Dead funny legacy
Howard Lake | 11 October 1997 | News
One of Smee and Ford’s more amusing stories of strange-but-true charitable bequests hit the newspapers recently.
Income from a cash bequest left to Jesus Christ should he make a Second Coming will now be handed over to the Crown. The bequest was made by Ernest Digweed who stipulated that the income from his investments should be paid to the Crown after 21 years. Those 21 years are now up, and the Second Coming has not occurred.
Apparently, the executors of the Will have three volumes of files containing the many claims to the bequest. One of the most memorable was the American door-to-door salesman who felt he had a claim to the money since every time he knocked on someone’s door he was met by the phrase “Jesus Christ, not you again!”
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About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.