The evening world., 1904-05-07
MRS. HOFFMAN
SUES FOR DIVORCE
Her Suit Has Been Placed on
the Court Docket at Newport
and the Trial viii Take Place
Soon.

NEWPORT, May 7.-The divorce suit
OF Mrs. sybil Keteltas wetmore Hoff-
man against John Ellis Hoffman ap-
peared on the court docket which was
read yesterday.
Mrs. Hoffman was sybil Sherman.
daughter OF William Watts Sherman,
the banker. 60 violently was her father
opposed to her marriage with Hoffman
that the young woman, having attained
her twenty-hrst year, left the Sherman
home at Newport and remained with
her sister. Mrs. Harold Brown, until
she and Hoffman were married. on Oct.
Il, 1895, at All Saints Memorial Chapel,
here. Mr.. Sherman was never reconciled
to the match, but for the sake OF ap-
pcarances he gave his daughter away
at the church. A-E..N-s
Following the announcement OF her
engagement, which Miss Sherman made
herself, and the gossip as to parental
oposition, the cottage colony divided It.
self into two camps. and the bitterness
between the factions was assuaged only
nv the nuptials. Mrs. Henry Mortimer
brooks supported Miss Sherman In her
revolt and gave the young woman and
her hanca a dinner q few nights be-
fore tho wedding.
Mr. sherman objected 10 Hoffman be-
cause the young man was praoucaiy
nenniless. He hoped. II was said' tor
another alliance which would bring to-
gether the millions Of his own family
and those of the family of his wife, the
second Mrs, Sherman. who was MISE
Carter Brown. a famous heiress OF
Sft SOON after the wedding the young
couple sailed for Paris. where they
made their home for several years;
Mrs. Hoffman returned last winter.
rented cottage here. It was then ru-
mored that there had been a disagree
mcLt, and the rumor was confirmed IN
suit for divorce under the easy laws OF
khcde Island. The grouncs were de-
sertion and non-support; r,
Mrs. Hoffman is niece OF onlteo
States Senator George Peabody Wet
more and OF Mrs. Bradley Martin. Her
mother was Miss Annie Netmore. sister
of the millionaire Rhode Island Senator.
who left her a quarter of a million IN
wife is a sister of the late John Nicholas
Brown, who was one of the richest
young men in America, and 1t was sale
that he had been most attentive to Miss
sybil Sherman, the stepdaughter OF MS
sister.
Gossip had 1t that William Watts
Sherman greatly desired the match be-
tween his daughter and the brother Of
his young wibe, One OF his daughters,
Miss Georgette. had married Harold
Brown, brother of John Nicholas
Brown. and could the marriage OF Miss
Sybil and John Nicholas have been
brought about II would have marked a
triple alliance between the Sherman ana
Brown families, with consequent maze
OF relationship and a cementing to-
gether OF many millions
John Ellis Hoffman was ono OF the
gilded youths OF Newport and New
York, q graduate OF Harvard. and .
hard rider. He is a grandson Of George
W. Ellis the former New York banker,
and a nephew of Ralph Ellis, the hunts
man and yachtsman. His mother, Mrs.
George Hoffman. became the WHO ot
Charles Gouverneur Weir, OF New York
Mr.. Hoffman's sister, Miss Emily Hoff-
man, celebrated beauty, married
Frederick Dalziel. of Paris, The Hoff-
mans are descendants of the Virginia
WashingtonS.