from
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856)
PRECATORY WORDS. Expressions in a will praying or requesting that a thing
shall be done.
2. Although recommendatory words used by a testator, of themselves,
seem to leave the devisee to act as he may deem proper, giving him a
discretion, as when a testator gives an estate to a devisee, and adds that
he hopes, recommends, has a confidence, wish or desire that the devisee
shall do certain things for the benefit of another person; yet courts of
equity have construed such precatory expressions as creating a trust. 18
Ves. 41; 8 Ves. 380; Bac. Ab. Legacies, B, Bouv. ed.
3. But this construction will not prevail when either the objects to be
benefited are imperfectly described, or the amount of property to which the
trust should attach, is not sufficiently defined. 1 Bro. C. C. 142; 1 Sim.
542, 556. See 2 Story, Eq. Jur. Sec. 1070; Lewin on Trusts, 77; 4 Bouv.
Inst. n. 3953.