- Elizabeth Jackson's Heirs, Referee Ward's Opinion in the Partition Suit - Important Part an Old Family Bible Played. Jamaica, L.I., June 19 (1896) - Referee Sylvester A.H. Ward, 67 Wall Street, rendered an opinion to-day in the matter of the partition of the estate of Sarah Johnson of New York city, who died in 1835, leaving the use of a house and lot 26 Mott street, New York city, worth about $25,000, and a small amount of other property to her granddaughter, Elizabeth J. Jackson, wife of Elbert Jackson of Wantagh. Mrs. Jackson died in March, 1895, childless, and according to the terms of the grandmother's will the property now reverts to collateral heirs, lawful children of the two sisters of Elizabeth Jackson, Ann Maria Robbins, who died August 27, 1895, intestate, and Charlotte A. Roschire, who died September 3, 1875, intestate. These were the three only children of Priscilla Conolly, the only daughter and child of Sarah Johnson, who died at Jerusalem in 1858. Upon the death of Mrs. Jackson a suit was brought by the children of Ann Maria Robbins, viz: Mary L. Hammond, Ellen Andrews, William and James E. Robbins, to have the estate partitioned among themselves, ignoring the descendants of the other sister, Charlotte, no mention being made in the complaint of there being any descendants of Charlotte. Charlotte married twice, April 26, 1829 to John A. Robinson, by whom she had two children, George Robinson, who died in 1850, childless, and Maria Louisa, who on May 14, 1849, married William H. Chase, by whom she had two children, Elizabeth J.C. Lane and John Chase. After the death of Mr. Chase, Maria married a Mr. Polley, by whom she had two children, Ida M.C. Setterlin and George F. Polley. After the death of John A. Robinson, Charlotte, the sister of Mrs. Jackson, and mother of Mrs. Polley, married Augustus Roschire, April 9, 1848. The grandchildren of Charlotte Roschire, learning of the partition suit being carried on by the Robbins children and the proposed appropriation of all the property left by Elizabeth Jackson, the sister of their grandmother, employed counsel and sought to be made parties to the partition. It was then alleged by the heirs of Ann Maria Robbins that Charlotte Roschire never was married and left no legitimate descendants. That made the issue. In order to show that they were legal heirs the grandchildren of Charlotte Robinson produced an old family Bible, found in the garret of the residence of Elizabeth Jackson at Wantagh. The old Bible was yellow with age, mutilated and in a wretched condition, but it still contained the entries of marriages, births and deaths. In that Bible there was a record of the marriage of Charlotte A. Johnson to John A. Robinson on April 26, 1829, and to Augustus Roschire in April, 1848. Daniel Ames, the well known handwriting expert, and other experts were produced, who swore that, in their opinion, the names were written in the Bible within a year, and that the entries were in the handwriting of the grandchildren of Charlotte Robinson. After a severe cross examination by Counselor W.W. Gillen, who produced a number of old documents from the Queens county surrogate's office, Mr. Ames and the other experts completely broke down, and it was shown that they could not tell whether certain handwriting shown them was one year old or one hundred years old. Counselor James M. Seaman found evidence to prove that Charlotte was married to both Mr. Robinson and Mr. Roschire in the Attorney street M.E. church, an old building that is now torn down. The records of this church were traced to 386 South First street, Brooklyn, where they were in the custody of a man named Butcher, who attended the church when the organization was disbanded and the records were given to him as the oldest member. Butcher is now over 90 years old and paralyzed. A search was made in the office of the health department of New York city, but it was found that no records of marriages were kept previous to 1852 in New York city. Elizabeth J.C. Lane said that her step grandfather, Mr. Roschire, died when she was 15 years old and that her grandmother had always been known to her as Mrs. Roschire. Counselor Seaman then found at Fishkill Landing the minister of the Attorney street M.E. church, who performed the ceremony of the marriage of Mrs. Charlotte Robinson to Augustus Roschire. He was an old man, about 95 or 96 years of age, and was suffering from a stroke of paralysis and was speechless, but a son, who knew his father's handwriting, testified to the genuineness of the signature of his father to the marriage certificate, in which Charlotte is called by her widow name, Charlotte Robinson, and the date of the marriage certificate, April 9, 1848, further strengthened the claim as to her first marriage, in that it tallied with the date in the Bible found in Elizabeth Jackson's house and the entry in the Attorney street church records found in Brooklyn. Mrs. Elizabeth Jackson, who left other property beside that of her granddaughter, in which she had only a right of user, and in her will she divided a portion of that property among the grand children of her sister Charlotte, whom she calls nephews and nieces, recognizing their legitimacy. Referee Ward has rendered his opinion after several hearings. He holds that the descendants of Charlotte Roschire are legitmate offspring and heirs at law of the aunt and grand aunt, Elizabeth Jackson. He finds as a conclusion of law that James Robbins, the son of Ann Maria Robbins, is entitled to one-fifth of the property, the six living children of Mary L. Hammond, a daughter of Ann Maria Robbins to one-thirty-fifth each and three children of Mrs. Hammond's deceased daughter, Mrs. Hamilton, one one hundred and fifth part each; the five children of the deceased Ellen Andrews, a daughter of Ann Maria Robbins, to one-thirtieth each; Annie L. Robbins, only child of the deceased William Robbins, to one-fifth; Elizabeth J.C. Lane, John Chase, Ida N.C. Setterlin and George F. Polley, the grand children of the deceased Charlotte Roschire, to one-twentieth each of the property. And it was directed that the premises be sold and the property be divided. The house in Mott street was transferred to Mrs. Sarah Johnson in 1819. The building is still standing. It is an old stone structure with Dutch dormer windows in the top and is located just outside the Chinese quarter. It was in 1819 the family residence purchased by Mrs. Johnson of the Ackerman family and is located in what was then considered a good residential quarter.
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1807 - 1884 (77 years)
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