Law amusements
Surreal law facts
The truth is always stranger than fiction.
Blackbrooke's black history
Blackbrooke is an estate in England once owned in the 16th Century by Welshman and Judge Richard Morgan. Morgan was called to the bar in 1528. He became chief justice in 1553 and took part in the trial of Lady Jane Grey. She was condemned her to death and beheaded. Morgan was overcome by the stress of the trial, went insane and died in 1556.
Two hundred years later, Blackbrooke was owned by a wealthy preacher, Henry Lewis. Moments after his death, his son-in-law John Briggs guided his dead hand to sign a false will. Briggs then placed a fly in the dead man's mouth thus coaxing two witnesses to swear that the will was signed "while there was life in the testator".
In 1795, Briggs was sentenced to death for his part in the fraud but he escaped prison before the sentence was carried out and was never heard from again.
Source: www.duhaime.org
