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[Linda Anderson]

Frances Seward inherited the house on four acres in Auburn from her father, Judge Miller. I don't know how much other property Seward bought in Auburn.

Stahr writes that when Seward was young, he "...devoted much of his energy in this period to the pursuit and praise of women." Seward chose Frances Miller, daughter of his employer, Judge Miller, to be his wife when he was "'reduced to my last shilling and in debt.'"

Seward wrote to his father that Frances "satisfied his three prerequisites for marriage: a strong attachment, a proper respect and financial prospects." (Stahr)

Part of the deal was that they live in the Judge's house. Stahr writes, "As one perceptive author has noted, the arrangement allowed Henry to travel for weeks and months, without worrying too much about his wife in her 'comfortable house, with the care of servants and the companionship of father, grandmother and aunt.'"

The "perceptive author" is Patricia Carley Johnson who studied under Van Deusen. Stahr says that, "The best study of the Sewards' marriage is Patricia Johnson, "'I Could Not be Well or Happy at Home'...Politics and the Seward Family," University of Rochester Library Bulletin 31 (1978) (available online)."

https://www.lib.rochester.edu/index.cfm?PAGE=1018