o less a person that Alexander Hamilton himself--called
to discuss the terms of this last document. By the bye, Hamilton's
part in the affair is traditional and legendary rather than a matter
of official record;--certainly his name does not appear in connection
with the will. But Hamilton was the lawyer of Randall's sister, and a
close family friend, so the story may more easily be true than false.

This, then, is the way it goes: Alexander Hamilton was summoned to
make out the last will and testament, or at least, to advise
concerning it. Randall was already growing weak, but had a clear and
determined notion of what he wanted to do with his money. This was on
June 1, 1801. The dying man left a number of small bequests to
friends, families and servants, before he came to the real business on
his mind. His bequests, besides money, included, "unto Betsey Hart, my
housekeeper, my gold sleeve buttons," and "unto Adam Shields, my
faithful overseer, my gold watch," and "unto Gawn Irwin, who now lives
with me, my shoe-buckles and knee-buckles." Adam Shields married
Betsey Hart. They were both Scotch--probably from whatever part of
Scotland the Randalls hailed in the first place.

When these matters were disposed of, he began to speak of what was
nearest his heart. He had a good deal of money; he wanted to leave it
to some lasting use. Hamilton asked how he had made his money, and
Randall explained he had inherited it from his father.

"And how did he get it?" asked the great lawyer.

"By honest privateering!" declared Captain Tom's son proudly.

And then, or so the story goes, he went on to whisper:

"My father's fortune all came from the sea. He was a seaman, and a
good one. He had money, so he never suffered when he was worn out, but
all are not like that. I want to make a place for the others. I want
it to be a _snug harbour for tired sailors_."

So the will, July 10, 1801, reads that Robert Richard Randall's
property is left to found: "An Asylum or Marine Hospital, to be called
'The Sailors' Snug Harbour,' for the purpose of maintaining aged,
decrepit, worn-out sailors."

One of the witnesses, by the bye, was Henry Brevoort.

The present bust of Randall which stands in the Asylum is, of course,
quite apocryphal as to likeness. No one knows what he looked like, but
out of such odds and ends of information as the knee-buckles and so
on, mentioned in the will, the artistic imagination of St. Gaudens
evolved a verit