The late Jesse H. Griffen of Yorktown, New York, who was a prominent citizen of that part of the State, drew his will on a bill-head. Among other provisions were these: “I desire that my corpse be put in a plain walnut coffin and carried in an ordinary spring wagon, and that no tombstone be erected where my mortal remains are deposited. I notice that people in moderate circumstances are often distressed by expensive displays at funerals, and tombstone honors are a truer indication of the vanity of survivors than of the virtues of the dead.”
Will of Philippe Bouton
Philippe Bouton, bailli of Dijon, dying in 1515, desired by his will that fourteen girls should be found, who, being clothed in green cloth,—that hue being sacred to hope,—should attend at his obsequies, and at all the services consequent thereon. He was buried in the church of Corberon.
Will of Charles Bouton (of Poitou)
“I, Charles Bouton, Seigneur of Fay, desire by this my will and testament, that after my death the sacristans of Louhaus shall throw over my coffin a white winding-sheet, that they shall recite the psalter before carrying it into the church; that they shall have my body carried into the Church of St. Peter of Louhaus, where it shall repose one night; that on the following morning it shall be placed on a waggon, such as those used for carting manure, and borne to my chapel of Fay and deposited within its charnel-house, there to be left without any other light than that of four small tapers, each weighing half-a-pound.”
This testator does not appear to have been in any way related to the Philippe Bouton cited above: he died in 1532.
Will of an English Farmer
A Hertfordshire farmer inserted in his will his written wish that “as he was about to take a thirty years’ nap, his coffin might be suspended from a beam in his barn, and by no means nailed down.” He, however, permitted it to be locked, provided a hole were made in the side through which the key might be pushed, so that he might let himself out when he awoke. However, as his death took place in 1720, and in 1750 he showed no signs of waking, his nephew, who inherited his property, after allowing him one year’s grace, caused a hole to be dug and had the coffin put into it.
Will of M. Helloin, Juge de Paix
This gentleman, well known as a magistrate, and residing on his own landed property, close to Caen, in Normandy, France, died in the month of June, 1828. He was of eccentric habits, and of the calmest and most placid disposition. Nothing was ever known to ruffle his equanimity or to disturb the repose and tranquillity of his domestic arrangements. He lived and died unmarried, and passed his life either reclining on a couch or lying in bed. Even when exercising his judicial functions he maintained this recumbent attitude; his bedroom became his audience-chamber, and he gave judgment in a horizontal position, his body lazily stretched out, and his head thrown back on a down pillow. This luxurious life, however, did not suffice to protect him from the inevitable lot of mortals; and M. Helloin, in due time, felt that his end was not far off. Under these circumstances he made his will, apparently with the intention of proving his fidelity to his traditions, for he decreed thereby that “he should be buried at night, in his bed, and in the position in which death should surprise him—viz., with his mattress, sheets, blankets, pillows—and, in short, all that constituted the belongings of a bedstead.” As there was some difficulty in carrying out such a clause, an enormous pit was dug, and the deceased was lowered into his last resting-place exactly as he had died, nothing around or about him having been altered. Boards were placed above the bedstead, in order that the earth, when filled in again, should not trouble the repose of this imperturbable Quietist.