Financial History Issue 116 (Winter 2016) | Page 17
Photo Trish Mayo
The Jumel crypt at Trinity Cemetery & Mausoleum in Upper Manhattan.
In Paris, Jumel took pleasure in building a sizable collection of European paintings. She socialized with aristocrats at
the court of Louis XVIII and received a
bow of recognition from the king. The
economy was shaky, however, collapsing
first under the Panic of 1819 and then the
Panic of 1825. Stephen put his and his
wife’s country home in New York and the
36 acres of land immediately surrounding
it in trust for Eliza, possibly at her urging. They would be hers for life, free to
manage as she wished. Even if Stephen
predeceased her, she would not have to
worry about spending her widowhood in
penury. But for a woman who had known
poverty, a mansion and 36 acres were not
enough. Jumel acted to ensure her future
security.
In 1826 she returned to the United
States from France to look after her and
Stephen’s other American investments:
farmlands in Washington Heights and
central New York, and their Broadway
and Liberty Street buildings. Using a
power of attorney Stephen had given her,
she put almost all their remaining real
estate — including the valuable downtown
parcel — in trust for herself for life. Thus
she transmuted herself into a rara avis: a
married woman who was a landed proprietor in her own right.
In 1828 her husband left France to
rejoin her in the United States. His death,
on May 22, 1832, increased her wealth. She
collected on old debts he was owed by
insurance companies and the French government for ships seized during the Napoleonic wars. Then she fought his brother
and sister in court to keep as much of
the money as possible, investing her takings in real estate in soon-to-boom Saratoga Springs. She improved the Broadway
and Liberty Street property in Manhattan, too, replacing two three-story buildings with three five-story structures that
would ensure her a comfortable income
from rents. Using a tactic popular among
widows, she probably funded this last
initiative with money that was in the mansion at the time of her husband’s death,
spending it secretly before the estate was
inventoried.
Jumel proved a careful steward of her
wealth. She kept her land and properties
leased, moving swiftly to evict tenants
who stopped paying rent and pursuing
them in court for the monies due. If she
was unable to lease a piece of agricultural
acreage, she would find a farmer willing
to work the land in exchange for half the
profits from the crops he raised. There
is evidence that she kept up with developments in scientific farming: surviving
leases for her Saratoga lands show that
she paid for clover, timothy and plaster to
improve the soil.3
She made only one truly disastrous
decision when it came to guarding her
financial security. That was her choice
of a second husband. On July 1, 1833,
only 13 months after Stephen’s death,
Jumel remarried at the age of 58. Her
new spouse was former Vice President
Aaron Burr. Although his reputation was
blighted — he had killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel in 1804 and then made a
quasi-legal attempt to seize Spanish lands
in Texas and Mexico, for which he was
tried and acquitted in federal court — Burr
was born into the American elite, able to
move in social circles to which Jumel had
long craved entry. At 77 he remained a
brilliant lawyer and a man of great charm.
Yet Burr was also a chronic debtor.
He squandered money as fast as he could
borrow it and then kept borrowing more.
His new wife’s fortune was not exempt.
He spent Jumel’s money with abandon.
A year after the marriage, she filed for
divorce. Since the only ground for severing a marriage in New York in 1834 was
adultery, she arranged for a servant of
Burr’s to testify to having observed her
employer disporting himself with a lover
one month after the marriage.
Burr fought back with manufactured
evidence of his own, accusing Jumel of
adultery with eight men — a divorce would
not be awarded if the complainant in the
case had been unfaithful. Jumel had the
more convincing story. She won her case.
The unhappy episode cost Jumel
$13,000 that Burr ran through during
the first few months of their union — the
equivalent in buying power of $378,000
today — not to mention the legal fees for
the divorce. Later, however, she turned
the brief marriage into an asset. Traveling
in Europe as Mrs. Burr, widow of the vice
president, she used her status to arrange
a good marriage for a much-loved greatniece. When she died in 1865, she was
worth at least $1 million — approximately
$15 million today.
Jumel is not a heroine without blemishes. In spite of the wealth she attained,
she could be tightfisted, depriving servants
of what they were owed. She put herself
first, when push came to shove. When she
placed most of the Jumel lands in trust
for herself, she left her loving husband
with practically no property of his own.
Although she may have acted to protect their holdings from his creditors, her
actions were also self-serving. It is hard to
say whether protecting their joint assets
or ensuring her future was her primary
motivation.
» continued on page 39
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