TWO CURIOUS WILLS.

Evening Star, Issue 12765, 19 March 1906, Page 4

TWO CURIOUS WILLS.

1 To K S& cousin and sdllcltof,. Mr George Solomon Joseph, the late Mr Louis Jephtoihi a Jew, of t Silliwood road, Brighten, ivrote on February 24,, 1905: "My dear debrge,—lt has only Some to ,- my. knowledge this week think joe's Bon Charles. Jlis wife, and children are Pro- " testahts. Had I known" this when I madb ihe original will, I certainly should not havd bequeathed the £B,OOO now settled " on Ennua and Alice during their joint h>es, atld devised to JcV and his wife Phtebe, and then to their children. You trill totedse at once made a, codicil bequeath"* nig the £B,OOO thus: £5,000 to my'neph«Mv Alfred Wolff and £3,000 to Charles Jephson mid. his children. I suppose I can get my two servants to sign, this codicil? Do this at once;" This oodicil was executed on.'March 3, 1905. and became the fourth to a will dated July 9, 1901. la an action, brought on January 19 the plaintiffs were Dr Alfred Wolff and Mr Joseph,' while the defendant were sis: relatives—parents and four children—who sought to upset the last codicil} alleging' that the testator's mind was unsound at the time. The jury found in faVor of th© last codicil. A curious bequest was referred to when the last will of MisS Lena Beatrice- Clayton Browne, of Park street, Windsor, who died dn 1904 at the -age of thirty-two. came before the Probate Court at London on iTatofuary 19. The plaintiff' was the testatrix's cousin, Mr George Lawrence Stewart, who, with her brother-in-law, Sir Wfllianx Henry Hornby, Bark, of Pleasingtoai Hail, Blackburn, were the executors of a will dated August 11, 1900. The defendant.was Mr William Dealtry Browne, a brother of the testatrix, who alleged that she was of nnsound mind at the time the will was drawn up. After leaving £IOO each to heir brothers and a sister, and a k few other legacies, the testatrix cave instructions for the whole residue,»with interest, to be accumulated for five years "for the erection, without" buying land, of an ornamental structure of Gothic design, 6Uch as a inafket cross or street crossing refuge hi the .style of a market cross, tall cldck, street iamp-sta&d, or all combined, ifi, a central part of Loffldian, tdie plan whereof shall be offered for open competition, and ' ultimately decided upon, by the Royal Institute of British Architects, and I especially desire that no dnscription of my Same shall be placed on such erection," She expressed a desire for the foUowingv inscription:—"Many and munificent ate the gift(3 mmistoring to the ilk of the flesh, therefore is this structure dedicated merely to the more neglected gladdening of the eye. 'A thing of beauty is a joy for ever.'" His Lordship: Who takes the property in the event of the defence being proved"? Mr Priestly, K.G. (for the defendant): Her brother, under a will of Jtffie 12, 1895. Th© estate was said to be worth about £12,500. Eventually His Lordship pronounced against the will of 1900.