Chapter 13: The Court of Public Opinion
Aimee Finds her Voice
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The first barrier to forcing Mary Martha to acknowledge Aimee as her daughter was to get the request for a declaratory judgment heard. Initially, the Supreme Court of New York County refused to even listen to arguments at length. Speaking for the Court, Justice Joseph Michael Callahan noted he wasn't confident they had the authority to entertain such a request, or even if such a request was legal.
Furthermore, he feared that granting Aimee's request might encourage blackmailing. "Your client may be perfectly sincere in her allegations," he told Aimee's attorney, Joseph Cohen, "but for the court to grant such a motion would, I think, be merely encouraging the starting of innumerable blackmail cases." 1
Mary Martha's attorney, William Jerome, went a step further in seeking a complete dismissal, saying:
“If the court is to entertain such a suit as this it would mean a blackmail harvest to that branch of the profession whose local habitat is Times Square. As illustrative of the peril referenced to, it is the fact, as appears from New York City newspapers that the man alleged by the plaintiff to be her father died more than two years before the date on which the plaintiff alleges she was born.” 2
To that, Aimee's council reminded the courts and William of the law — "No court may deny the rights, the legal rights of a litigation, on the ground that a dangerous precedent may be established." 3
In the end, the Court reserved their decision, and gave Aimee and her legal team three days to submit a brief supporting their belief that a declaratory judgment was needed and that the Supreme Court had jurisdiction to grant it.
On Friday, September 21, Joseph filed a brief to substantiate their claim that Aimee had the legal right to a birth certificate and that the New York Supreme Court had jurisdiction over her request for a declaratory judgment compelling Mary Martha to execute one.
His rational was clear:
Aimee's birth had not been entered into the civil record in New Brunswick, however, recent law had been enacted there which allowed anyone with knowledge of all the facts surrounding a birth to execute a delayed birth certificate.
Most of the people with knowledge of the facts surrounding Aimee's birth — the doctor and nurse, the minister, the Ewing family who had taken her in, her blood relatives including Richard and Charles Parker, and likely even Archibald Taylor —were dead.
Mary Martha was the only person alive who had knowledge of all the facts surrounding Aimee's birth. She, and she alone, represented the last and only opportunity for Aimee to obtain a birth certificate.
And Aimee had the right to a birth certificate. Everyone did.
Joseph submitted Aimee's sworn statement and the New Brunswick affidavits along with the brief.
At the same time — and in a pattern that would be repeated countless times over the next two years — William Jerome called for a dismissal.
His request was denied, and Joseph’s brief, Aimee's sworn statement, and the New Brunswick affidavits were entered into the court records.
Within days, the details of the battle for Aimee's birth certificate were front page news, not only in New York but in big cities and small towns across America and Canada. Hundreds of newspaper articles were published, and nearly all of them started out with a full accounting of Mary Martha's lineage — who she was and where she belonged — like this piece from Brooklyn Daily Eagle.
Mrs. Taylor is the cousin of the late Amy Lowell, the poet, and of Dr. A Lawrence Lowell, president of Harvard University. She is the widow of Archibald H Taylor, once a member of the Maryland Legislature. 4
And this one from the Sunday News:
The divorced wife of a college professor is directing a novel suit to compel a 60-year-old society woman, member of half a dozen societies including the Colonial Dames of America and the Daughters of the American Revolution, to call her daughter." 5
And then, of course, there was the money, the generational transfer of wealth, which was at the core of every Boston Brahmin decision, and most certainly the decisions Mary Martha had made with regard to her illegitimate daughter.
"Mrs. Morecroft contends that she has a remainder interest in the estates of James Parker, whom she claims was her great grandfather, and Richard T Parker, who she says was her grandfather, as well as an interest in a deed of trust for the benefit of her alleged mother, all of which will come to her after Mrs. Taylor's death. An official estimate of these interests runs into several millions of dollars." 6
But the press' fascination with the case didn't end with Mary Martha. Allen Thorndike Rice had been dead for nearly four decades by the time Aimee incorrectly named him as her father, but his tragic death on the eve of sailing to Russia had captured America's imagination and heart — and, despite the passage of time — he was still a beloved figure.
“By many, the allegations of Mrs. Morecroft, especially in connection with the name of Allen Thorndike Rice, have been likened to tearing the shroud off one's dead." 7
Reporters began showing up at Mary Martha's home in Port Chester:
"The emotional response of Mrs. Archibald Taylor to the charge that she has for many years refused to acknowledge a daughter born to her out of wedlock and actually has "hated" that child, is doubly guarded by Mrs. Taylor's firm reticence and the locked doors of the palatial home in which her husband, a distinguished Maryland jurist and legislator, died a few weeks ago.
To all endeavors to learn Mrs. Taylor's reactions to a suit brought in the New York Supreme Court by the young woman who claimed to have suffered for years under the strain of denied parenthood, servants in the Sound View Street house today simply responded: Mrs. Taylor cannot be seen, you'll have to talk with her attorney, Mr. Jerome.” 8
And, of course, speculation ran wild:
"Of the most distinguished ancestry is Mrs. Taylor. In fact, she is declared, in a sworn statement of Mrs. Morecroft, to be a first cousin of President AA Lowell of Harvard University, a connection in itself which would rank her high among the elect of Boston. Among the ultra-exclusives of the MA metropolis speculation is rife as to whether or not Mrs. Taylor will speak out in open Court concerning an alleged affair of her earlier years.
She may take the witness stand and brand the statements of Mrs. Morecroft as false. Again, she may hold her tongue, therefore preserving the traditions of her familial connections, as set forth in that famous bit of gaggle: Here's to the land of the Pilgrim, the home of the bean and the cod, where the Cabots bow to the Lowells, and the Lowells speak only to God." 9
Everything Mary Martha had desperately sought to avoid — the scandal, the speculation, the humiliation and the stain of her own sin — closed in around her.
And then, the press published a letter Mary Martha's attorney had sent to Aimee, and which Aimee's attorney had wisely attached to the brief.
"That there may be no misunderstanding with respect to the action of Morecroft v Taylor, I beg to state that I have conferred with Mrs. Taylor and she authorizes me to inform you that, should motion to dismiss the complaint made herein go on to be heard, or the papers, pleadings and notice of motion herein be filed in order to place the said motion on the calendar for a hearing, she will in future wholly discontinue any allowance heretofore made to Mrs. Morecroft and will, in addition thereto, immediately revoke such provisions of her will as have made, in my opinion, a generous provision for Mrs. Morecroft in case of her death." 10
Readers were reminded that Aimee had been receiving money from a mysterious trust fund for 15 years — a date coinciding with the alleged meeting between John, Mary Martha, and William in which Mary Martha had confessed she was Aimee's mother. That those payments were, in fact, made to protect Mary Martha's secret and that the pending legal action would, if successful, reveal that secret must have seemed obvious.
The Supreme Court didn't even need to get involved; the question of whether or not Mary Martha was Aimee's mother had been answered in the Court of public opinion.
All that was missing was the birth certificate.
Copyright 2024 Lori Olson White
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Chapter End Notes
[i] “Delays Action in Suit for Birth Papers; NY Judge Reserves Ruling in Plea Involving Former Baltimorean; Interest Claimed in Two Estates; Mrs. A H Morecroft Says She is Daughter of Mrs. AH Taylor”, Baltimore Sun, Baltimore, MD, September 19, 1928
[ii] “Woman Asks for Big Fortune; Canadian Fights for Part of $16,000,000 NY Estate; Scandal is Revealed; Mrs. Morecroft States She is Daughter of Noted Society Leader”, Windsor Star, Windsor, ONT, CAN, October 26, 1928.
[iii] “Woman Asks for Big Fortune; Canadian Fights for Part of $16,000,000 NY Estate; Scandal is Revealed; Mrs. Morecroft States She is Daughter of Noted Society Leader”, Windsor Star, Windsor, ONT, CAN, October 26, 1928.
[iv] “Lonely, loveless childhood recalled by woman who insists ‘Aunt’ is her mother”, Brooklyn Eagle, Brooklyn, NY, September 30, 1928.
[v] Bertha Bartlett, “She Seeks to be Called Illegitimate! Prof’s Ex-Wife Asks Society woman to Clear up Parentage.” Daily News, New York, NY, September 28, 1928, P. 9.
[vi] “Delays Action in Suit for Birth Papers; NY Judge Reserves Ruling in Plea Involving Former Baltimorean; Interest Claimed in Two Estates; Mrs. A H Morecroft Says She is Daughter of Mrs. AH Taylor”, Baltimore Sun, Baltimore, MD, September 19, 1928.
[vii] “Woman Asks for Big Fortune; Canadian Fights for Part of $16,000,000 NY Estate; Scandal is Revealed; Mrs. Morecroft States She is Daughter of Noted Society Leader”, Windsor Star, Windsor, ONT, CAN, October 26, 1928.
[viii] “Says Shame Led Mother to Hatred: Claims Port Chester Woman and First Cousin were Parents: Miserable as a Child; Hidden from Neighbors and Friends of Socially Prominent Family,” Port Chester Daily Item, Port Chester, NY, September 24, 1928, P. 1.
[ix] “Woman Asks for Big Fortune; Canadian Fights for Part of $16,000,000 NY Estate; Scandal is Revealed; Mrs. Morecroft States She is Daughter of Noted Society Leader”, Windsor Star, Windsor, ONT, CAN, October 26, 1928.
[x] “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.
My grandmother was born in Nova Scotia in 1893, and she has a delayed birth certificate. I am not looking at my notes so am not sure of dates, but no birth or death certificates were required between the late 1880s and the 1920s. When, in later years, when proof of age was needed, such as naturalization as an American like my grandmother, people sought a delayed birth cert.
They are fascinating. They have child's birth name date and place, father's name occupation and current residence, mother's name and current residence, doctor or midwife present at the birth and current residence (many of these were dead). The person filing provided their name and address.
Then the proofs were listed. My grandmother's is filed by her mother, and says, "I am her mother and know the above to be correct." My great-uncle's is filed by his brother and says, "I am his brother and I am 10 years older and was present in the house at the time of his birth."
Some give family Bibles as proof, some give school records - "He was enrolled in the first grade in 1911 at age six and therefore was born in 1905." Sometimes the government had to look in the census, which of course was a government secret, and it says "He was listed as age 3 on the 1901 census and therefore was born in 1898."
The funniest one was a relative who had so many children she couldn't keep their birth years straight and swore on 2 different documents, several years apart, that 2 different children were born the same year!
New Brunswick was the perfect place for Mary Martha to give birth because no official record of the birth was required!
I also look forward to the continuance of Aimee's story. The amount of time, money, frustration, and exhaustion that went into trying to bury this secret, this morsel of information, is astonishing. And it was all for nought since it came out anyway, as things like this often do.