The Lewis Legacy-Issue 81, Summer 1999
C. S. Lewis's Codicil
The C.S. Lewis Foundation for Truth in Publishing
June 1, 1999
Five weeks after Lewis signed his will,
he added the following afterthought.
THIS IS THE FIRST CODICIL made the tenth day of December One thousand nine
hundred and sixty-one to the will of me CLIVE STAPLES LEWIS of the Kilns
Headington Quarry in the County of Oxford Professor of the University of
Cambridge made the Second day of November One thousand nine hundred and
sixty-one
I GIVE the following legacies whether or not the persons named are in my
employment at the date of my death:-
To F. PAXFORD of the Kilns Headington quarry in the County of Oxford ONE
HUNDRED POUNDS
To MRS. MAUD EMILY MILLER FIFTY POUNDS
IN all other respects I confirm my said will
IN WITNESS wereof I have hereunto set my hand the day and year first
written above
SIGNED by the said CLIVE STAPLES LEWIS as the FIRST CODICIL to his will in
the presence of us both who jointly in his presence and at his request have
hereunto subscribed our names as witnesses
Signed by C. S. Lewis, Maud Miller, and another witness whose name is not
clear.
Is there any significance to this codicil? First, Lewis was obviously not
well organized when he wrote his will, and Owen Barfield must not have
suggested his remembering the household help. The modesty of Lewis's token
bequests in the codicil might reflect his anxiety about providing
generously enough for Warren and the Gresham boys. Inclusion of Mrs. Miller
along with Fred Paxford seems to contradict Doug Gresham.'s claim that she
was maliciously cruel to Lewis after Joy's death. (That claim also seems to
be contradicted by Warren's 1965 decision to leave Mrs. Miller 100 times as
much money as his brother had left her: 5,000.)
