Most wills exist to split a person's money and estate among family, friends and sometimes charities. However, throughout history there have been a number of famous wills that have made rather more unusual requests.

In this article, we look at eight of the best.

1. Bury me in a powder blue Ferrari

Wealthy socialite Sandra West died in 1977. In her will, she requested to be buried in the front seat of a 1964 Ferrari 330 America. She also requested that she be buried "with the seat slanted comfortably".

Her wishes were granted and she was propped up in the car wearing an "elegant, white nightgown". The car was then placed into a concrete box and lowered into the ground in San Antonio's Alamo Masonic Cemetery in the presence of over 300 onlookers.

Today, the cemetery is a stop on several guided tours of San Antonio.

2. A womanless library

In some parts of the world, library access for women is still not a given. But in 1930s Iowa, lawyer T.M. Zink's $50,000 legacy for the Zink Womanless Library raised several eyebrows.

In his will, he wrote: "My intense hatred of women is not of recent origin nor development nor based upon any personal differences I ever had with them but is the result of my experiences with women, observations of them and study of all literatures and philosophical works."

But his family weren't having any of it and successfully scotched his plans.

3. Twenty strangers from the phone book

The fabulously named Luis Carlos de Noronha Cabral de Camara was a wealthy aristocrat who died unmarried, childless and without many friends.

He decided to leave his considerable estate to 20 random people that he plucked from the Lisbon phone book.

His friend Anibal Castro was a witness to the will. He ascribed two motives to Luis Carlos's decision: first, a desire "to create confusion" and second, hostility to the state "which he thought had been robbing him of money all his life".

And sure enough, 20 strangers received letters from his lawyers bearing the surprising news.

4. Clear the national debt

In contrast to Luis Carlos's antipathy to the state, an anonymous donor in 1928 created a fund to pay off the "entire national debt". However, she stipulated that it could only be used when the UK was nearly able to do so.

The fund is now worth £350 million – but the national debt is £1.2 trillion. This means the money remains inaccessible.

The fund is managed by Barclays, which has attempted either to release the money as charitable grants or to give it to the Treasury. 

As far as we know, no progress has been made since the story made headlines in 2013.

5. You can have my birthday

What do Justin Trudeau, Jimmy Buffett, Sissy Spacek and Shane MacGowan all have in common? They were all born on Christmas Day.

Having your birthday on Christmas Day can make it a somewhat muted affair. When author Robert Louis Stevenson heard his young friend Annie Ide complain that it was a "miserable fate", he decided to do something about it.

In his will, he transferred his birthday – November 13 – to Annie, bequeathing her a "proper birthday" and the "eating of rich meats and receipt of gifts". Truly an example of the gift that keeps on giving.

6. Shakespeare's second-best bed

Shakespeare's wife Anne Hathaway has long been thought to have got a raw deal out of his will. In it, he appears to have left her his "second-best bed" – and nothing else. To add insult to injury, she didn't appear at all in the first draft.

It's been suggested since that the second-best bed was, in fact, the marital bed – the best bed being reserved for guests. And it's also worth noting that beds were valuable assets in Shakespeare's day – sometimes worth as much as a small house.

We may never know what Shakespeare's intentions were, but there's always the possibility that – at least on this occasion – he was as miserly as Shylock in The Merchant of Venice.

7. Alphabet reform

Playwright and critic George Bernard Shaw was a man of strong opinions. One of his most cherished beliefs was that the norms of English spelling were in bad need of reform.

And he practised what he preached, writing "shew" for "show", "honor" for "honour" and dropping apostrophes in contractions.

His commitment was such that his will stipulated a grant to create the "Shavian alphabet". As a result, a competition was held to produce the most economical way of writing English.

The trust had the resources to publish only one book in this alphabet, an edition of his play Androcles and the Lion. We're sad to report that it was given "a largely indifferent reception".

8. Preserve my body for science

In University College London's Student Centre, there's a glass case that contains an "auto-icon" of English philosopher Jeremy Bentham.

At Bentham's request, this auto-icon consists of Bentham's clothed skeleton with a wax head on top, holding his favourite walking stick.

Although this might sound eccentric, Bentham thought long and hard about the importance of auto-icons before he made his will in 1832. As Bentham scholar Tim Causer has said, it was far from being "the last strange whim of an old man".

He believed that this kind of memorial would be beneficial to society, writing that "If a country gentleman has rows of trees leading to his dwelling, the auto-icons of his family might alternate with the trees."

As a result of his will, Bentham takes his place among other famous preserved corpses including Lenin, Mao Zedong and Mummy Juanita. 

Do you need help writing a will? At Milners, our friendly team of family lawyers offer a straight-talking and sympathetic will writing service at affordable rates. Take a look at our services or get in touch for a free, no-obligation consultation.