“Lastly. I nominate, constitute and appoint my said two sons Executors and my wife Executrix of this my last Will and Testament hereby revoking and annulling all other and former Wills by me made.
“In witness whereof I have hereunto signed my name and affixed my seal this nineteenth day of April in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and forty one.
Will of Phineas Taylor Barnum
Phineas Taylor Barnum died April 7, 1891. The Probate Court of Bridgeport, Connecticut, will, on request, furnish you with a copy of his will; it would seem that printer’s ink is used by Barnum’s executors, following the testator’s example, for the will is in the shape of a booklet containing fifty-three pages, and is the most lengthy testamentary document which has come under our observation. The legacies and gifts under it exceed one hundred and fifty in number and several million dollars in amount. Then are added to the will, eight codicils of unusual length and of great particularity. The will itself is dated the 30th day of January, 1882, the last codicil, the year in which he died, 1891.
By the will, the testator gives an annuity of $9000 to his wife, Nancy, together with the use of certain personal property; there is also given her, the use for life of his residence, “Waldemere,” which was a villa in imitation of the Brighton Pavilion. He says: “I love the pleasant city of my adoption (Bridgeport), and ardently hope for its moral and material improvement; a large share of my income, during my residence here of nearly forty years, has been devoted to its public and private charities, and to improving and developing its parks, avenues, and its waste places, erecting houses, factories, &c. Having thus preferred to see my money used here, under my own eyes, rather than to leave it to be used by others.” There is an annuity of $1500 given a daughter, Helen, during her natural life, subject to certain legacies and annuities; the residue of his estate is placed in the hands of trustees to be divided equally between a daughter, Caroline C. Thompson, the children of a deceased daughter, Pauline T. Seeley, and the children of a daughter, Helen M. Buchtel. The old family Bible, the bust of Jenny Lind, and the contract with Jenny Lind, are given to his daughter, Caroline: seven gifts of books are made to publishers, “as a faint recognition of the Public Press, to which I am so much indebted.”
From the profits of the “show business,” the executors are directed to reserve a fund of $200,000, “to meet the outlays yearly required for the successful prosecution of said business in an honorable, respectable and strictly moral manner with a view to refine and elevate such recreations and to edify and instruct as well as innocently amuse those who attend them; and the agents employed for the purpose must be qualified and of temperate habits, and undoubted integrity.”
By the first codicil, a diamond stud is given to his wife, Nancy, to be hers absolutely: numerous bequests are made, many of them for charitable purposes, including an endowment fund for “Barnum Institute” for scientific purposes. The testator states, that having no son, the name Barnum will not be continued, and on condition that his grandson, Clinton H. Seeley, will call himself Barnum Seeley, and take legal steps to change his name, he is to receive $25,000.
In codicil number two, numerous bequests and legacies are made, and an estimated value of three million dollars is placed on his estate. Reference is made to a gift of $2500 for “preaching the Gospel and distributing Universalist Literature.”
Codicil number three revokes certain provisions of codicil number one.