The Broderick Will Case

A late San Francisco telegram mentions the fact that Judge Hogan has issued an injunction restraining the sale of the Broderick estate, until the question of forgery of the will is investigated.  It will be remembered that in January, 1860 after the death of Broderick, a will was said to have been found by Mr. A. J. Butler among Mr. Broderick’s papers at Washington.  This will purports to have been executed at New York on the 2d of January, 1859.  It is written on a small sized letter paper, the signature within two lines of the top of the 2d page , the seal a red wafer with an irregular diamond shaped paper impressed with a common stamp.  The subscribing witnesses are A. A. Phillips and John J. Hoff, the legatees are John A. McGleim $10,000 – “the rest, residue and remainder to my friend Geo. Wilkes.”  The lawful heirs of the estate, cousins of Mr. Broderick, reside in Ireland, but have now representatives in San Francisco who are endeavoring to defeat the will.  Some of the affidavits published by the San Francisco papers and which are to be put in court at the proper time, would indicate that there were, to say the least, a good many suspicious facts connected with the making and discovery of the will, and it looks now very much as if an investigation into the matter would reveal facts not particularly creditable to Messrs. Wilkes, Butler and others who are mixed up in the affair.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, February 1, 1862, p. 3