Last will and testament

“ A distinction was formerly made between a will and a testament; when lands or tenements were devised in writing, it was by will, and when goods and chattels were disposed of, it was by testament; but this distinction is now lost sight of, and the words are used indiscriminately, and we speak of the posthumous disposition of an estate, of whatever kind, as by last will and testament.
Since peculiar perils and obstacles beset a man in his last hours; as much uncertainty and contention have arisen as to his precise purpose and declaration ”

“ I Maurice Barrowe, of Barningham, in the County of Suffolk, Esquire, duly weighing the mutable condition of this life and certainty of death manifested by daily examples, to prevent cares of the world at that time, (those distracting interrupters of a dislodging soul,) now in my perfect health and entire memory, to the glory of God, quiet of my mind, designing of my heirs, satisfaction of my debts, remembrance of my friends and recompense of my servants, do make and ordain this my last will and testament.”
Pathetic, indeed, death-bed wills too often are. ”

“ Many persons have a superstition on the subject of making their last will and testament, and think that when every thing is ready signed and sealed, there is nothing farther left to delay their departure. ”

“ In regard to this subject he asserts that the rule is, if a man's testament be confirmed (and it is confirmed by his death) no man dare alter it nor add to it nor take away from it. So the jurists declare it to be a divine law that no one should break a man's last will. ”

“ I Simpson Strachan, of said Island, and in the town of St. George Northant, do make this codicil to my last will and testament dated 1786, the day and month I do not at present recollect nor can I have recourse to said will by reason of its being buried under ground to prevent its being burnt by the enemy.” Sometimes a happy chance may preserve the tenour of a will. [Pg 53] The estate of a testatrix who died in 1872 being at the time valueless, her will was not proved. But recent improvement in certain property made probate a necessity. ”

“ To come to Paul's argument. Civil law, which is God's ordinance, prohibits tampering with any testament of man. Any person's last will and testament must be respected. Paul asks: "Why is it that man's last will is scrupulously respected and not God's testament? You would not think of breaking faith with a man's testament. Why do you not keep faith with God's testament?" ”

“ It is my will and I do direct that neither the legacy to my granddaughter in the fifth item of my said last will and testament, or the legacy to Hester Prince in the seventh item of my said will, shall bear any interest until the same are due and payable, as provided in said items of my said will. ”

“ If I die, it is the Señor Calthorp and Kentucky Bob who will carry out my desires, no? But I do not wish to die first. I wish to live, I myself.”
“Yes—yes! We all wish that.”
“And must I die that my little one may get the good of Santa Trinidad?”
“There is nothing to prevent your giving it to her now, while you are still alive; but a ‘last will and testament’ implies the death of the testator before action is taken upon it.” Then Judge Courtenay went on to explain, as simply and briefly as he could, the various methods by which Sutro Vives could benefit his favorite ”

“ By his last will and testament, the testator in question, Messer Lodovico Cortusio, forbids any of his friends and relatives to weep at his funeral. He among them who shall be found so weeping shall be disinherited; while, on the other hand, he who shall laugh most heartily shall be his principal heir and universal legatee. ”

“ The same embarrassment occurs, perhaps in a greater degree, in the exposition of several passages in the eighth and ninth chapters of the Epistle to the Hebrews, (manifestly written by a profound lawyer, be he Paul or Apollos) , where he uses language applicable indifferently both to a covenant inter vivos and a last will. For with us, a testament is simply a declaration of the last will of the testator, in regard to the disposition of his property after his decease, irrespective of any consent, or even knowledge, at the time, on the part of him to whom the estate is given ”

“ A child, ever so old, who should utterly deface his father's last will and testament, which had made ample provisions for his future wants, merely because he had not a perfect understanding of it, or on suspicion that there were some possible defects in it, could not be considered prudent in so doing. ”

“ This present one I declare being the only good one in which faith is to be put and which I require my executors, Administrators or Assigns will put in execution and adhere to and any other will or testament existing I may have forgotten to destroy, and differing from the substances, or intentions of the several articles of this one, I declare them null and of no force value, but this present one being made and written by me in my sound senses and good health. ”

“ I Obadiah Hughes, of Aldermanbury, London, Minister of the Gospel and Doctor in Divinity, (being sensible of the frailty and uncertainty of life, and reckoning it a duty of very great importance incumbent upon every man to set his house in order, as well as his heart, before he dies,) do make this my last will and testament in manner following. I recommend my soul into the hands of God, to whom I am humbly bold thro’ Jesus Christ to claim a relation as my God and my Father ”

“ All the rest of my goodes Chattels, Leases, plate, jewles and Household stuffe whatsoever after my dettes and Legasies paied and my funerall expences discharged, I gyve devise and bequeath to my Sonne in Lawe John Hall gent and my daughter Susanna his wief whom I ordaine and make executors of this my Last will and testament. ”

“ A merchant, James Clegg, whose will was proved the same year as Johnson’s, declared that he made his testament “to explain my last will for the distribution of what shall result to be my property and to me belonging at the time of my decease, in such manner that I hope not to embroil those persons who will have the pleasure of surviving me.” Wills that stir the passions and sting the memory are indeed of frequent occurrence. Wills that satisfy every friend must surely be few. ”

“ Concerning the making of a latter testament, so large and ample is the liberty of making testaments that a man may, as oft as he will, make a new testament, even until his last breath; neither is there any cautel under the sun to prevent this liberty; but no man can die with two testaments, and therefore the last and newest is of force ”

“ Almighty, have made this my present testament of my last will for the disposing of the worldly goods which God has graciously granted to me.”
Such general prefaces have almost entirely disappeared from modern wills, but they were formerly a notable feature. It might be imagined that some justification was needed if a man intended to make his will. They are often beautiful, and sometimes quaint. ”

“ So it has been again and again, from the case of Mary Stuart, writing her will in her own hand during the last hours before her execution, or of Archbishop Laud drawing up his will in the Tower, to the case of Señor Ferrer, dictating his testament in the prison chapel at Barcelona.
II
Strange histories, it will be seen, lie behind wills, dull and similar as at first sight the majority appears. The history may not always be explicit, but the suggestion conveyed by some gift or revocation, some phrase or fact, may often be completed by the reader’s imagination. ”

“ G. Clemson in our presence and acknowledged by him, to each one of us, and he, at the same time, published and declared the same to be his last will and testament, and we, at his request, and in his presence, and in the presence of each other, have signed our names as witnesses hereto. ”

“ The word testament is another name for the promise that God made unto Abraham concerning Christ. A testament is not a law, but an inheritance. Heirs do not look for laws and assessments when they open a last will; they look for grants and favors. The testament which God made out to Abraham did not contain laws. ”

“ But will-making may have a sinister attraction, a suspicion of something hardly sane. Fragments of Chatterton’s will have already been quoted. Apprenticed to an attorney, he strove to get free, and as a last means to induce his master to dismiss him, he left in the office this strange document, dated April 14, 1770, in which his approaching suicide was announced. It had the effect desired. “All this wrote between 11 and 2 o’clock Saturday, in the utmost distress of mind. April 14, 1770. This is the last will and testament of me, Thomas Chatterton, of the city of Bristol ”

“ Among the many other expressions in your invective, you said: "If you were to burn with fire the testament of a dead man, would you not be punished as the falsifier of a will? What therefore is likely to become of you who have burned the most holy law of our God and Judge?" In these words you have paid no attention to what certainly ought to have moved you, to the question of how it might be that we should burn the testament, and yet stand fast in the inheritance which was described in that testament; but it is marvellous that you have preserved the testament and lost the inheritance. ”

“ In his great mercy he has caused us to be born again into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, kept in heaven for you, 5 who are protected by God's power through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. ”

“ Here in the presence of my God While yet He spares me from His rod, Of perfect memory and mind And wholly to His will resigned, Not knowing how my lot shall be, Or if my soul may suddenly The summons hear to haste away Unto the realms of deathless day, Ere mortal flesh and spirit faint Or sickness all the senses taint, Before I lose the good intent, I make my will and testament. ”

“ But [Pg 231] men should often be put in remembrance to take order for the settling of their temporal estates, whilst they are in health.” In other chapters this subject has been touched, and instances have been given of wills made in the hour of death. But when no will is made, no friend is near, can the spirit of the dying or of the dead indicate his last will? ”

“ There is a remarkable certainty in the fulfillment of this wonderful will. It is as far above any earthly will or testament as the heavens are higher than the earth. In an earthly will made by man, the very incident that makes the will of force also makes it liable to become annulled; for after the death of the testator there frequently is found a defect in the will, also there are instances where the heirs, dissatisfied with their portion of the inheritance, proceed by legal process to annul the entire will and have a new one made according to their own desires. ”

“ It is certain that, in the old Roman Law of Inheritance, the notion of a will or testament is inextricably mixed up, I might almost say confounded, with the theory of a man's posthumous existence in the person of his heir.
The conception of a universal succession, firmly as it has taken root in jurisprudence, has not occurred spontaneously to the framers of every body of laws. ”

“ It has hitherto been believed that, in the infancy of the human race, wills were practically unknown. There probably never was a time when testaments, in some form or other, did not exist; but, in the earliest ages, it has so far been assumed that they were never written, but were nuncupatory, or delivered orally, probably at the deathbed of the testator. Among the Hindus to this day the law of succession hinges upon the due solemnization of fixed ceremonies at the dead man’s funeral, not upon any written will. ”

“ A duly executed testament remains valid until either revoked or rescinded.
1 A will is revoked when, though the civil condition of the testator remains unaltered, the legal force of the will itself is destroyed, as happens when, after making his will, a man adopts as his son either an independent person, in which case the adoption is effected by imperial decree, or a person already in power, when it is done through the agency of the praetor according to our constitution. In both these cases the will is revoked, precisely as it would be by the subsequent birth of a family heir. ”

“ A man is said to die intestate who either has made no will at all, or has made one which is invalid, or if one which has been duly executed has been subsequently revoked, or rescinded, or finally, if no one accepts as heir under the testament. ”

“ And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance."—Heb. 9:7-15.
"Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: ... Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein which are offered by the law; then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. ”