buried, placed a large white cross.
WILL OF JOHN FANE
John Fane, of Tunbridge, England, died April 6, 1488; his will runs:
“My body to be buried in the church of SS. Peter and Paul, of
Tunbridge.... To the prior and convent of Tunbridge, to pray for my
soul, xx _s._, to the high altar of the church of Tunbridge, xx _s._; to
the structure of the rood-loft thereof, v marks.... To Humphrey Fane, my
brother’s son, a house in fee simple, with a garden at the town’s end of
Tunbridge.”
WILL OF BAKHUYSEN THE PAINTER
Bakhuysen, born at Emden, in 1631, died at Amsterdam, in 1709, was not
only a celebrated painter, but a skilful engraver, and a not inelegant
poet. There appears to have been a great fund of gayety in his
character, and this cheerfulness did not forsake him even in his old
age, although he suffered from a lingering disease. Finding his end
approaching, he ordered some of the best possible wine to be bought,
and, having had it bottled, sealed the corks with his seal; he then
placed in a purse seventy-eight gold coins, having lived that number of
years, and by his will he invited the same number of friends--each of
whom he named--to his funeral, begging them to accept his money and
drink his wine with the same cordiality with which he offered it. We
should mention that it is the custom in Amsterdam to present a glass of
wine to guests attending at a funeral.
WILL OF HEEMSKIRK
Another Dutch painter, Martin Heemskirk, left by his will a sum to
provide annually a dowry for a young girl from his native village, on
condition that, on the day of the wedding, the bride and bridegroom
should come and dance with the wedding-guests upon his grave. Guy Patin
relates this anecdote as having occurred about the middle of the
seventeenth century, and declares that the testator’s prescription was
faithfully carried out as long as the foundation lasted.
WILL OF FRANÇOIS, DUC DE BRETAGNE
In the will of François, first duke of Brittany, drawn up at Vannes,
January 22, 1449, occurs a curious clause relating to the foundations of
certain masses, and particularly the mode in which the bells were to be
rung for them:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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