![]() ![]() Lord and Clinton each declared that they were, and the Surrogate ordered, “Proceed, gentlemen.”Įveryone who listened as Lord stood to make his opening argument knew just how great the stakes were. ![]() ![]() At exactly two o’clock, the judge-called the “Surrogate” in this Surrogate Court-strode briskly in from his chambers through a side door, stepped up to the dais, and took his seat. William, “glancing carelessly and indifferently around the room, removed his overcoat and comfortably settled himself in his chair,” the New York Timesreported meanwhile his lawyers shook hands with the opposing team, led by Scott Lord, who represented William’s sister Mary Vanderbilt La Bau. Vanderbilt, the Commodore’s eldest son, and his lawyers, led by Henry L. Shortly before the hour, the crowd parted to allow in William H. The trial over the will of Cornelius Vanderbilt, the famous, notorious Commodore, was about to begin. ![]() But most of the teeming mass of men and women-many fashionably dressed, crowding in until they were packed against the back wall-wanted to hear the details of the life of the richest man the United States had ever seen. They included friends and relatives of the contestants, of course, as well as leading lawyers who wished to observe the forensic skills of the famous attorneys who would try the case. Well before the appointed hour of two o’clock in the afternoon on November 12, 1877, hundreds of spectators pushed into a courtroom in lower Manhattan. ![]()
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