What if I told you, having the most babies in a decade could make you a millionaire? In 1926, this wasn’t a hypothetical; it was the premise of one of the most bizarre contests in legal history.
This all began with a man named Charles Millar. Mr. Millar was a well-known and wealthy Toronto lawyer who practiced between the years of 1881 and 1926. His practice came to an end for only one reason: his death.
On Halloween, 1926, Mr. Millar passed away. He never got married, had no descendants, and was pre-deceased by his parents. All of his monetary success was therefore left to his estate, with no relatives to inherit his fortune.
Ironically, Millar’s passing on Halloween mirrored his character well. The eerie, unusual, and comically bizarre aura associated with Halloween appears to capture everything Mr. Millar embodied in life. Millar’s unique sense of humour can be demonstrated through the interesting and controversial bequests he left in his Will.
In his Will, Millar curiously left his shares in a jockey club to gambling opponents and his shares in a brewery to religious leaders who were in support of Prohibition. Millar also left his house in Jamaica to three lawyers who despised one another on the condition that they own the property together. Through these playful and ironic bequests, Mr. Millar’s personality shines through, demonstrating his commitment to being a practical jokester.
The most surprising bequest of all, and one that sparked significant debate, was Millar’s decision to leave the remainder of his fortune to the women in Toronto who gave birth to the greatest number of children in the 10 years following his death. This unusual bequest led to a contest where many Toronto women competed to have the most children within the specified time frame; this was termed the “Great Stork Derby.” This year, 2025, marks its 99th anniversary and is a reminder of how one unusual Will captured the whole city’s attention.
In 1926, the contest held significant weight given the historical context of the time period. In the years following Mr. Millar’s death was the Great Depression, where unemployment rates reached 30% and many people were on government relief. At the time, Millar’s estate was worth about a million dollars, which equates to nearly 22 million dollars in Canadian currency today. Therefore, the money offered through Mr. Millar’s estate was viewed as especially promising and enticing during a time of monetary difficulty.
This peculiar contest not only captivated the imagination of Torontonians but also sparked national conversation about the boundaries of philanthropy, legality, and social norms. Newspapers across Canada covered the unfolding drama, and the public was both fascinated and divided over Millar’s unconventional approach to distributing his wealth. The event highlighted the intersection of humour and hardship, as families weighed personal values against the lure of a life-changing inheritance.
Many women went through challenging experiences to ensure receipt of the estate money. Some women risked their lives to give birth to their children; others lost their children in infancy. These struggles were important given the narrow definition of who was considered a “child” under the law and under the Will. Only “legitimate” children were eligible, leaving “illegitimate” children, including those born out of wedlock and stillborn babies, excluded. Therefore, multiple women who participated in the contest but gave birth to “illegitimate” children were disqualified and were not considered to be recipients of the estate money.
In fact, as a response to the extreme measures women were willing to take in order to receive the prize money, the Ontario Government attempted to pass legislation against the Great Stork Derby bequest found within the Will. Despite multiple attempts to request the invalidity of the Will, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the Stork Derby was valid.
Thus, despite the controversy, the contest ran its course. As the year 1936 approached, so too did the end of the Stork Derby contest. At this time, Toronto women who had borne the most children over the decade came forward to advance their claims. Ultimately, the prize money was split evenly between four mothers, Annie Smith, Lucy Timleck, Kathleen Nagle, and Isobel MacLean, each of whom had birthed nine “legitimate” children within the span of ten years.
The extraordinary events of the Great Stork Derby have since been illustrated in both literature and film. The 1981 book The Great Stork Derby, and the 2002 movie illustration continue to engage audiences worldwide for being one of the most fascinating and unconventional moments in Canadian history.
This blog was co-authored by articling student Adriana Piccolo.
