JAMES SMITHSON AND HIS BEQUEST. 23 



It has been shown with what zeal and pleasure Smithson himself en. 

 gaged in the advancement of knowledge, and what general interest had 

 been awakened in England in the cause of scientific organization and 

 popular education at the very time he wrote his will, and it is not unrea- 

 sonable, therefore, to believe that he contemplated this contingency as 

 a very probable event. 



The will of Smithson, dated October 23, 1826, was proved in the Pre- 

 rogative Court of Canterbury by his executor, Mr. Charles Drummond, 

 a London banker, on the 4th of November, 1829. The value of the effecta 

 was sworn to bo under £120,000.* 



In 1878, a coi)y of a will also in Smithson's handwriting was procured 

 by the Institution from Mr. de la Batut, almost identical with the one 

 recorded in the courts of London. 



It appears from this that the word heretofore printed Audley in copies 

 of the will should be " Studley," and that the name of the former servant 

 who kept the Hungerford Hotel at Paris should be Sailly, and not Jailly. 

 In the record of the will at London, the word Smithsonian as the name 

 of the Institution to be established is " Smithsonean," but as it is very 

 plainly written "ian" in what we must consider his original draft, the 

 misspelling referred to is undoubtedly due to an error of the transcriber. 

 In all the proceedings in the court of chancery, and all the negotiations 

 of Mr. Eush, the name " Smithsonian " has uniformly been u^ed. 



The first article of the will refers to an old and trusted servant, John 

 Fitall, to whom, in consideration of his attachment and fidelity, Smith- 

 son bequeaths an annuity of a hundred pounds sterling. This Fitall 

 died in June, 1834, having enjoyed the benefit of his legacy for five 

 years. 



Mr. Smithson next directs that various sums of money he had lent to 

 another of his servants, Henri Honori Sailly, should be allowed to re- 

 main uncalled for at five per cent, interest for five years. 



He then mentions the fact that all the money in the French five per 

 cents, {livres de rentes) then standing in his own name and in that of 

 Colonel Dickinson was the property of his nephew, being what he in- 

 herited from the colonel, who died on the 22d May, 1820, with what he 

 had added himself to it from savings made out of the income. To this 

 ne'^hew, Heury James Hungerford, who was also known as Henry James 

 Dickinson, and still later as Baron Eunice de la Batut, he leaves the 

 rest of the income arising from his property during his life. The whole 

 of his fortune is by the next clause of the will left absolutely and for- 

 ever to any child' or children, legitimate or illegitimate, of the said 

 nephew Hungerford. But in case of the death of his nephew without 

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

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

 says : 



* Oentleman*8 Magazine, 1830, vol. o., p. 275. 



