| Author(s) | Friedrich Engels |
|---|---|
| Written | 14 November 1894 |
ENGELS' LETTER TO THE EXECUTORS OF HIS WILL
14 November 1894[1]
To the Executors named in my Will
1) The following lines are supplementary and explanatory to my will. They express merely what are my wishes and are in no way legally binding upon my Executors. On the contrary, wherever they should be found to clash with the legal meaning of my will, they are to be disregarded.
2) My distinct wish is that my body be cremated and my ashes thrown into the sea at the first opportunity.
3) Immediately after my death I desire a copy of my will to be forwarded to my brother Hermann Engels, Barmen, or in case of his death to Hermann Engels junior, Engelskirchen, near Cologne.
4) Unless Sam Moore is in England at the time of my death, and can attend at once to his executorship, Bernstein and Louise will have to act without his assistance. In that case and even if Sam Moore should not be in London but somewhere in England, I recommend them to make a copy of my will for their own use and hand the original to Crosse and Sons solicitors, 7 Lancaster Place, Strand, to get it proved and to legally assist my executors. These latters will have to attend at once to the following points:
a) To ascertain from Mess. Cross what steps they must take to obtain as soon as possible the full control of my balance at the Union Bank of London Limited Regent Street Branch and the right to dispose of such parts of my investments as may have to be sold to defray current expenses.
b) To ascertain the value of my estate. My furniture, books etc. will have to be valued. Mess. Cross will attend to that. The value of my investments in stocks, shares etc. at the time of my death can be calculated from the official stock and Share List with which my Stockbrokers Mess. Clayton and Aston, 4 Tarnhouse buildings, Tolmhouse Yard, E. C, will supply my executors.
a) As Messrs Cross will tell my executors, the various legacies in money made in my will are not to be paid in the full nominal amount but are subject to deduction of the share of death duties appertaining to each of them.
5) There will be found in my books various sums of money paid for a good many years back by me to Laura and Paul Lafargue, Percy and Ellen Rosher, Edward and Eleanor Marx-Aveling. These sums, as I wish to state expressly, do not represent loans owing to me, but are and always were free gift, on my part. They are therefore not to be claimed in any shape or form.
6) In part-payment of the legacy left by me to Ellen Rosher, there is to be used by my executors the Reversion of certain funds payable to Percy Rosher after the death of his father and mother and which I bought from the said Percy Rosher. I desire it to be charged to Ellen Rosher at what it cost me, namely £250 paid to Percy Rosher and £30—solicitors' expenses incurred on account of this transaction, in all £280-.
7) I desire to supplement my will by the following details as to the disposal of papers left by me, viz;
a) All papers in Karl Marx's handwriting (except his letters to me) and all letters addressed to him (except those written by me to him) are to be restored to Eleanor Marx-Aveling as the legal representative of Karl Marx's heirs.
b) All letters written to me by Percy and Ellen Rosher, Laura and Paul Lafargue, Edward and Eleanor Marx-Aveling, or by my relations in Barmen and Engelskirchen, or by the Beust family in Zürich are to be restored to the writers thereof.
That is all, I believe, I have to say.
London 14 November 1894
Frederick Engels
P. S. It is understood that the honorarium or royalties paid by Sonnenshein for Capital and for my Condition of the Working Class are to be paid as heretofore the first to the heirs of Marx and the translators (1/5 to Laura, 1/5 to Tussy, 1/5 to Jenny's children, 6/25 to Sam Moore, 4/25 to Ed. Aveling) and the second in full to Florence Kelley.