The tri-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1866-1868, 1866-05-03
From the New York Times, April II.
A CURIOUS CASE.
The Will of Aaron Burr's Widow.


On the heights of the west bank of the
Harlem river stands fine old mansion, dat
ing back long before the days of the revolu-
ton: house in which Washington, La
fayette and their contemporaries wrote their
dispatches during that dark period when
the British landed and occupied the city; a
house from which one may now overlook the
steeples of this busy town, the pleasant hills
of Westchester, and the distant waters of the
sound.
In this picturesque spot lived, since 1905 or
1904, Nine Jumel, whose eventful life ended
nigh a year ago at a very advanced age
whose eventful story, could it be written,
might be more interesting than any romance.
An obscure but beautiful Yankee girl, she
had come to be the wife of the rich Jumcl.
Frenchman driven away from St. Domingo
during its horrors. Full of ambition and
talent, she did and dared many things which
made the timid and prudent stare, which set
the tongues of the envious and the curious
wagging and made her as famous and as
BRILLIANT as any woman of her time. One of
the episodes of her later career was with
Aaron Burr, which was soon terminated by
separation, but which identified her with one
of the most remarkable men of the country.
From her marriage to Il French gentleman,
and rich one, she came to know Louis
Philippe Talleyrand and all the rest OF those
W
try from time to time, and wien atterward
she visited France, with her husband, she
had access to the court circle, which tlcn
few Americans ever entered, and where she
made her mark. For time she was a
star among the beauties of the court, and if
to be talked about, to be envied, is to be hap
Ply, then Nine Jumel was as happy as mortal
woman well could be. But for the past Is
years she has been growing very old, and has
in 1,u.,
home with few inmates, and little intercourse :
with the wcrld-her companions and friends
being her niece and adopted daughter and
her children. These she had taken to France
to be educated. There one of them married
by the agency and consent of the madame.
The landed estate she received from Jumel
she had held on to with tenacious grasp
until in progress oftime it had become Il pro-
perty of immense value-some estimate it ut
million of dollars.
But now it has to be fought over, and out
of it is to come the great Jumel will case"
in which will be arrayed some of the most
distinguished lawyers of the New York
bar. -
1t appears that in her old age, when past
80, Nine. Jumel made a new WILL cutting
off her relatives and adopted child and her
children, giving her entire property to va
rious public charities, with the single excep-
share with the other devisees. These rela-
tives and heirs who have lived with her some
forty years, naturally do not respect this pa
per, and they claim that she had become in
COMPETENT to make legal will. They are
inclined to charge undue influences, and they
demand that this paper shall be set aside as
null and void, so that they may enter in and =
enjoy the good things which they think they
had a good and reasonable right to expect
On the other hand, the devisees take quite
the opposite view--they think no woman was
in a better frame of mind than Nine. Jumel, ,
and that the very judicious requests made
to them entitle her sanity to the greatest re-
spect. They claim, too, that Nine. Jumels
relatives are no relatives at all, and that it is
altogether wrong and improper to set up the
claims they do. Here the issue is joined,
and on Monday morning the respective for
ces were marshaled in presence Of the judge
of the first division of the supreme court
Mr.. O'Conner and Judge Pierpont for the
relatives MIR. Augustus Smith and Mr. Slough
ton for the will The presence of I; room
filled with legal profession testified to the
interest the case was exciting; but short
contest on the part of the devisecs of the
will to have the case postponed, on the part
OF their opponents to have it 90 to immcdi-
ate trial, resulted in its postponement to the
May term, when it is entitled to preference
over all other cases. We shall then look for
curious and interesting developments