Last week I wrote about William and Robert Idler. As I was doing the research, Julia Casey sentme a copy of William Idler's will. It includes a couple of interesting provisions.

The will includes the typical legal boilerplate language found in a will. Idler directs that his billsshould be paid and his property should be sold with the proceeds going to his heirs. Idler had fivechildren and the estate should be distributed as five shares.

His oldest son, Jacob, died on November 24, 1900, and William's will was signed on the day ofthe funeral, November 28, 1900. William left one-fifth share to support his grandson, LewisIdler. Another one-fifth share went to the children of his daughter, Mary Idler Brown. A thirdone-fifth share went to his daughter, Rosanna Idler Haseltine. Then the will gets interesting.

William Idler left two shares, each one-fifth of his estate, to his second son William Idler, Jr. Heleft nothing to his third son, Robert. Although he left nothing to Robert, Robert and Williamwere named co-executors of the estate.

The will makes no specific mention of coins. They would have been included in personalproperty to be sold for the benefit of the estate. Traditional numismatic lore says that some rarecoins passed from William Idler to his son-in-law, John W. Haseltine. However, William Idler'swill gives nothing to John W. Hazeltine and one-fifth share to Haseltine's wife. There may havebeen an agreement within the family that Haseltine would sell the coins for the benefit of theestate, but this is only conjecture.

Robert Idler was not in the coin business before the death of his father. He may have joinedHaseltine as a partner, but had little financial assets to put into the business and he presumablywould have received nothing when Haseltine sold his father's coins.

As a legal document, Idler's will spells out his intentions in black and white. However, the actualapplication of the will leaves some puzzles unsolved.

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
WILLIAM AND ROBERT IDLER(https://www.coinbooks.org/v24/esylum_v24n44a12.html)