When a person dies, they will have written a will stating how their finances and possessions should be distributed. In this article, we’re going to talk about the four strange things famous people have requested in their wills.
There comes a day when our days will end. To prepare for this, you should have a will in place. This will determine how your assets and possessions will be distributed.
Thinking about what should be included in your will can be daunting. But your chosen solicitors in Swansea, Cardiff or any other area across the UK will be able to provide advice on what can be included.
Odd Requests In Wills
People often leave various things in their wills, the usual being property, investments and savings. Although, your will can include all sorts! Will can include requests and messages to loved ones. It can also include weird and bizarre requests.
Ever wondered what some of those weird and bizarre requests might have been?
Keep reading to learn more…….
Shakespeare’s Wife Gets Second Best Bed
One man that never fails to surprise us, especially since his death, is Shakespeare. The world-famous English poet and playwright William Shakespeare passed away aged 52. He died on the 23rd of April, 1616, his birthday.
In Shakespeare’s Will, the main bulk wasn’t left to his wife, Anna Hathaway, but to his eldest daughter, Susanna. But the interesting part of his will is the one request that his wife was to have the second-best bed.
We wonder what Anna did to receive only the second-best bed and not the first best.
Benjamin Franklin’s Will
One poor daughter was still required to follow her father’s wishes even after his death. Benjamin Franklin, one of the United States of America’s founding fathers, hated jewellery. That hatred followed him all the way to death in 1790. He requested that his daughter and her daughters would not wear any jewellery.
The exact words used in his Will stated the following:
“The king of France’s picture, set with four hundred and eight diamonds, I give to my daughter, Sarah Bache, requesting, however, that she would not form any of those diamonds into ornaments either for herself or daughters, and thereby introduce or countenance the expensive, vain, and useless fashion of wearing jewels in this country; and those immediately connected with the picture may be preserved with the same.”
Look After My Cat
You might be thinking a request to care for a pet is normal, but this request from the singer Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O’Brien, best known as Dusty Springfield, is far from normal, with extensive and bizarre instructions setting out how she desired her precious cat to be taken care of after her passing.
So, to get to the juicy part, which you are all so eager to hear, Dusty wanted her cat Nicholas to be fed imported baby food from the USA and nothing less. He was to receive an indoor 7-foot treehouse and to be entertained with Dusty’s late records.
But the requests do not stop there, and they almost sound as if Dusty thought her cat was a human being. Nicholas was to sleep on Dusty’s nightgown, which she was wearing when she died, might we add and her pillowcase and lastly, to get married to the female cat of Dusty’s friend.
Scatter My Ashes In Space
I’m sure if we were all able to request for our ashes to be scattered in space that we certainly wouldn’t pass up on the offer, especially as the vast majority of us will never step foot into space. But the creator of Star Trek, Gene Roddenberry, wanted exactly this and rightly so when he created a whole film franchise based on space.
His final wishes set out in his will stated that he wanted his ashes to be scattered from a space satellite that was orbiting earth.
Rene died on October 24th, 1991, and after six years with one failed attempt during a 1992 space mission, his final wish came true in 1997 when he was taken onboard the Celestis Founder’s Flight 1 and scattered in space alongside two other individuals.
Wills Can Include Anything You Want
What you can conclude from this article is that many people make strange requests in their wills, and we believe that there are most likely even weirder requests out there waiting to be discovered, perhaps even by you when reading through a family member or friends will.
Do you have any strange requests that will be put in your Will? Let us know in the comment box below.
