welcomed Hetty. The physician William Gordon transfixedher with a stare and said, “Really, Miss Robinson, I am very sorry to see you looking so miserable. At best, you cannot hold out longer than a year.”
Standing alone in the parlor after the funeral, she noticed a painting that now belonged to her.
The Hunt for an Honest Man
, an eighteenth-century painting of Diogenes attributed to the Italian artist Guido Reni, was one of her favorite pictures. But someone else had already claimed it and tagged it with their name.
Hours later, silent, swathed in black, Hetty listened as Sylvia’s will was read aloud. Her aunt was the richest woman in New Bedford, and she was the only direct heir to the family fortune. Now she learned that Sylvia Ann Howland had assets of over $2 million that would be distributed around the town. Among those included were several widows and friends to whom she left $10,000 each; her employees Eliza and Fally, to whom she gave $3,000 each, and Electa, $5,000. Others were given trusts of $10,000 each. The city of New Bedford benefited in several ways: the Orphans’ Home was given $20,000; the not-yet-completed National Sailors’ Home received $20,000; the poor, aged, and infirm women of the city were to share in a trust of $50,000. Sylvia left $100,000 to the town so it could bring in water and increase its manufacturing; another $100,000 was to be shared between “liberal education,” assumed by town officials to mean access to literature, science, and art, and the public library.
To specific individuals she left the following: to Thomas Mandell, the executor of her will, $200,000; to the three trustees of her will, including Dr. William Gordon, $50,000 each, plus yearly fees for overseeing the estate. In addition, to pacify Edward Robinson she left him $100,000. But in a codicil she revoked the gift to him, thanked Dr. Gordon for his professional and other services, and left him another $50,000, plus $10,000 to his wife and $5,000 to his daughters.
The rest, $1 million, would go to Hetty. But the money would be in trust, not cash; Hetty would receive the income on the investments. The man who would be in charge of the investments was Dr. Gordon. Furthermore, upon her death, the money would not go to Hetty’s children but would revert to the Howland family. The will was signed by Sylvia, witnessed by three people, including a friend of William Gordon’s, and dated September 1863, a year and a half after the agreementHetty and Sylvia had written. The codicil, conceived soon after Edward Robinson wrote to Thomas Mandell in 1864, was drawn up by Judge John Williams, the father-in-law of Dr. Gordon.
Devastated, Hetty rested near the piano in the parlor. Close by, she heard two distant relatives snicker, “When Hetty dies we will have a whole greenhouse built onto our house.”
As soon as the house was cleared of guests, she called for Fally, the housekeeper, and demanded the key to her aunt’s private trunk. Rifling through the jewels, the clothes, and the papers, she found two envelopes, one yellow, one white, and pulled them out. Inside the yellow one, she found a copy of her own will; in the other was the will written by Sylvia in 1862. Downstairs, she showed Edward the copy of Aunt Sylvia’s will with a second page attached.
Next, she met with her family’s attorney, William Crapo, and raged like the child he had heard years ago in the dentist’s chair. It was Dr. Gordon, she pointed out, who had drugged her aunt with laudanum and then helped her draw up the deceitful will. Indeed, Hetty would soon discover that William Gordon had actually dictated the codicil.
The money Hetty had been told she had to manage was now being managed by others. Her very self-worth was at stake. Over the course of several weeks she approached members of Sylvia’s staff and tried to persuade them to contest the will. She traveled to the town of Taunton to see the probate judge and, in an act of
Standing alone in the parlor after the funeral, she noticed a painting that now belonged to her.
The Hunt for an Honest Man
, an eighteenth-century painting of Diogenes attributed to the Italian artist Guido Reni, was one of her favorite pictures. But someone else had already claimed it and tagged it with their name.
Hours later, silent, swathed in black, Hetty listened as Sylvia’s will was read aloud. Her aunt was the richest woman in New Bedford, and she was the only direct heir to the family fortune. Now she learned that Sylvia Ann Howland had assets of over $2 million that would be distributed around the town. Among those included were several widows and friends to whom she left $10,000 each; her employees Eliza and Fally, to whom she gave $3,000 each, and Electa, $5,000. Others were given trusts of $10,000 each. The city of New Bedford benefited in several ways: the Orphans’ Home was given $20,000; the not-yet-completed National Sailors’ Home received $20,000; the poor, aged, and infirm women of the city were to share in a trust of $50,000. Sylvia left $100,000 to the town so it could bring in water and increase its manufacturing; another $100,000 was to be shared between “liberal education,” assumed by town officials to mean access to literature, science, and art, and the public library.
To specific individuals she left the following: to Thomas Mandell, the executor of her will, $200,000; to the three trustees of her will, including Dr. William Gordon, $50,000 each, plus yearly fees for overseeing the estate. In addition, to pacify Edward Robinson she left him $100,000. But in a codicil she revoked the gift to him, thanked Dr. Gordon for his professional and other services, and left him another $50,000, plus $10,000 to his wife and $5,000 to his daughters.
The rest, $1 million, would go to Hetty. But the money would be in trust, not cash; Hetty would receive the income on the investments. The man who would be in charge of the investments was Dr. Gordon. Furthermore, upon her death, the money would not go to Hetty’s children but would revert to the Howland family. The will was signed by Sylvia, witnessed by three people, including a friend of William Gordon’s, and dated September 1863, a year and a half after the agreementHetty and Sylvia had written. The codicil, conceived soon after Edward Robinson wrote to Thomas Mandell in 1864, was drawn up by Judge John Williams, the father-in-law of Dr. Gordon.
Devastated, Hetty rested near the piano in the parlor. Close by, she heard two distant relatives snicker, “When Hetty dies we will have a whole greenhouse built onto our house.”
As soon as the house was cleared of guests, she called for Fally, the housekeeper, and demanded the key to her aunt’s private trunk. Rifling through the jewels, the clothes, and the papers, she found two envelopes, one yellow, one white, and pulled them out. Inside the yellow one, she found a copy of her own will; in the other was the will written by Sylvia in 1862. Downstairs, she showed Edward the copy of Aunt Sylvia’s will with a second page attached.
Next, she met with her family’s attorney, William Crapo, and raged like the child he had heard years ago in the dentist’s chair. It was Dr. Gordon, she pointed out, who had drugged her aunt with laudanum and then helped her draw up the deceitful will. Indeed, Hetty would soon discover that William Gordon had actually dictated the codicil.
The money Hetty had been told she had to manage was now being managed by others. Her very self-worth was at stake. Over the course of several weeks she approached members of Sylvia’s staff and tried to persuade them to contest the will. She traveled to the town of Taunton to see the probate judge and, in an act of
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