How New Bedford's Hetty Green became the 'Witch of Wall Street'
She kept the books for her father's whaling business at 15 and built one of the great fortunes of her time.
NEW BEDFORD The woman known as the "Witch of Wall Street" came out of New Bedford's whaling trade. Hetty Green, born into two whaling fortunes, built her own in real estate, railroads and money lending and died in 1916 recognized as the richest woman in the world at the time, according to the National Park Service.
Two whaling families
She was born Henrietta Howland Robinson on Nov. 21, 1834, the park service says. Her father, Edward Mott Robinson, was a New Bedford whaling agent, oil manufacturer and Quaker. Her mother, Abby Howland, was the daughter of Isaac Howland Jr., another successful whaling merchant. By age 6 she was reading the financial pages to her father and grandfather, both of whom had failing eyesight, and at 15 she became her father's bookkeeper.
"I was forced into business, I was the only child of two rich families and I was taught from the time I was six years old that I would have to look after my property," she told the journalist Dorothy Dix years later, the park service records.
The Howland will case
When her father died in 1865, she inherited nearly $1 million plus the income from trusts worth several million more, according to the Federal Judicial Center, the education and research agency of the federal courts. Her aunt, Sylvia Ann Howland, died soon after and left about $2 million. The aunt's will put about half of it in trust for her niece and gave the rest away in other bequests.
She challenged the will first in probate court, where she withdrew her appeal. Then she sued her aunt's executor in the U.S. Circuit Court in Massachusetts, saying she and her aunt had agreed to leave everything to each other. She produced an earlier will that left her the whole estate, with an addendum in her own handwriting, bearing her aunt's signature, that said it canceled every other will. The executor argued the signature was forged, and his expert witnesses testified that it must have been traced from the genuine will. A Harvard mathematician testified that a match that exact would happen by chance once in "two thousand six hundred and sixty-six millions of millions of millions of times."
The jury never ruled on the signature. In 1868, Justice Nathan Clifford dismissed the case on other grounds: a Massachusetts law barred her from testifying about her own agreement with her late aunt in a suit against the executor, and without that testimony, he ruled, her evidence fell short. The center says Robinson v. Mandell is believed to be the first federal court case in which statistical evidence was presented.
The witch of Wall Street
In 1867 she married Edward Green, a China goods trader from Vermont, after taking the unusual precaution of a prenuptial agreement. They had two children, Sylvia and Edward. She earned the "Witch of Wall Street" name by buying stocks cheap and waiting for prices to rise before selling, the park service says, and she then put the money into railroads, banks and real estate. Her investment savvy and extreme thrift, the judicial center says, got her called both America's richest woman and its greatest miser. Late in life she lived in a rented apartment in Hoboken, New Jersey.
She died the morning of Monday, July 3, 1916, at the New York home of her son, Col. Edward H.R. Green, on West 90th Street, The Evening World reported on its front page that day. She had suffered three strokes in about two and a half months, the paper said, and protested the care she was given throughout her illness. The park service puts her fortune at between $100 million and $200 million.
The colonel at Round Hill
Her son died in 1936 and is still known as "Colonel Green" around Greater New Bedford. In the 1930s his estate at Round Hill in South Dartmouth became a short-lived showcase for whaling artifacts, among them the Charles W. Morgan, the last square-rigged American whaling vessel.
The Morgan ended its whaling days in 1921. Whaling Enshrined Inc. preserved it, and it was shown at Round Hill until 1941. That November it sailed to Mystic Seaport in Connecticut, where it has been based ever since. The ship became a National Historic Landmark in 1966.
Label: Reported by us, from the town's posted records.
Notes
Every fact comes from the National Park Service's New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park, the Federal Judicial Center's history of Robinson v. Mandell and The Evening World's front page of July 3, 1916, kept by the Library of Congress. The quotes are from those records. We read them on Oct. 28, 2026. We checked each date and weekday against a calendar.
Corrections
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Sources (5)
- National Park Service, New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park: Hetty GreenBirth date and parents, Isaac Howland Jr., the financial pages at 6, bookkeeper at 15, the Dorothy Dix quote, the 1867 marriage and prenuptial agreement, the two children, the Witch of Wall Street name, railroads, banks and real estate, Hoboken, the $100 million to $200 million fortune, richest woman in the world, Colonel Green (died 1936) and Round Hill in the 1930s. Page last updated Aug. 2, 2018. Read Oct. 28, 2026.
- Federal Judicial Center: Circuit Court Opinions, Associate Justice Nathan Clifford, Robinson v. Mandell (1868)Robinson v. Mandell, 20 F. Cas. 1027 (C.C.D. Mass. 1868): the 1865 inheritance, the aunt's $2 million estate and will, the probate challenge, the equity suit, the earlier will and addendum, the forgery defense, the mathematician's figure, the dismissal and the first use of statistical evidence. Read Oct. 28, 2026.
- The Evening World (New York), Monday, July 3, 1916, page 1, Library of Congress Chronicling AmericaFront-page report of her death that morning at her son's home on West 90th Street, after three strokes. Read Oct. 28, 2026.
- National Park Service, New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park: Charles W. MorganWhaling ended 1921, Whaling Enshrined Inc., Round Hill until 1941, Mystic Seaport in November 1941, National Historic Landmark in 1966. Read Oct. 28, 2026.
- Library of Congress: Mrs. Hetty Green (George Grantham Bain Collection)Lead photo: Bain News Service portrait, LC-DIG-ggbain-00546, no known restrictions on publication. Read Oct. 28, 2026.