Some Queer Wills — "I Bequeath Eternal Damnation"

Some Queer Wills

1889

Extraordinary Documents Copied from South Carolina Court Records

In overhauling some of the old books in the records of the probate court, Judge Gleason has, according to the Charleston News and Courier, come across some queer documents. Here are some of them:

A man, who has been dead so long that he shall be nameless, was hanged in Charleston for murder. He protested his innocence to the last, and the day before his execution made a will leaving his personal property, valued at $439 in money, and a silver watch and chain to his relative. The last clause of the will is as follows:

"As I am to be hung to-morrow for the murder of ——, of which crime I am innocent, and firmly believing that I was found guilty by a packed jury, I bequeath to this jury eternal damnation, and in order that their names may be known to posterity I herein insert their names,——, foreman, and eleven others. I order and direct that my executor hereinafter named shall deliver my body to the medical students of Charleston, S. C., and they are requested to have my bones properly cleaned, my skeleton properly mounted, so that it will pass down as a proof of the bribery and corruption used in the conviction of an innocent man."

Another man, long since deceased, and who was evidently a wealthy Frenchman, after disposing of his estate, provides for an erring daughter as follows:

"It is to me a great cause of mortification and regret to mention the name of Clotilde, my daughter, now twenty-three years old. To protect this instrument I bequeath to her one barleycorn. I pray she will repent and prepare for the Lord's forgiveness."

Another man, who was a widower, and had an only daughter who seems to have been the cause of much trouble to her father, disposes of his estate and gives to his daughter "My blood horse, Jim, feeling satisfied that if she will either ride or drive him it is likely she will be brought home a corpse, in which satisfactory event then let the horse be sold and the proceeds given to the poor."