CURIOUS WILLS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16451, 13 June 1921, Page 9

CURIOUS WILLS.

A paragraph figs been going ..the rounds of the papers to the effect that a man has bequeathed his wife a shilling to buy a rope with, and the cynic may perchance come to the conclusion that all Avas not well frith that fumily (states an English exchange). Be that as it may, however, bequests which betoken strife in the household are not entirely unknown. though perhaps more frequently recorded in the days that are gone than in our own times. For instance, a Kentish man in 1691 bequeathed his three undutiful daughters a shilling apiece, and another left three halfpence to a son for the purchase of a rope for his wife, to be used as soon as possible. Another gentleman in 1785, vrho bad evidently led a troubled life, left £SO to “Elizabeth, whom through my foolish fondness I made my -wife, without regard to family, fame or fortune, and who in return lias not'-sp-ared most unjustly to accuse me of . every crime regarding human nature, save highway robbery. 1 ’ While yet another unhappy husband in the seventeenth century bequeathed his wife £IOOO, “not being able to leave her more bv reason of her extravagancy in all things.” It will thus be seen that human nature is strong even in death* and that family troubles extend even beyond the grave to point a moral and adorn a tale.