We have already post­ed Robert Camp­bel­l’s 1832 will.  Near­ly 60 years lat­er — 59 years minus 1 day to be exact, Robert’s son Hugh did the same thing.  Like his father’s 1832 will, this was not Hugh’s final will — he would write a lat­er one to include bequests to faith­ful ser­vants Gus Mey­er and Mary Boer­ste.  The muse­um does not have a com­plete copy of this will, so only the first page has been tran­scribed; it is post­ed here.  How­ev­er, this 1891 will did include a very large bequest to Yale Uni­ver­si­ty on the con­di­tion that they build the “James Alexan­der Camp­bell Memo­r­i­al Build­ing” and hang the por­trait of James, Hugh’s youngest sur­viv­ing broth­er, in the build­ing.  Although Yale did use and rec­og­nize Hugh’s even­tu­al bequest after his death in 1931, the James Alexan­der Camp­bell build­ing as Hugh had envi­sioned it was nev­er built.

After Hugh’s death in 1931, sev­er­al par­ties tried to break his last will.  The lawyer who had pre­pared this will in Paris in 1891 tes­ti­fied in the case and described Hugh: “Phys­i­cal­ly he was stur­dy, hearty, appar­ent­ly well built, young and vig­or­ous.  Intel­lec­tu­al­ly he appeared well poised, entire­ly con­ver­sant with what he want­ed in the way of tes­ta­men­tary dis­po­si­tion, was spe­cif­ic … as to what he desired to do for each.  he also man­i­fest­ed entire famil­iar­i­ty with the nature and extent of his prop­er­ty, real and per­son­al.  In tem­pera­ment, he seemed to me cheer­ful, hearty, and genial.”  We hope you enjoy learn­ing about the thoughts of Robert’s hearty, cheer­ful, and poised son Hugh.

[Enve­lope]
Hugh Campbell
Last Will and Testament
On French Stamped Paper
Exe­cut­ed this April 9th, 1891

In the name of God, Amen. I Hugh Camp­bell of the City of St. Louis, State of Mis­souri, and Unit­ed States of Amer­i­ca, tem­porar­i­ly sojourn­ing in Paris, France, being of sound and dis­pos­ing mind and mem­o­ry do here­by make, pub­lish and­de­clare this and for my last Will and Tes­ta­ment, here, by revok­ing and annulling all wills and cod­i­cils by me at any time hereto­fore made.

Clause First–    I direct my execu­tors here­in after appoint­ed as soon as may be after my decease to pay all my just debts and my funer­al expenses.

Clause Sec­ond–    I give and bequeath to my friend Miss Lil­lie B. Ran­dell should she sur­vive me or if not to her sis­ter  Mrs. Laeti­tia W. Gar­ri­son, both now or late­ly resid­ing at Num­ber Four (4) Great Stan­hope Street, May­fair, Lon­don all and sev­er­al the shawls, laces, plate and oth­er arti­cles of what­ev­er nature which may at the time of my death be con­tained in those cer­tain cedar chests deposit­ed by me and now on deposit in the Safe Deposit Com­pa­ny locat­ed in the build­ing on the North West cor­ner of Sixth and Locust Streets and between Sixth and Sev­enth Streets in the City of St. Louis, Mis­souri, also all pre­cious stones, jew­els and jew­el­ry deposit­ed by me and now on deposit in a box on the Safe Deposit Com­pa­ny locat­ed on the north side of.….[End page 1, for com­plete doc­u­ment, see originals]