QUEER WILLS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22907, 15 June 1936, Page 13

QUEER WILLS

PENSION FOR HORSE WIVES NOT TREATED SO WELL , A pension of las a week for life—for a horse. That was the provision made in the will recently of Mr Henry R. I. Webster, a manufacturer in the Midlands (writes T. R., in the Yorkshire Weekly Post). , ; Lucky horse! But not as lucky as a dog owned by the late Miss Harriet Jay,, author of "When Knights Were Bold." When Miss Jay died four years ago she left a pension of 30s a week for the upkeep of her dog. Nor m lucky as an Ealing tabby cat with the imposing name " Dudly Thomas Ryder, which received two inheritances, each of £2O a year, from two sisters who had been its joint owners. Many strange bequests have been left during the last few years. Probably one of the strangest was that of. a Carlisle woman who died about 18 months ago. She left £I2OO for the upkeep of her cat provided it had no kittens. If a family arrived, it was stipulated, the money should go to the woman's relatives. Pussy is atill alive, but she has lost her inheritance. ■•.■—'. When Mr P. K. L. Roche, of Hendon, died about four yeare ago, he left » fortune of £51,499. Of that, £45,000 was bequeathed to animals, and the balance went to his wife and family, with whom he had lived happily for many years. • Stranger still was the provision in the will of a Mrs Wendel, member of a family of famous New York millionaires, who left her entire mansion to her pet dog and stipulated that butlers, footmen, and other servants should carry on as usual until the dog died. In the archives of Somerset Houat scores of queer wills are to be found. One made last year bequeathed £SO each to three members of Rochford Golf Club "to provide a Sunday morning remembrance of many happy reunions at the nineteenth hole." Another similar one was that of an angler who left £2O to provide an outing for the members of his club, at which he hoped good sport would be enjoyed "and no mourning worn." Cruelty in wills is a commonplace. "To my wife —one farthing, to be sent in an unstamped envelope" is a typical example. Another includes the paragraph : " My estate would have been considerably larger had it not been for my unfortunate marriage with the cleverestknown legal daylight robber. My associations with this perambulating human vinegar-cruet I consider to have cost me considerably over £400." Scores of husbands, in their wills, forbid their widows to re-marry on pain of forfeiture of their inheritance. But a married woman directed her executors to seek out "some nice, good, pretty girl," who would make an affectionate second wife for her husband.