A Will in Rhyme
Another poetic will, that of John Hedges, late of Finchley, Middlesex, was proved in an English court on July 5, 1737, and is worthy of a place among quaint and eccentric wills. It reads as follows:
“This fifth of May,
Being airy and gay,
To trip not inclined,
But of vigorous mind,
And my body in health,
I’ll dispose of my wealth;
And of all I’m to leave
On this side the grave,
To some one or other,
I think to my brother.
“But because I presaw
That my brother-in-law
I did not take care,
Would come in for a share,
Which I noways intended,
Till their manners were mended—
And of that there’s no sign.
“I do therefore enjoin,
And strictly command,
As witness my hand,
That nought I have got
Be brought to hotch-pot.
“And I give and devise,
Much as in me lies,
To the son of my mother,
My own dear brother,
To have and to hold
All my silver and gold,
As the affectionate pledges
Of his brother,
“John Hedges.”
Will of William Hickington
William Hickington, who died in the year 1770, wrote his will in rhyme, as follows:
“This is my last will,
I insist on it still;
To sneer on and welcome,
And e’en laugh your fill.
I, William Hickington,
Poet of Pocklington,
Do give and bequeath,
As free as I breathe,
To thee, Mary Jarum,
The Queen of my Harum,
My cash and my cattle,
With every chattel,
To have and to hold,
Come heat or come cold,
Sans hindrance or strife,
Though thou art not my wife.
As witness my hand,
Just here as I stand,
The twelfth of July,
In the year Seventy.
“Wm. Hickington.”