The Remarkable Rise of Eliza Jumel (55 page)

48
. Liber 368:310.

49
. This letter survives in two versions. One, dated June 30, seems to be a copy that Eliza kept for herself (NYHS-AHMC, Jumel, Madame Stephen, Eliza Jumel to Lesparre Sante [
sic
], June 30, 1833). The other is an English transcription of the version received by Lesparre. If the transcription is correct, the letter Lesparre received was dated June 28 (1876 Bill of Complaint, letter 38). Although the writer signed herself “Eliza Jumel,” her name until July 1, and Burr said she showed him the letter before the marriage (Liber 368:307), it could also have been written just after the marriage and intentionally misdated, whether to June 30 or June 28. The circumstances surrounding the letter's composition are described more fully in chapter 29.

1
.
New-York Spectator
, July 8, 1833, [1].

2
. Dunlap,
Diary
, 3:718 (see chap. 6, n. 13).

3
. 1873 Transcript of Record, 306.

4
. Parton, 663;
New-York Spectator
, July 8, 1833, [1].

5
. Greatorex, 244 (for the location of the wedding, but wrongly stating that Aaron and Eliza were married by the same clergyman who had performed Burr's first marriage).

6
. John D. Livingston,
Hymns, with the catechism, confession of faith, and liturgy of the Reformed Dutch Church in America
(Philadelphia: GW Mentz, 1829), 603–607.

7
. Ibid.

8
. Ibid.

9
. Parton, 664.

10
. NYHS-JP, box 1, folder 1, Eliza Jumel to Stephen Jumel, letters of November 5, 1826; January 1, 1827; and May 1, 1827.

11
.
Newburyport
[Massachusetts]
Herald
, July 19, 1833, 5, reprinted from the “Hartford Review” (presumably either the
New-England Daily Review
or
New-England Weekly Review
, both published in Hartford; I have been unable to locate surviving issues for the time period).

12
. 1876 Bill of Complaint, letter 34.

13
. Liber 368:308.

14
. BM 710-J, first account of the administratrix, filed January 22, 1836.

15
. Parton, 664.

16
. Aaron Burr,
The papers of Aaron Burr
[microform], eds. Mary-Jo Kline and Joanne Wood Ryan (Glen Rock, NJ: Microfilming Corp. of America, 1977), reel 2, Cty:3516/Burr.

17
. Burr,
Papers of Aaron Burr
, reel 2, MH:2271.

18
. Ibid.

19
. Burr,
Political correspondence
, 1228 (see chap. 25, n. 39).

20
. “Hon. Luther Martin,”
Christian Watchman
, August 11, 1826, 148.

21
. N.Y. Ct. Ch., Alexander L. Botts vs. Aaron Burr, BM 1710B, Part 2, depositions of Nelson Chase, March 30, 1836, and Maria Johnson, March 5, 1836.

1
. The quotations in this and the preceding three paragraphs are from Dunlap,
Diary
, 3:796 (see chap. 6, n. 13).

2
. Lisa Wilson,
Life after death: Widows in Pennsylvania 1750–1850
(Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1992), 3, 5, for what one woman said as distinct from what she did.

3
. Edith B. Gelles, “Gossip: An eighteenth-century case,”
Journal of Social History
22, no. 4 (Summer 1989): 667–68.

4
. Liber 368:301–302.

5
. BM 710-J, first account of the administratrix, filed January 22, 1836. Although Eliza does not identify the mortgage in her bill of complaint, it must have been the six-
thousand-dollar mortgage on 150 Broadway, which Stephen had taken out on September 16, 1824, and Eliza ultimately paid off on November 25, 1835.

6
. Liber 368:302.

7
. Ibid.

8
. Ibid., 308–10.

9
. Ibid., 312.

10
. No record of any such lawsuit exists.

11
. Liber 368:310–11.

12
. Ibid., 312–13, 332.

13
. Oliver L. Barbour,
A treatise on the practice of the Court of Chancery, with an appendix of precedents
(Albany: Wm. & A. Gould & Co., 1844), 2:245–46.

14
. Barbour,
Treatise
, 2:245.

15
. Linda S. Hudson,
Mistress of manifest destiny: A biography of Jane McManus Storm Cazneau, 1807–1878
(Austin: Texas State Historical Association, 2001), 7, 15–16.

16
. Liber 368:375.

17
. NYHS-JP, box 1, folder 13, testimony of Hannah Lewis, May 30, 1836.

18
. Hudson,
Mistress of manifest destiny
, 15.

19
. Ibid., 17.

20
. Ibid., 17–18.

21
. Burr,
Papers of Aaron Burr
, reel 2, TxU:2352/Bryan (see chap. 26, n. 16).

22
. Hudson,
Mistress of manifest destiny
, 27–28. She may have tried to raise money by selling other real estate in Texas, whether acting as an agent for others or hawking property she or her family members owned. An advertisement offering investors fifty thousand acres of land in East Texas appeared in the
Albany Argus
on August 27 and September 10 (“Lands in Texas,”
Albany Argus
, October 27, 1833, 4). Although the owner of the land was not stated, potential buyers were advised to apply to Nelson Chase at 23 Nassau Street in New York City. McManus could have been involved, given that Nelson was acting as agent and the address was that of Aaron Burr's law office. Perhaps she had applied to Burr for assistance in advertising and selling the parcel.

23
. Hudson,
Mistress of manifest destiny
, 29.

24
. NYHS-JP, box 1, folder 13.

25
. Hudson,
Mistress of manifest destiny
, 30.

26
.
Ancestry.com
,
U.S. Passport Applications, 1795–1925
(see chap. 6, n. 17).

27
. Liber 368:301, 306–7.

28
. N.Y. Ct. Ch., Alexander L. Botts vs. Aaron Burr, BM 1710B, Part 2, deposition of Maria Johnson, March 5, 1836.

29
. Ibid.

30
. Parton, 667.

31
. Burr,
Papers of Aaron Burr
, reel 2, NHi:1685/Burr (see chap. 26, n. 16). On November 23, 1833,
Atkinson's Saturday Evening Post
noted that Burr “lately had a paralytic attack, from which he has not yet recovered.”

32
. Burr,
Papers of Aaron Burr
, reel 2, NHi:1754/Burr.

33
. Parton, 667.

34
. Liber
368:306–307.

35
.
Commercial Advertiser
, November 2, 1833, 2.

36
. Burr,
Political correspondence
, 1218 (see chap. 25, n. 39).

37
. Ibid., 1220.

38
. Ibid., 1221n3.

39
. Burr,
Papers of Aaron Burr
, reel 2, NjP:3088.

40
. Burr,
Political correspondence
, 1218.

41
. NYHS-JP, box 1, folder 13, John Lewis to Nelson Chase, February 10, 1834.

42
. Davis,
Memoirs of Aaron Burr
, 2:25 (see ch. 25, n. 5).

43
. Aaron Burr,
Political correspondence
, 1227.

44
. Ibid., 1227n2.

45
. Ibid., 1227.

46
. Liber 368:301.

47
. Ibid., 302–303.

48
. NYHS-JP, box 2, folder J, N.Y. Sup. Ct., Nelson Chase vs. Aaron Burr, Copy of narr. in replevin and notice of rule to plead.

1
. Liber 368:306.

2
. Basch,
In the eyes of the law
, 17 (see chap. 21, n. 13).

3
. Barbour,
Treatise
, 2:253 (see chap. 27, n. 16).

4
. Liber 368:322–23, 325–26.

5
. Ibid., 331.

6
. Ibid., 342–43.

7
. Ibid., 343.

8
. Ibid., 338, 41.

9
. Ibid., 338–40.

10
. Ibid., 333–34.

11
. Ibid., 332.

12
. Ibid., 336.

13
. Ibid., 334–35.

14
. NYHS-JP, box 1, folder 13, agreement of December 23, 1835.

15
. Barbour,
Treatise
, 2:257–58.

16
. Liber 368.

17
. Brian J Cudahy,
Over and back: The history of ferryboats in New York Harbor
(New York: Fordham University Press, 1990), 20–22.

18
. Liber 368:376.

19
. Mrs. Felton,
American life. The narrative of two years' city and country residence in the United States
(London: Simkin, Marshall, & Co., 1842), 54; N.Y. Com. Pl., Helen M. Catlin and others vs. Aaron Burr, 1834-#282.

20
. In Longworth's city directory, Burr's home address is given as “Jersey City” only once, in the 1833–34 edition, which would have been prepared in May or June 1833, after New
Yorkers had signed their leases for the year. After the breakup of the marriage, Burr moved into his office on Nassau Street. Later he lived with an illegitimate son, Aaron Columbus Burr.

21
. Liber 368:371–72, 375–80, 379.

22
. Ibid., 377.

23
. Ibid., 370–72.

24
. Ibid., 372–74.

25
. Ibid., 374–76.

26
. Ibid., 377.

27
. Ibid., 349–50, 365–68, 381–82; NYHS-JP, box 1, folder 13, timeline of the hearings in chancery (1836).

28
. Liber 368:381–82.

29
. Parton, 677–78.

30
. New York City Municipal Archives, Minutes of the Court of General Sessions, MN 10016, roll 16, fol. 204–205, 242; New York City Municipal Archives, D.A. Indictment Records, MN 5166, roll 166, The People vs. Maria Johnson; “Courts,”
Mercury
, July 7, 1836, [2].

31
. Liber 368:383.

32
. Parton, 682.

33
. Liber 368:373–74.

34
. Nelson Manfred Blake,
The road to Reno: A history of divorce in the United States
(New York: The Macmillan Company, 1962), 119, 199.

35
. For the effect that the reputations of the concerned parties could have on results of divorce proceedings, see Basch,
In the eyes of the law
, 94 (see chap. 21, n. 10); Norma Basch, “Relief in the premises: divorce as a woman's remedy in New York and Indiana, 1815–1870,”
Law and History Review
8, no. 1 (Spring 1990): 23n58.

36
. Donald M. Roper, “The elite of the New York Bar as seen from the bench: James Kent's necrologies,”
New-York Historical Society Quarterly
56, no.3 (July 1972): 224.

37
. N.Y. Ct. Ch., Alexander L. Botts vs. Aaron Burr, BM 1710B, Part 2.

38
. N.Y. Ct. Ch., Alexander L. Botts vs. Aaron Burr, BM 1710B, Part 1; N.Y. Ct. Ch., Aaron Burr vs. John Pelletreau and others, BM 2759B, with additional details in the bill of complaint of a subsequent suit, N.Y. Ct. Ch., Aaron Burr vs. Benjamin Waldron and Sally his wife, John L. Wilson and Rebecca his wife, BM 2758B. On September 20, 1833, Pelletreau sold a valuable property on Long Island—a racecourse and adjoining farm—to a man named Alexander Botts. The sale was performed under Burr's supervision, with the purchase price to go to Burr himself: he would receive a five-hundred-dollar payment every six months for life. Allegedly Pelletreau made the arrangement in favor of Burr to compensate him for legal work and monetary advances during a lengthy lawsuit in which Burr had represented him. This explanation is suspicious, however, since Burr had been fighting unsuccessfully since before his marriage to Eliza to obtain additional fees for the work from Pelletreau and others. Suddenly he had succeeded, when his client was dependent on him and in failing health (Pelletreau would die in late 1833 or early 1834).

39
. N.Y. Ct. Ch., Alexander L. Botts vs. Aaron Burr, BM 1710B, Part 2, deposition of Robert White, March 18, 1836.

40
. Parton,
665.

1
.
Tresor de la langue française
12:503; Andrew J. Counter,
Inheritance in nineteenth-century French culture: Wealth, knowledge and the family
(London: LEGENDA, 2010), 62–63, 69.

2
. 1876 Bill of Complaint, letters 2, 15; ADL, 4 Q 1 445 (May 22, 1821).

3
. 1876 Bill of Complaint, letters 17, 18, 19, 21, 23, 24, 46.

4
. PUL Fuller, box 2, folder 83, Eliza Jumel to Stephen Jumel, December 1, 1826; 1876 Bill of Complaint, letter 28.

5
. 1876 Bill of Complaint, letter 36A.

6
. BM 710-J.

7
. Ibid.

8
. Crane,
Ebb tide in New England
, 172 (see prologue, n. 7).

9
. Wilson,
Life after death
, 31, 42–44, 58 (see chap. 27, n.2).

10
. 1876 Bill of Complaint, letters 31, 33, and 34.

11
. NYHS-AHMC, Jumel, Madame Stephen, Eliza Jumel to Jean Lesparre Jeantet, June 30, 1833. Eliza addressed the letter to “Monsieur Lesparre Sante” [sic], a roughly phonetic spelling of Jeantet.

12
. NYHS-AHMC, Jumel, Madame Stephen, Eliza Jumel to Jean Lesparre Jeantet, June 30, 1833.

13
. Ibid.

14
. BM 710-J, first account of the administratrix, filed January 20, 1836; NYHS-JP, folder 1, copy of the opinion of the chancellor in Eliza B. Jumel, administratrix, appellant, vs. François Jumel and Magdalen [
sic
] Lagadere, respondents.