Francis Bartlett (1836-1913)

He was born at Boston, Massachusetts, and inherited a substantial fortune from his father who was a prominent attorney. On graduating from Harvard he entered his father's law office and then took a year at Dane Law School. He was admitted to the bar in 1860 and after travelling for a year in Europe he returned to Boston to resume his legal career. He invested in property, notably in 1911 taking a 198-year lease (which would total $11.7 million in rent) at the corner of State & Randolph in Chicago - the largest rental obligation ever recorded in Chicago. The terms of the lease required a deposit of $150,000 to ensure the erection in five years of a building to cost no less than $300,000. For many years, he was a director of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and in 1903 gifted the museum, "one of the finest collections of antiquarian art (made up of 33-pieces) known in this country," valued at $1 million. He lived between 236 Commonwealth Avenue and his summer home on the North Shore at Pride's Crossing. In 1867, he married Marianna Hubbard Slater, of 276 Broadway, Norwich, Connecticut. They had two daughters, one of whom lived to adulthood: Caroline, Mrs Herbert M. Sears. He left $500,000 to each of his granddaughters, having already given them $100,000 each.