So, after contemplating some of these peculiar and generally uncomfortable departures from the straight line of human conduct, one feels that Dryden spoke by the card when he said, “There is a pleasure sure in being mad which none but madmen know.”
Practical Suggestions for Writing Wills
Mr. John Marshall Gest, a prominent member of the Philadelphia Bar, delivered an address to the students of the Law School of the University of Pennsylvania, October 17th, 1907, on “Practical Suggestions for Writing Wills.” It is by far the most entertaining and erudite composition the author has ever read on the subject. It can be found in the American Law Register for November, 1907, Volume 55, No. 8. Mr. Gest opens his address in the following words:
“Every man who knows how to write thinks he knows how to write a will, and long may this happy hallucination possess the minds of our lay brethren, for surely St. Ives, the Patron Saint of lawyers, extends to none a heartier welcome in the life beyond than to the Jolly Testator who makes his own Will.”
Too little is recorded of this Patron Saint of the legal profession. The author offers the following information concerning him:
Over in France, on its western shore, is a peninsula, the province of Bretagne, or Brittany, and on its rock-bound coast the waves of the Atlantic forever beat; it derives its name from the fact that during early history, the inhabitants of Great Britain, in times of local strife, left their native country, and went to Brittany to reside. This province is one of the most interesting portions of Europe, being rich in history and Celtic ruins, and its landscapes are said to be surprisingly beautiful; its people still retain their ancient language and customs.
In the year 1253, there was born in Brittany, of a noble family, one Yves-Helori, who is recognized the world over as the Patron Saint of lawyers; he espoused the cause of the orphan, the widow, and the poor; he was greatly honored by his countrymen, and was canonized by Clement VI at Avignon; many monuments have been erected and hymns written to perpetuate his virtues and his memory; he died at the age of fifty years, and on a tablet in one of the churches of Brittany are these words in Latin:
“St. Ives was of Brittany;
He was a lawyer, and not a robber,
At which the people wondered.”
Following the opening words of his address, Mr. Gest says: “But with deference to amateur lawyers, it is by no means easy to draw a proper will. Lord Coke said, in Butler and Baker’s case, one which had been argued twenty-one times, “I find great doubts and controversies daily arise on devises made by last wills, in respect of obscure and insensible words and repugnant sentences, the will being made in haste, and some pretend that the testator in respect of extreme pain was not compos mentis and divers other scruples and questions are moved upon wills. But if you please to devise your lands by will, make it by good advice in your perfect memory and inform your Counsel truly of the estates and tenures of your land, and by God’s Grace the resolution of the Judges in this case will be a good direction to learned counsel to make your will according to law and thereby prevent questions and controversies.”
“For some three centuries,” adds Mr. Gest, “this sound advice has been open to him who would read it, and yet testators have such a reluctance to pay a fee to a lawyer, that they will draw their wills themselves, sometimes with the assistance of Dunlap, or have them, as Lord Coke says in the preface to the second Volume of his Reports, ‘Intricately, absurdly and repugnantly set down by parsons, scriveners and such other imperites.’”