Will sustained, Codicil rejected
A Protestant clergyman, the Reverend John Markhouse, aged 70, bequeathed £12,000 for the purpose of establishing a school for illegitimate children only, at Bradchurch, Hants, England. He added a codicil providing for educational expenses by a further sum of £8000. The disappointed relatives appealed against the will; but the court, strangely enough, decided in favor of the will and against the codicil, on consideration of the plea that towards the close of his life he had appeared eccentric enough to justify the conclusion that he was not of sound mind when he wrote the latter. Nevertheless the sequitur seems logical enough.
Music
An Englishman, Richard Lane, otherwise Tomson, by his will, dated 24th of July, 1619, gave to one of the deacons of the Cathedral Church of Hereford 40s. yearly forever, to prick fairly into books, songs, and church service, for the use of the same church; and upon his coming every half-year for his wages, he should bring with him the sub-chanter of the choir, who would show to him who had the payment of the money, what he had done in that business the half-year last past; and if he should be found negligent therein, then the payment for that time should be given to twelve poor men the Saturday next following.
Repeat the Catechism on Christmas Day
Robert Barber, Cambridgeshire, England, by will, dated 21st of June, 1818, gave unto the minister of Haslingfield and the tenant of the farm, on which Mr. Wallace then lived, £20 in trust, to be placed out at interest, upon good security, and the interest thereof to be by them given every year after his decease unto that child under the age of thirteen years, who should most perfectly repeat the Catechism, on Christmas Day.
A Plain Case
The will of E. J. Halley was filed for probate in October last at Memphis, Tennessee. It would seem from attendant circumstances that Mr. Halley was not a teetotaler, and that prohibition is not entirely effective in Tennessee.
Mr. Halley was the foster son of a lady known as “Joanna Madden, the hermit”: contrary to the rule in such matters, this hermit left a large estate, consisting of gold and silver snugly put away in her home; a squad of policemen escorted the money to a local bank; this Mr. Halley received, but he did not live long to enjoy it; but it is reported, however, that he did enjoy it while he lived. Death came, and by his will, duly executed, he left the estate to schoolmates, nurses, favorite baseball players, deputy sheriffs, and a few orphan asylums, for good measure; with some of the legatees he was not acquainted. Among other provisions in this highly interesting testament, may be recited the following:
“To the nurse who kindly removed a pink monkey from the foot of my bed, $5000.”