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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1977-06-30, Page 44• ,,irfarecA,4 .4, • 4 '•0 '-'71764,144ritt)5/Nr • •• " • , • •f% • = • = "•• „s. The famous will of ;las •=:, (Head of the Canada Company grotty which founded Gadorjah) faintly'. 1 .'Wcitild haA left. it. to . old John In response to many requests, we publish here the will of Dr. William ("Tiger") Dunlop, outstanding figure of the early days of the - Huron Tract. Probably no other testament- arydocuMent in Canada is so well known - It has been republished times without number, and although more than a century has, passed since it was written there is apparentlyno diminution of interest in it. . • ' THE LATH "TIGER" 'DUNLOP IN THE NAME OF GOD, AMEN I, William Dunlop of Gairbraid in the Township of Colborne, County and District Of Huron, Western Canada, Esquire, being in sound health of -body, and my mind just as usual (which my friends whollthter me say is no great shakes at the best of times), do make this my last will and testament as fol- lows, revoking of course all former wills. I leave the property of Gairbraid and all other landed property I may die possessed of to my sisters Helen Boyle Story. and Elizabeth Boyle Dunlop, the former because she is mar- ried to -la minister Whom (God -help him) she henpecks—the latter beeause she is married • to nobody nor is she likely to be, for she is an old maid and not market rife, and also I leave to them, and their heirs, my share of the stock and implements on the farm, pro- vided always that the enclosure round my brother's grave be reserved—and if either should -die without issue then the other to inherit the whole. I leave to my sister-in-law Louisa Dunlop all my share of the household furniture and such traps with the exceptions hereinafter, mentioned. I leave my silver tankard to the eldest son of old John as the representative of •the Is ,o 'himself, but he Would ,melt it down to inake temperance medals and t at would be sacri- • lege. However, I leave, my big horn snUffbox • to -him; he, can. only make temperance horn spoons of that. - I leave my sister Jenny my Bible, the pro- • perty formerly. of my great -great-grand- mother Bethia Hamilton of Wood Hall, and when she knows as much of the spirit of it as she does of the letter, she will be another guise Christian than she is. .._ - I also leave my late brother's watch to my brother Sandy, exhoiting" him at the same time to give -'up whiggery, radicalism and all other sins that do most easily beset him. 'I leave my brother Allen my big silver snuff-box, as I am, 'informed he is rather a decent Christian witha swag belly and a jolly face. I leave Parson Chevasse (Maggy's husband) the snuff-box I got from the Sarnia Militia, as a small, token of my gratitude for .the ser- vice he has done the family in taking a sister that no man of taste would have taken. I leave John 'Caddie a silver teapot, to the end that he may drink tea therefrom to com- fort him under the affliction of a slatternly wife. I leave my books to my brother Andrew, because he has been so long a Jungley Wallah that he may learn to read with them. I give my silver cup with a sovereign in it to my sister Janet Graham Dunlop, because • she is an old maid, and pious, and therefore • will necessarily .take to lalTing, and also my Granna's snuff mull, as it looks, decent to see old women taking snuff. I do hereby constitute and appoint John Dunlop, Esquire, of Gairbraid, Alexander "Dunlop, Esq., advocate, Edinburgh, Alan C. Dunlop, Esquire, and William Chalk, of Tiiekersmith, William Steward and William Gooding, Esquires, Goderieh, to be the ex- ecutors of this my last will and testament. In witness whereof I have set my hand and seal the thirty-first day of August in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred •and forty-two.' • (signed) Dunlop" (L.S.) • The above instrument of one, sheet was at the date thereof declared to us by the testator William Dunlop, Esquire, to -be 'his last will and testament and he then acknowledged to - each of us that he had subscribed_the_same and we at his request -signed our names hereunto as attesting witnesses, Witnesses—"James Clouting" "Patrick McNaughton" "Elizabeth Steward." I have perused the above will. It is ec- centric, but it is not, on that score, illegal or informal. To a mind who knows the mind of the testator, •it will remain a relic of his perfect indifference (an indifference to be • adxnired, in my opinion) to what is called "Fashion" even in testamentary matters. I conceive it to be a just and a proper will, and no person can question its legality in point of form or substance. • (Sgd.) John Prince, Q.C., 'Montreal, 5th July, 1847. el iPq er g be y, 0)0 dit e tel 1st TO gi Go pan P ,ws essi B es Be. tics 811 're of 111 ran a t ha su liE 1 e. ea e W mi en on tI by On, • • , • rr 4