Weird Bequest - Charles Millar

Lawyer Charles Millar willed most of his $1 million fortune to the woman who produced the most babies in Toronto, within 10 years following his death. But his mischievous didn’t stop there. Millar bequeathed shares in a jockey club to two men who were well-known for their opposition to racetrack betting, and left shares in a brewery to every Protestant minister in Toronto.

Though highly successful in the 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. One favorite was to leave money on a sidewalk and watch from hiding as passers-by furtively pocketed it.

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. Anti-gambling and temperance advocates were left shares in race tracks and breweries. Three men who were known to despise each other were granted joint lifetime tenancy in Millar’s vacation home in Jamaica.

But the final bequest was the largest and strangest. The balance of Millar’s estate was to be converted to cash and given to the woman who gave birth to the most children in the 10 years following Millar’s death. In the event of a tie, the bequest would be divided equally. The resulting contest became known as the Great Stork Derby.

Although the Government of Ontario attempted to invalidate the will as against public policy, Millar had prepared it with care. The will survived ten years of litigation and the Derby continued uninterrupted. Because of Millar’s long-term investments, particularly with the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel, his estate increased drastically during the 10 years, and was worth $750,000 when it was finally liquidated. Most of this prize was shared by four Toronto women who each had 9 children. The estate also settled $25,000 on two women with dubious claims to a share in the prize. The childless Millar ended up “fathering” 36 children. The contest would be immortalized by a made for television movie The Great Stork Derby which starred Megan Follows.

It was speculated that Millar prepared this clause in his will as a means to discredit indiscriminate births and prohibitions against birth control.