Editing Will and testament (section)

== Notable wills ==
[[Image:Alfred Nobels will-November 25th, 1895.jpg|thumb|[[Alfred Nobel]]'s will]]
In [[Classical antiquity|antiquity]], [[Julius Caesar]]'s [[Caesar's will|will]], which named his grand-nephew [[Octavian]] as his [[Roman adoption|adopted son]] and heir, funded and legitimized Octavian's rise to political power in the [[Roman Republic|late Republic]]; it provided him the resources necessary to win the [[Roman civil wars|civil wars]] against the "[[Liberators' civil war|Liberators]]" and [[Final War of the Roman Republic|Antony]] and to establish the [[Roman Empire]] under the name [[Augustus]]. Antony's [[Mark Antony#Leader of the Caesarians|officiating at the public reading of the will]] led to a riot and moved public opinion against Caesar's assassins. Octavian's illegal publication of Antony's sealed will was an important factor in removing his support within Rome, as it described his wish to be buried in [[Alexandria]] beside the [[Ptolemaic Kingdom|Egyptian]] queen [[Cleopatra]].

In the modern era, the ''[[Thellusson v Woodford]]'' will case led to British legislation against the accumulation of money for later distribution and was fictionalized as ''[[Jarndyce and Jarndyce]]'' in [[Charles Dickens]]'s ''[[Bleak House]]''. The [[Nobel Prize]]s were established by [[Alfred Nobel]]'s will. [[Charles Vance Millar]]'s will provoked the [[Great Stork Derby]], as he successfully bequeathed the bulk of his estate to the [[Toronto]]-area woman who had the greatest number of children in the ten years after his death. (The prize was divided among four women who had nine, with smaller payments made to women who had borne 10 children but lost some to miscarriage. Another woman who bore ten children was disqualified, for several were illegitimate.)

The longest known legal will is that of Englishwoman Frederica Evelyn Stilwell Cook. Probated in 1925, it was 1,066 pages, and had to be bound in four volumes; her estate was worth $102,000.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Brown |first1=Gordon W. |title=Administration of wills, trusts, and estates |date=1993 |publisher=Delmar Publishers: Lawyers Cooperative Publ |location=Albany, N.Y |isbn=9780827350533 |page=5}}</ref> The shortest known legal wills are those of Bimla Rishi of [[Delhi]], India (four characters in Hindi meaning "all to son")<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Young |editor1-first=Mark C. |title=The Guinness Book of World Records |date=1998 |publisher=Bantam |location=United States |isbn=9780553578959 |page=265}}</ref> and Karl Tausch of [[Hesse]], Germany, ("Alles meiner Frau", meaning "all to wife").<ref>{{cite book |last1=Medina |first1=John |title=Urh Des Lebens |date=2013 |publisher=Birkhäuser Basel |location=Germany |isbn=9783034860598 |page=235 |language=German}}</ref> The shortest will is of Shripad Krishnarao Vaidya of Nagpur, Maharashtra, consisting of five letters ("HEIR'S").<ref>TARUN BHARAT (www.tarunbharat.net) Nagpur, Saturday, 28 April 2012.</ref><ref>PUNNYA NAGARI (Marathi language daily published at Nagpur) Friday 8 June 2012.</ref>

An unusual holographic will, accepted into probate as a valid one, came out of an accident. On 8 June 1948 in [[Saskatchewan]], Canada, a farmer named Cecil George Harris became trapped under his own [[tractor]]. Thinking he would not survive (though found alive later, he died of his injuries in hospital), Harris carved a will into the tractor's fender, which read:

{{blockquote|In case I die in this mess I leave all to the wife. Cecil Geo. Harris.}}

The fender was probated and stood as his will. The fender is currently on display at the [[law library]] of the [[University of Saskatchewan College of Law]].<ref>On Campus News, January 23, 2009:  [https://wayback.archive-it.org/3890/20210112033002/https://ocnarchives.usask.ca/09-jan-23/see_what_we_found.php The Last Will and Testament of Cecil George Harris].</ref>