Commonalities in the Wills of History’s Famous Figures
Because many wills from the 18th and 19th centuries can now be accessed electronically, fascinating details about the final wishes of history’s most influential figures may be discerned. These wills are a unique record of the people and things valued in life, and reveal that some things transcend over time—one being the extent to which colleagues become our closest friends.
For example, Charles Darwin stated in his will, “I give and bequeath to each of my friends, Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker and Thomas Henry Huxley Esquire, the legacy or sum of one thousand pounds sterling free of legacy duty as a slight memorial of my life-long affection and respect for them.” Economist John Keynes named his Cambridge University colleague and friend Richard Kahn as an executor and trustee in his will, asking him to care for and protect his professional and personal legacy.
See Ben Rossi, The Digitised Wills of Alan Turing and Charles Darwin Reveal a Surprising Similarity in Their Final Wishes, Information Age, Apr. 10, 2015.