JUDGE BACON'S WILL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 24, 13 September 1911, Page 2

JUDGE BACON'S WILL.

it is curious'to i observe how ioft’eii judges and otucr famous lawyers fail lamonlably to draw up correctly their .'•vii ’.tills, or to see that they are drawn/wr’ectJ.v. ‘ltie last addition to ti is mi, si of distinguished <> r defaulters (says lhe .London "Daily Telegraph") ia ms Honour Judge Francis Hfeitry Bacon, judge of the Bloomsbury r,ami Whitechapel Count yi.Goui ts since ltd 8 .mo Jett estate of the gross value-1 pt A 1118,408, of which the net porspuillly has oeeu sworn at ,L117,4ri3. I'Jlho will is written on a sheet of blue Court foolscap, and contains several interlineations and alterations which!rare neitner signed nor witnessed, and an .ailidavit as to the condition and exc'cution of the will was required from Mr Edward Hueliil, solicitor, and Mr Edmund Law, housekeeper, both of tne Bloomsbury County Court, before probate coidd be granted. The grant is issued on the registrar’s fiat copy, and not on the original will. xi is Honour sinned in the company of sucii men as the late Lord St. Holier (who, as Sir Francis Jeunc, was for many years head of the Probate Division of the High Court which deals witn will disputes), and Lord/ Gtrinthorpe, each of whose wills was tlie subject of protracted litigation as to tlie meaning of the testator, and Lord Brougham and Lord Lyndhurst, each of whom had served as Lord Chancellor. Stranger still, perhaps, was the case of the late Mr John Joyce, examiner at the Principal .Probate Registry at Somerset House, who spent a considerable'portion of Ids official life in detecting errors iu the wills of oilier people, and yet made his own so unsatisfactorily chat an affidavit was required as to the meaning of certain passages therein.