Chapter 12: Let the Battle Begin
Seeking a Declaratory Judgement
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Aimee’s unexpected and bold petition to have the court legally declare her Mary Martha’s illegitimate child had been a long time coming.
Months before Aimee filed the paperwork to have John’s Mexican divorce and remarriage set aside, she and a second member of her legal team, Homer Carey, had secretly traveled to Rothesay, New Brunswick, in search of witnesses who could corroborate Amelia Wright’s story that Mary Martha was Aimee’s mother.
Although the main witnesses — Rev. George Bruce, Dr. John Berryman and Amelia herself— had all passed away, Aimee and Homer were able to locate a number of folks willing to identify photos of Mary Martha and share what they remembered about her during the spring and summer of 1891.
Amelia’s long-time friend, Jane Puddington, remembered her traveling with a stout young woman named Mrs. Percival who had meals delivered each day from St. John, and who was always heavily veiled as she rode around town in a phaeton. When shown a photo of Mary Martha, Jane identified the woman as Mrs. Percival, Amelia’s employer and the Boston woman whom she knew had given birth to a child in Rothesay.
Mrs. Mackenzie testified she was surprised to know Mary Martha aka Mrs. Percival had disputed the fact that Aimee was her child because she’d been told many times by her own daughters that the Boston woman had confided in them that she was, indeed, Aimee’s mother.
And then there was George Ewing. He’d been 28 in 1891, and living with his parents and siblings, including his older brother, William, William’s wife, Grace, and their infant son. George distinctly remembered Amelia introducing him to Mrs. Percival, and identified a photo of Mary Martha as the same woman.
He also said he knew for fact that Amelia had brought a newborn to his parent’s home some 35 years earlier, and that his parents had wanted to keep the baby’s presence in their home a secret from nosey neighbors who might ask too many questions. 1
Upon returning to New York, Aimee went before a City Commissioner of Deeds on May 28th, and swore out a deeply personal and detailed statement about her life and experiences with Mary Martha.
And she didn’t pull any punches.
The statement included heartbreaking recollections of the mental and emotional abuse and neglect Aimee had endured at the hands of the woman she’d called Aunt Martha since the age of three:
Mary Martha abandoning her to strangers at birth.
Mary Martha taking her from the home of Orin and Etta Byers and their children, the only family she’d ever known.
Mary Martha sending her to boarding school as a five-year-old, and then moving her every few years to make sure she never got too comfortable or felt like she belonged.
Mary Martha hiding her away when guests came to visit “Hopeland House”, the palatial Parker estate at Rhineback-on-Hudson, to avoid awkward questions.
Mary Martha telling her when she was 16 that her parents never married and were dead, and that the stain of their sin would be on her forever.
Mary Martha trying to have Aimee committed to Butler Hospital insane asylum after she let it slip she thought they might be mother and daughter.
Mary Martha interfering with her marriage, and paying her cruel husband to stay in a loveless marriage.
And, in a final blow, Aimee concluded her statement with this:
Mrs. Taylor never knew me personally well enough to hate me. So her hate must have sprung from the unhappy circumstances of my birth. I honestly pity her from the bottom of my heart, for she has missed the biggest and best thing in life — the love and comradeship between mother and daughter. 2
Aimee and her legal team hoped the sworn statement and New Brunswick affidavits would become the basis of a lawsuit to force Mary Martha to provide Aimee with a birth certificate and thus declare for all the world that the two were, in fact, mother and daughter.
But first, Aimee and her legal team needed to convince the courts to grant them a declaratory judgment.
A declaratory judgment is basically a statement, a declaration by the Court, that affirms and clarifies the rights, obligations, and responsibilities of someone before they enter into legal action.
In Aimee's case, she wanted the Court to recognize that she had the legal right to seek a birth certificate and to seek that birth certificate from Mary Martha Parker Taylor, the only living person who knew all the facts about Aimee's birth.
By the time John revealed Aimee’s illegitimacy and true relationship to Mary Martha – a move Aimee had known he would make if she could make him believe his career, reputation and marriage to Marion were threatened – Aimee’s attorneys were ready.
They immediately filed their request for a declaratory judgement, and, as expected Mary Martha responded, arguing that Aimee’s case should be thrown out because it lacked legal ground.
The suit came to light this morning when Mrs. Taylor’s counsel, William Travers Jerome, filed a motion to dismiss Mrs. Morecroft’s complaint. Jerome, however, beyond admitting that Mrs. Morecroft sought a declaratory judgement of the court, establishing her as the daughter and legal heir of Mrs. Taylor, was non-committal. Mrs. Taylor, on the other hand, refused to be interviewed and referred all questions to her lawyer. 3
Things were about to get interesting.
Sixty-nine-year-old William Travers Jerome was one of the most prominent and well-respected criminal prosecutors in New York if not all of America. He'd made his bones as a reforming judge and fearless district attorney who’d taken on police corruption, organized crime, and Tammany Hall politicians for nearly four decades.
In 1928, he was still so influential in legal circles that former clerks, colleagues, and even opponents attended annual parties to honor his birthday.
In short, William Jerome was a legend.
More importantly, he also knew all of Mary Martha's secrets — he'd been the Taylor's personal attorney for more than 20 years, and had been in the room when Mary Martha had admitted to John she was Aimee's mother.
Given his intimate knowledge of the case from Mary Martha’s perspective, however, it’s possible William was unaware of how committed Aimee suddenly was to telling her truth. After all, Aimee had known Mary Martha was her mother for 16 long years and had not made any real effort to force the issue. In fact, Aimee had done quite the opposite. She’d kept Mary Martha’s secret despite the heavy toll it had taken on her.
Like John had done earlier, William and Mary Martha had taken Aimee’s compliance as weakness, and failed to recognize her deep need for reckoning and just how far she’d go to get revenge.
Copyright 2024 Lori Olson White
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Chapter End Notes
1 “Astonishing Secrets Behind the Morecroft Fight for Millions — and the Bar Sinister; Sworn Statement of the Dainty Divorcee that she is the Natural Daughter of Rich “400” Widow, Whose Vast Estates she would Share after Harrowing Experiences in Schools, Hospitals and Sanitariums while kept in the Dark”, Star Tribune, Minneapolis, MN, November 25, 1928.
2 “Astonishing Secrets Behind the Morecroft Fight for Millions — and the Bar Sinister; Sworn Statement of the Dainty Divorcee that she is the Natural Daughter of Rich “400” Widow, Whose Vast Estates she would Share after Harrowing Experiences in Schools, Hospitals and Sanitariums while kept in the Dark”, Star Tribune, Minneapolis, MN, November 25, 1928.
3 “Woman Calls Self “Daughter” of Judge’s Wife; Starts Suit. Widow of Prominent Port Chester Man Defendant in Action of Professor’s Ex-Wide, Who Asks for Share of $7,000,000 Estates,” Port Chester Item, Port Chester, NY, September 18, 1928, P.1.
So much awfulness was perpetrated on Aimee through her life. Her courage and perseverance is admirable!
Very interesting. Too bad they did not have DNA tests back then. I asked "Brave's Leo" when were blood type first used to establish paternity and it came back with "The first use of blood testing for paternity in the United States took place in the 1920s, following the discovery of human blood typing." So how was maternity established back in the 1920s.
Besides legally attempting to establish maternity, Aimee was battling the internal legal system since Mary Martha was not only married to a lawyer, but from your footnotes, he was also a judge. And with most professions I suspect lawyers and judges stick together to support one another. Additionally, Mary Martha and, I am guessing, Judge Taylor have substantial finances with which to battle against Aimee's accusations (no matter what the real truth might be) and unfortunately in circles of power money talks and welds lots of power. I hope her lawyers have a strong backbone and will not be swayed by payoffs to drop the case.