When Manhattan lawyers were no longer permitted or willing to enter the case of John Peter Zenger in 1735, an eminent Philadelphian named Andrew Hamilton was called in to defend Printer Zenger on charges of seditious libel of New York's Governor. Indignation which importation of a Philadelphia lawyer created among Manhattan burghers quickly changed to admiration, however, when Lawyer Hamilton's brilliant defense secured Printer Zenger's acquittal, established freedom of the U. S. Press. Also established was the folk-usage of "Philadelphia lawyer" as a synonym for shrewdness.
In Philadelphia last week there was called in the Orphans' Court a case which was such a case that 550 Philadelphia lawyers were needed, and in addition, 2,500 from outside the prosperous pale of Philadelphia's bar. Proceedings in Case No. 2552 of 1932 are to determine the heirs, if any, of Henrietta Edwardina Garrett, deceased. Claiming her estate of more than $20,000,000 are some 17,000 persons from every State in the U. S. and 29 foreign countries, each of whom has been assured of a "day in court."
Days in Court will be many indeed, hearings on a two-per-week basis have been scheduled into April, providing for "days in court" for 275 claimants. At that rate it will take 15 years to hear the "heirs." To make this unlikely the court has distributed a complicated questionnaire to fill out which asks for such information as the full name and place of marriage of the one of Henrietta Garrett's 16 great -great -grandparents through which the claimant's relationship to her is asserted. Already 280 "common ancestors" have been put forward.
First day in court last week was as dull as anything with prospects of continuing 15 years might be. In the auditorium of Philadelphia's Manufacturers & Bankers Club 250 persons—the first four platoons of a division of 17,000 claimants, 3,050 lawyers—heard a handful of witnesses go to the witness stand microphone to answer lengthy questioning. Chief witness of the day was William J. Proud, for 38 years superintendent of Laurel Hill Cemetery, where Henrietta Garrett and her close kin are buried. He identified pictures of tombstones on Lot No. 320, Section X.
Snuff. Fabulous is the story of Henrietta Edwardina Garrett's $20,000,000 fortune. It came from snuff. On board William Penn's plague-ridden ship Welcome when it arrived in the U. S. in 1682 was a Garrett. He prospered in new Philadelphia with a small snuff shop on Front Street. His descendants prospered, also in snuff. One of these was Walter Garrett, born in 1831. He married Henrietta Edwardina Schaeffer, a girl of humble origin, in 1872 after a romance which began on a front porch which she was scrubbing.
When Walter Garrett died in 1895 his will disposed of $6,000,000 to his wife, directed her to have her will drawn in favor of charitable institutions because he did not want his fortune squandered on her relatives or his. Lectured Tobacconist Garrett: "Do not let any scalawags get any." Henrietta Garrett outlived her husband 35 years, dying in 1930 at 80 in a dingy house at No. 404 South Ninth Street, which had no electric light. She left no will.