John Fane, of Tunbridge, England, died April 6, 1488; his will runs:
“My body to be buried in the church of SS. Peter and Paul, of Tunbridge.... To the prior and convent of Tunbridge, to pray for my soul, xx s., to the high altar of the church of Tunbridge, xx s.; to the structure of the rood-loft thereof, v marks.... To Humphrey Fane, my brother’s son, a house in fee simple, with a garden at the town’s end of Tunbridge.”
Will of Bakhuysen the Painter
Bakhuysen, born at Emden, in 1631, died at Amsterdam, in 1709, was not only a celebrated painter, but a skilful engraver, and a not inelegant poet. There appears to have been a great fund of gayety in his character, and this cheerfulness did not forsake him even in his old age, although he suffered from a lingering disease. Finding his end approaching, he ordered some of the best possible wine to be bought, and, having had it bottled, sealed the corks with his seal; he then placed in a purse seventy-eight gold coins, having lived that number of years, and by his will he invited the same number of friends—each of whom he named—to his funeral, begging them to accept his money and drink his wine with the same cordiality with which he offered it. We should mention that it is the custom in Amsterdam to present a glass of wine to guests attending at a funeral.
Will of Heemskirk
Another Dutch painter, Martin Heemskirk, left by his will a sum to provide annually a dowry for a young girl from his native village, on condition that, on the day of the wedding, the bride and bridegroom should come and dance with the wedding-guests upon his grave. Guy Patin relates this anecdote as having occurred about the middle of the seventeenth century, and declares that the testator’s prescription was faithfully carried out as long as the foundation lasted.
Will of François, Duc De Bretagne
In the will of François, first duke of Brittany, drawn up at Vannes, January 22, 1449, occurs a curious clause relating to the foundations of certain masses, and particularly the mode in which the bells were to be rung for them:
“ ... The largest bell (sain) of the said monastery (moustier) to be rung by twelve strokes (gobetiex); one stroke distant from the other by the space commonly occupied in saying an Ave Maria, and the whole time of ringing to be equivalent to the time it may take to recite a pater, a credo, and a miserere; and for this foundation we have appointed to the said moustier a revenue of CC livres.”
Equally curious, and very similarly expressed, are the wills of Pierre II., Duke of Brittany, September 5, 1457; Marguérite de Bretagne, September 22, 1469; Ysabeau of Scotland, Duke of Brittany, November 16, 1482; François II., Duke of Brittany, September 2, 1488. For these and others consult the works of Barnabé Brisson, 1585-1731.