Lizzie Borden Society Forum

I know that a will was never found, but I was reading on the website, Lizzie Borden. com that neither Lizzie nor Emma spoke to Uncle John because he was planning to reduce theire inheirtance and abby would put the farm in her name and Johns' brother-in-law John Morse, the caretaker.

I know that the inheirtance was to change, but was it just a rumor about the will? I thought there was no will found. So where did the idea of the inheirtance come about?

Does the website list a source for their contention about Morse and Abby conspiring with Andrew to reduce Emma and Lizzie's inheritance?

Snokkums, is this the website you are referring to? http://www.lizzieborden.com/

Yes thats the one. I didn't see any references or resources, Yooper, but forgive me, I really wasn't looking. Oops.Sorry.

I just went back to the website, and I didn't see any listed. I might not be looking in the right place, but I didn't see any.

The question of a will is open to a lot of speculation. I think it is hard for most people to see why someone nearly seventy years of age and relatively wealthy would be without one. No will was discovered, and no one came forward with information about having drawn up a will for Andrew at any time. A will Andrew might have made on his own would probably have been notarized and witnessed, as would one drawn up by an attorney.

To my mind, the most likely person to have knowledge of a will made by Andrew would have been his attorney, Jennings. I don't think attorney-client privilege extends beyond the death of the client, so Jennings may have had a predicament if he had drawn up a will for Andrew. He was defending Andrew's daughter, and the presence of a will might have been detrimental to his case, depending upon the contents. If the contents became moot given the circumstance of the murders, then there would be no damage done by not mentioning the will. This is pretty far-fetched, and personally, I don't believe there was a will.

snokkums @ Tue Jan 08, 2008 10:09 am wrote:Yes thats the one. I didn't see any references or resources, Yooper, but forgive me, I really wasn't looking. Oops.Sorry.

Thanks, Snokkums. I also went through the entire web site - not a single source is listed. I would not refer anyone to this web site - I think this web site is pulling most of their information out of their ears, to put it nicely.

I agree with Jeff, I don't believe there was a will.

Was this discussed on another topic? Or deja-vu?
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say there's not much point going elsewhere for info, snokkums. Have you subscribed to The Hatchet? Read the source documents? Also, newspaper coverage is very interesting.

snokkums @ Tue Jan 08, 2008 6:45 am wrote:I know that a will was never found, but I was reading on the website, Lizzie Borden. com that neither Lizzie nor Emma spoke to Uncle John because he was planning to reduce theire inheirtance and abby would put the farm in her name and Johns' brother-in-law John Morse, the caretaker.

I know that the inheirtance was to change, but was it just a rumor about the will? I thought there was no will found. So where did the idea of the inheirtance come about?

Emma claimed that Uncle John was a dear uncle, and that they corresponded. He made a point of saying he had taken her out riding not too long before that summer, I believe.

Abbie couldn't just put the farm in her name- Andrew would have to put the farm in Abbie's name. That was not proven to be anything that was in the works at the time of the murders.
We don't know "the inheritance was to change."

"He was planning to reduce their inheritance"- do you mean Andrew or Uncle John?
And Andrew was John Morse's brother-in-law - but you stated John's brother-in-law was John.

Hope this allay's any confusion.