The times., 1901-03-26
THE HOLT WILL DECISION
Supreme Court Reverses Position
of District Tribunals.
Highest judiciary Body Cites Errors
and Rcmands the Case for New
TriaI-New Pbnse of N Famous Con-
test-History of the Litigation.

4
test-History of the Litigation.
The Supreme Court yesterday rendered
q decision in the famous Holt will case,
reversing the judgment of the District
of Columbia Court of Appeals and re-
mandinc the case to that court with dl-
rections to reverse the judgment OF the
Supreme Court of the District OF Colum-
! hia and to remand the case to that court
with instructions to grant new trlai.
| The case is an interesting one, and in
wolves the alleged forgery of the names
| of Cen. w. T. Sherman and the late
President L. S. Grant, as witnesses to
/ the Will The matter has been in the
courts for years, and because of the
! prominence of the interested parties has
attracted much attention.
In August, 1894, Judge Holt died, leaving
an estate valued at $1SO0o0. He was at
! one time Postmaster General, and from
! 1862 until 1919 was Judge Advocate Cen
| eral of The Army.
The nearest surviving relatives were
a number of nieces and nephews. No
will having been found, three of his
nephews, W. -. Holt William G.. Ster
/ ett n local newspaper correspondent, and
| John w. Holt filed petition in the Su-
| preme Court of the District of Colum-
| bia, holding a special term for Orphans
! Court business, setting forth his intesta-
! cy and asking the court to administer the
| estate
On the 2Sth of September, 1894, the Ma
tional Safe Deposit, Savings and Trust
! Company of the District was appointed
administrator of the estate, and that cor
poration Immediately entered upon the
performance of its duties as administra
| nd To
them,
| on the 26th day of August 1885, there
came by mail to the Register of Wills in
| Washington a sealed envelope addressed
| to that officer which was postmarked
! Washington, d. c., August a, 6 p. m,
| 1851 Upon opening this envelope the
| Register of Wills found therein paper
purporting to be will executed by u.
Holt" dated "Feby 7th, 1873, to which
were appended what purported to be the
signatures of Ellen B. L. Sherman. L. 5.
/ Grant, and W. L. Sherman.
! This will give one-half of the estate to
| Lizzie Hynes" and the other half to Jo-
sephine Holt Throckmorton. On the aft
ernoon of August "a Josephine Holt
| Throckmorton, who lived in New York,
passed through Washington, stopping
about an hour at the Baltimore and Po-
tomac depot The envelope in question
was mailed between and o'clock, a
/ little earlier or a little later, on that aft
| ernoon, in q letter box in the northwest
| section.
Josephine Holt Throckmorton is a
! daughter of Major Charles b. Throcllnor-
ton, of the United States Army. In 1873
and for a long time prior thereto the re-
| latiOnS between Judge Holt and the
! Throckmorton family were intimate. Jo-
! sephine was born in September 1866 and
was consequently about six and a half
years of age at the date OF his alleged
| will
A petition was filed asking that the
court admit the alleged will, The trial
| began on May Is, 1895, and the jury found
Judge Holt. The matter went TO the
I Court of Appeals, which affirmed the
! judgment of the lower court. The matter
came to the Supreme Court by writ of
| error.
The executor named in the alleged will
was Luke Devlin. From 1852 until 1853
Devlin was a messenger in the Office OF
the Judge Advocate General, and during
the remainder of Judge Holt's term as
Judge Advocate General he was a clerk
in that office.
on the 10Th of September, 1895. Devlin
filed a petition asking the court TO admit
the alleged will to probate and to re-
woke the letters of administration there
tofore granted. On the 18th of October
1885, Washington y. Holt, and the ether
nephews and nieces of Judge Holt who
would be the distributes Of his e:tate
il he had died intestate filed caveat to
the alleged will. DeVlin, Lizzie HyneS,
/ and Miss Throckmorton filed an answer
to this cayeat. On the 10th of March
1896, the Probate Court framed four is
sues to be transmitted TO the special term
of the same court, sitting as circuit
| court there to be tried by a jury.
These issues were whether the i"Stru-
ment in question had been executed by
| Joseph Holt as his last win and testa-
ment, whether its execution had been
procured by fraud, whether il had beer
procured by undue influence. and whather
| ii he had executed it, he had revoked it
The trial of these issues began on the
| 18th day of May, 1896.
The evidence at the trial was confined
entirely to the first and fourth iEsUes-
| that is, as to whether Holt had executed
| the paper az his will, and, If so, whether
he had revoked it. The trial terminated
June % 1896, the jury finding that th'
paper had never been executed by JOSEPH
Holt as his last well and testameAt, an'
that because he never executed II h'
| had not revoked it,
| This verdict having been returned hl
| the Circuit Court to the Probate Court
| final judgement was entered in the FRO
bate Court on July 10, 1886, formally al
Judging that the paper was never eNtcut
ed by Holt as his last VIII and testamen
and denying il probate for That reason.
The trial began by the Introduction o
evidence of three witnesses on behalf o
the c4veatees tending TO prove the gen
uineness of the three signatures whicl
apuear at the foot of the paper IN con
troversy. This was followed up by cyl
dence tending to prove that the relnalnde
| of the paper, including the signature j
| Holt is in the handwriting OF JCsepI
Holt 1t was admitted by counsel on bot
| sides that the paper in controversy cam
| to the Office of the Register OF VIII
| ANONYMOUSLY On August 20, 1898, in tn
same state in which il was presented I
| the jury-that is, mutilated and parti
5 | burned, and the place torn of where IN
Y | seal should have been.
The evidence Of L. Tecumseh Sherma
y | was not competent in rebuttal, and tn
, | court excluded ii.
o This evidence was offered IN
!, | ground that il was in rebuttal of wha
= John b. Randolph, as a witness for tn
= caveators, had testified TO III regard to
certain ''quirr' and other characteristic
in the genuine signature of General SheI
, man, as that signature had come unde
1 the observation of the witness as a cler
1 in the War Department. Mr. Randolph
of course, testified, as the record dis
| | closes, only from his own personal know
| | edge of General Sherman's signature.
Judge Holt was twice married, first
| 1897 to Miss Mary J.. Harrison, who die
| in 1S46. Four years later, in 1850, he maj
| ried Miss Margaret Wickliffe, and wa
/ again left a Widower in 1860 no childre
| having been born to him by either mai
l riage. The remaining thirty-four years {
/ his life he spent alone, unattended by an
| relative. his household consisting merel
/ of his domestic servants.
His father died prior 10 1861 and h
i mother in 1871. lie had one sister an
| three brothers. The sister, Elizabet
/ Sterett. died in 1863. leaving two childrel
/ William G. Sterett and Margaret r Bow
| mer. His brother James died in 1S6
| childless. His brother Robert S. ais
| died in 1867 leaving nine children, six
| | whom, Locke w. Iglehart, Sarah Hol
l Robert S. Holt John w. Holt, jaime
| Holt and Thomas Holt. survived Judt
| Holt. His brother Thomas died in 1877