Wills Reveal Wilde, Shackelton Died Poor

New details have emerged about the fortunes left behind by some of the most famous Irish figures in history.

The last wills of Oscar Wilde, Charles Stewart Parnell, WB Yeats, Ernest Shackleton and many others have been published online for the first time.

Details of six million wills available at www.ancestry.co.uk also include prominent British figures like Charles Darwin, and Charles Dickens, and even the will of German-born Karl Marx, who died in north London.

It's been revealed that despite enjoying major success during his life, playwright and poet Oscar Wilde left a will worth just a paltry £250.

That's the equivalent of $36,393 in today's money - a tiny amount considering that he was one of the most successful authors and playwrights of the era.

Wilde died in exile at a Paris hotel in 1900 - a broken figure after his imprisonment for gross indecency and a libel trial that scandalised British society.

It's said that when a doctor attending him in his final days asked for a fee, Wilde joked that he would die as he lived - beyond his means.

These new figures bear out that truth.

His 14-year-old son Vyvyan Bereseford Holland - who changed his name after his father's trial - was beneficiary of the tiny inheritance.

Wilde's will contrasts sharply with that of Charles Dickens - another literary giant - who left the equivalent of almost $11m when he died in 1870.

By far the largest estate left by an Irishman in the records, which cover the years 1861-1941, was Charles Stewart Parnell.

The champion of Home Rule, who died aged 45 in 1891, left a substantial estate worth over $1.7m in today's money.

He bequeathed the money to his wife of just six months - Kitty O'Shea - the woman with whom he had an affair that led to his downfall.

Dracula author Bram Stoker, who was born in Dublin, left over $700,000 when he died in London in 1912.

Poet and Nobel Prize winner William Butler Yeats, who died in 1939, left an estate worth $345,000 to his widow Bertha.

Philospoher Karl Marx, who was born in Germany but died in north London, was true to his communits and anti-capitalist beliefs.

He died a poor man leaving just $35,000 to his daughter.

But the Irish polar-adventurer Ernest Shackleton left behind even less - despite once being a very rich man.

By the time he died in 1922, he was worth just $31,000 - having lost his fortune in a number of failed business schemes.

He tried to cash in on his celebrity after his 1914-16 Endurance expedition in the Antarctic, but tobacco, mining and postage stamp ventures all failed.

He died on his last epic expedition in 1922 on board the Quest in South Georgia. Other notable inclusions in the database are naturalist Charles Darwin, who left over $19m, creator of Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle, who left $4.6m.