Junius Brutus Booth: Theatrical Prometheus

8. Coda

8 Coda I know not where is that Promethean heat That can thy light rdume. -Othello> V, ii, 12-13 B ooth died without a will; Mary Ann had to settle the estate before getting on with her own life. The Orphan's Court of Baltimore granted letters of administration to the widow on 23 December 1852. With Tudor Hall and the Harford County property not included, Booth's estate, after thirty-one years of starring in America, came to $4,728.99. Richard Junius Booth immediately filed exceptions, alleging that Mary Ann had not accounted for certain property, including Booth's professional wardrobe, a piano, and cash in hand. Mary Ann countered by claiming the wardrobe was of no great value, having been made by hand by Mary Ann for her husband. Booth had taken an extensive costume collection with him to California, but Mary Ann only recovered two trunks after his death. Appraisers considered them personal apparel, not counted as part of the deceased's estate. Mary Ann then added that, insofar as cash went, Booth had been robbed crossing the Isthmus of Panama, leaving him funds instUfi224 Coda 225 cient to reach New Orleans. Apparently a stranger, a Texan named Reid, loaned Booth the necessary money. The piano and Booth's libraryhad been includedin the accOlllt. Facedwith tllis information, Richard Junius Booth witlldrew his exceptions, and the estate cleared.1 That matter settled, tlle BOOtllS from both sides of the Atlantic could continue with their own concerns. Jane BOOtll Mitchell, aged fifty, was buried 4 May 1853 in tlle Baltimore Cemetery. Her husband moved into single quarters and continued his shiftless, literary life. Apparently the children dispersed to make their way as best they could. One daughter, Eliza, became an actress ofno great distinction, eventuallymarrying asecond-rate actor named William Ward.2 She received some encouragement from her cousin Edwin Booth, but she never achieved eminence. Adelaide Delannoy Booth remained in Baltimore, eventually applying fur and receiving naturalization.3 She lived at 535 West Baltimore Street on the second floor, renting a ten-by-twelve-foot room from Charles Zell, who operated a cigar store at street leveL Richard eked out an existence from his earnings as a teacher of French at St. Mary's Catholic Academy and no doubt assisted his mother. But on 31 December 1849 Richard married Sarall P. Ware. The next year's census listed them as both having been born in England and Richard's occupation as teacher. The census recorded them as having four children, ranging in age from ten years to two months; apparentlySarah had children from a previous marriage. They lived, according to city directories, at 54 Hoffinan Street in 1855-56, the next two years on Mosher Street near Pennsylvania Avenue, and in 1860 at 63 South High Street.4 On 9 March 1858 Baltimore physician E. Ridley Baer received an urgent call from West Baltimore Street. He found the aged Adelaide abed, attended by Zell's wife. Baer felt for a pulse but found none. As the landlady and physician gazed down at the corpse, a shudder passed tllrough the body, the features became distorted, and the lungs emptied with a hoarse, gurgling rattle from her ashen lips. The landlady fainted as Adelaide Delannoy Booth died. Dr. Baer prepared Adelaide's body for the undertaker, who laid her to rest in the Cathedral Cemetery. It was reported that Richard Junius Booth took charge ofhis mother's remains and the inscription on her gravestone. The body was moved on 17 October 1887 to the New Cathedral Cemetery.5 226 Junius Brutus Booth Booth's oldest son then disappeared from the Baltimore records. He returned to England sometime during our Civil War; the 1860 entrywas the lastlistingfor him in Baltimore. He diedin Clerkenwell, London, the old Booth neighborhood, in 1868 with an unidentified J. B. Booth in attendance.6 He was buried with his wife, who died onlya month earlier, inHighgate Cemetery, London. No stonemarks their grave. John Wilkes Booth became an actor and was the next ofthe Booth circle to die: 26 April1865.The storyofhis assassination ofPresident Abraham Lincoln, his flight, the pursuit, and his death needs no repetition; the tale has been told often, ifnot definitively. John Wilkes Booth is buried in an unmarked grave in the family plot in Green Mount Cemeteryin Baltimore (although various theories hold that he escapedafter the assassination). No definite...