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(GIRARD, STEPHEN). The Will of the Late Stephen Girard, Esq. Procured From the Office for the Probate of Wills, with a Short Biography of His Life. Philadelphia: Thomas Desilver, 1848. 8vo. 32 pp. With title vignette. Frontis. portrait (repeated on front wrap) and 2 plates. Original printed and pictorial wrappers. Piece (signature?) torn from top margin of front wrap, spine a bit worn. Some age stains. A good, sound copy. $125.00

 

     Frontispiece portrait of Girard "Drawn and engraved by W. Croome, after a daguerreotype by Henry Barratt, from the original portrait, by Otis." The two wood-engraved plates depict: a view of the "Girard College for Orphans"; and "One of Girard's Ships". The last leaf here is a "Form of Application" to the College the names of whose officers are printed on the back wrap. Girard, who amassed a fortune from banking and shipping, died in 1831 leaving a sizable part of his estate, valued at $6,000,000, to be held in trust by the City of Philadelphia for the establishment of a school for orphans. The will was contested by a number of heirs but was eventually upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in Vidal et al. v. The City of Philadelphia (1844), "thereby contributing to American law concerning the rights and powers of charities."?��ANB Online; see also the entry on Girard in DAB.

This title was first published by Robert and Thomas Desilver in 1832 (36 pp.).