20 The Smithsonian Institution 



with Mr. Auboin, at Bourg la Reine, near Paris, I give and 

 bequeath for his life the whole of the income arising from my 

 property of every nature & kind whatever, after the payment 

 of the above Annuity, & after the death of John Fitall, that 

 Annuity likewise, the payments to be made to him at the time 

 of the interest or dividends becomes due on the Stocks or 

 other property from which the income arises. 



" Should the said Henry James Hungerford have a child or 

 children, legitimate or illegitimate, I leave to such child or 

 children, his or their heirs, executors, & assigns, after the 

 death of his, or her, or their Father, the whole of my property 

 of every kind absolutely & forever, to be divided between 

 them, if there is more than one, in the manner their father 

 shall judge proper, or, in case of his omitting to decide this, 

 as the Lord Chancellor shall judge proper. 



" Should my said Nephew, Henry James Hungerford, 

 marry, I empower him to make a jointure. 



" In the case of the death of my said Nephew without leav- 

 ing a child or children, or the death of the child or children he 

 may have had under the age of twenty-one years or intestate, 

 I then bequeath the whole of my property, subject to the 

 Annuity of One hundred pounds to John Fitall, & for the 

 security & payment of which I mean Stock to remain in this 

 Country, to the United States of America, to found at Wash- 

 ington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an 

 Establishment for the increase & diffusion of knowledge 

 among men. 



"I think it proper here to state, that all the money which 

 will be standing in the French five per cents, at my death 

 in the names of the father of my above mentioned Nephew, 

 Henry James Hungerford, & all that in my names, is the 

 property of my said Nephew, being what he inherited from 

 his father, or what I have laid up for him from the savings 



upon his income. -, 



JAMES SMITHSON. [L. s.] 



We see that he begins by recalling the parentage which 

 had denied him the name of his father and the position in the 



