The Inheritance

Though highly successful in law and in his investments, Millar is now known primarily for his love of jokes and pranks which played on people’s greed and hypocrisy. Millar’s greatest and final prank was his will, which says in part: “This Will is necessarily uncommon and capricious because I have no dependents or near relations and no duty rests upon me to leave any property at my death and what I do leave is proof of my folly in gathering and retaining more than I required in my lifetime.”


The will was full of playful bequests. But the final bequest of his will was the largest and strangest. In the will’s ninth clause, Millar’s estate’s balance was required to be converted to cash ten years after his death and given to the woman who gave birth to the most children in that time. In the event of a tie, the bequest would be divided equally. The resulting contest became known as the Great Stork Derby.