by gail maccoll
SCHLEY, VIRGINIA
Daughter of Adm. Winfield Scott Schley
Married January 22, 1891
To: the Hon. Ralph Granville Montagu-Stuart-Wortley, younger brother of 2nd Earl of Wharncliffe
Virginia was from an old Maryland family, in the United States since 1739; her father had served in the Civil War and Spanish-American War, and taught at the Naval Academy. She made her début in Washington, D.C. Wortley was vice-president of the Atlantic & Danville railroad. Their children lived in America; a great-grandson, a contractor in Maine, is 5th Earl.
SECOR, ROSALIND
Daughter of William Holt Secor of New York
Married January 5, 1902
To: Sir Guy Chetwynd, 5th Baronet
Rosalind’s father was a lawyer; her grandfather, Charles A. Secor, a shipbuilder. Chetwynd’s mother was half-sister of the 4th Marquess of Anglesey, who married Mary Sands King [q.v.]. Divorced from Chetwynd in 1909, Rosalind embarked on an acting career, calling herself “Rosa Lynd”; she was actress-manager of the Comedy Theatre. Chetwynd’s sister Lilian was married, unhappily and briefly, to the 5th (“Dancing”) Marquess of Anglesey, her cousin.
SHARON, FLORENCE EMILY (“FLORA”)
Daughter of Sen. William Sharon of San Francisco and Nevada
Married December 23, 1880
To: Sir Thomas George Fermor-Hesketh, 7th Baronet
Seats: Eastern Neston, Towcester, Northamptonshire; *Rufford Old Hall, Rufford, Lancashire
Sharon, who made a fortune as the Bank of California’s Comstock Lode representative as well as in railroads and real estate, owned the magnificent Palace Hotel in San Francisco. Flora, convent-educated, spent her winters in Washington, D.C.; she met Hesketh during his around-the-world voyage on the yacht Lancashire Witch. He was from an old, respectable Lancashire family. They lived in England, where Flora installed bathrooms and Tudor-look paneling in Hawksmoor-designed Easton Neston; she was rumored to have been the Prince of Wales’ mistress. Hesketh continued his yachting, and eventually Flora moved into Rufford Old Hall (now run by the National Trust). She imported her brother’s stepdaughter, Florence Breckinridge [q.v.], to groom as wife material for their son.
SHERMAN, MILDRED
Daughter of William Watts Sherman of New York and Newport
Married November 25, 1911
To: Ralph Francis Julian Stonor, 5th Baron Camoys
Seat: *Stonor Park, Henky-on-Thames, Oxfordshire
Sherman, who married two very prominent Rhode Island women (first a Wetmore, then a Brown), was a banker and treasurer of the Newport Casino. The Stonors had lived at Stonor Park since the twelfth century. Mildred and Stonor were married quietly in New York (Sherman was very ill), after which their lives were disrupted by World War I. Mildred, very sensitive, suffered from the cold of English houses; she was never presented at court and rarely even dined out. She’d been so cossetted that on her honeymoon, when she bent down to unfasten her shoes (without her maid’s help), she fainted.
SMITH, MARY EMMA
Daughter of George S. Smith of Evanston, Illinois
Married April 2, 1887
To: George Alexander Cooper, later 1st Baronet
Smith’s brother, the financier known as “Chicago” Smith, left a fortune to Mary and her brother (called “Silent” Smith). After she inherited (some £4 million), she and Cooper, a solicitor in Elgin, Scotland, moved to a huge house on Grosvenor Square; they also bought a house in Hampshire, which they decorated and enlarged. They were big Duveen customers. He was created Baronet in 1905, after his apotheosis as a rich man.
Stonor Park, home of the Stonor family since the twelfth century, and a far cry from Mildred Sherman’s New York and Newport homes.
The famous sphinx in Blenheim’s Water Terrace Garden. It sports Gladys Deacon’s features.
ONCE IS NOT ENOUGH!
For a number of English husbands, the family fuss over their first marriage to an American had little bearing on their choice of a second wife. In fact, for the second go-round, more heiresses’ husbands married Americans than reverted to their own nationality. It was as if, having tried the liveliness and exoticism (not to mention financial ease) of living with an American, they couldn’t be content with the less colorful company of an Englishwoman.
THE 1ST BARON CURZON OF KEDLESTON, bereft after the death of his lovely wife Mary Leiter in 1906, married the immensely wealthy American widow Grace Duggan in 1917. It was quite clear, however, that Mary was his true love. The elaborate memorial in the chapel at Kedleston bears the touching inscription: “She was mourned in three continents/ And by her dearest will be/For ever unforgotten.”
THE 5TH BARON DECIES’ wife Vivien Gould died in 1931, and five years later Elizabeth Drexel Lehr became his second wife. One of the banking Drexels, Elizabeth was the widow of Harry Lehr, the acid-tongued jester to Mrs. Stuyvesant Fish, who had told her on their wedding day that he’d only married her for her money.
THE 5TH EARL OF GOSFORD, divorced from Mildred Carter in 1928 (on grounds of desertion and adultery, uncontested), married Beatrice Claflin Breese, ex-wife of Robert P. Breese of New York. He continued to live in the States, running a wine shop in Manhattan, and at age sixty-five joined the New York City police force.
THE 3RD BARON OF LEIGH, having married the older Frances Helene Beckwith, was not unexpectedly widowed after nineteen years. In 1923 he married another New Yorker, Marie Campbell, whose tenure at Stoneleigh Abbey would be somewhat marred by the continuing presence of her husband’s maiden aunts.
THE 9TH DUKE OF MANCHESTER was divorced in 1931 from the long-suffering Helena Zimmerman. His second wife, Kathleen Dawes, couldn’t rehabilitate him, and in 1935 he was sentenced to nine months in Wormwood Scrubs prison for trying to pawn some jewelry that belonged to his trustees. (After serving a month’s time, his sentence was overturned in a court of appeals and he left prison looking healthier than when he’d gone in.)
ALMERIC PAGET, later 1st Baron Queenborough, became a widower when Pauline Whitney (never robust) died in 1916. He consoled himself five years later with the thirty-year-old Florence Miller of New York.
THE 9TH DUKE OF MARLBOROUGH already had a second string to his bow when his divorce from Consuelo became final. The beautiful, intelligent (and wild) Bostonian Gladys Deacon had been Sunny’s lover for ten years before their 1921 marriage. By 1931 their relationship had deteriorated into open hostility, though they never divorced.
STAGER, ELLEN
Daughter of Gen. Anson Stager of New York and Chicago
Married March 8, 1887
To: Lord James Arthur Wellington Foley Butler, later 4th Marquess of Ormonde
Seat: *Kilkenny Castle, Co. Kilkenny, Ireland
Anson Stager, an early pioneer in use of the telegraph, was chief of U. S. Military Telegraph in the Civil War and later involved with Western Union as well as Vanderbilt business interests in the West. Ellen, known as the prettiest girl in Chicago, moved to New York in the mid-’80s after her parents died. Lord Arthur, from an old and powerful Irish family, succeeded his brother as 4th Marquess in 1919.
STEVENS, MARY FISKE (“MINNIE”)
Daughter of Paran Stevens of New York and Newport
Married July 27, 1878
To: Col. Arthur Paget, later knighted
Paran Stevens ran New York’s Fifth Avenue Hotel; his wife Marietta was a grocer’s daughter from Lowell, Massachusetts. The provenance of the Stevens fortune was too pragmatic for New York, hence the Stevens women’s departure for Europe. The pretty, green-eyed Minnie shopped around extensively (with exaggerated reports of her dowry) before finally settling on Arthur Paget, son of Gen. Lord Alfred Paget, grandson of the 1st Marquess of Anglesey, and brother of Sidney (who married Marie Dolan [q.v.]) and Almcric Paget (husband of Pauline Whitney [q.v.]. They enjoyed much royal attention; the Prince of Wales was godfather to their eldest son, who died in action in World War I. Minnie was a great London hostess, a brilliant fund-raiser, and a c
rucial contact for American heiresses on the prowl.
STOKES, SARAH
Daughter of Anson Phelps Stokes of New York and Lenox
Married February 11, 1890
To: Hugh Colin Gustave Halkett, Baron Halkett of Hanover
Stokes, a merchant, banker and real estate investor as well as an official of the Ansonia (Conn.) Clock Co., was a founder of the Metropolitan Museum and vice-commodore of the New York Yacht Club. (His brother developed the Ansonia Hotel in New York.) Sarah’s brother, Isaac Newton Phelps Stokes, is portrayed in the famous Sargent double portrait now at the Metropolitan. Halkett of Hanover was a foreign title borne by a British subject. The marriage was not a success. In 1900, the pair was living in Lenox; Sarah obtained a divorce in 1903, discarded the title, and wrote and illustrated children’s books.
Kilkenny Castle, where Ellen Stager became châtelaine, was damaged in 1922 during Ireland’s Troubles.
Minnie Stevens Paget, in a very uncomfortable-looking medieval costume.
Alice Thaw was as innocent as Americans could come. Her marriage provided a disillusioning education in the ways of the world.
STONE, ROMAINE (Mrs. Lawrence Turnure, Jr.)
Daughter of Gen. Roy Stone of Washington, D.C.
Married July 1, 1903
To: Augustus Debonnaire John Monson, 9th Baron Monson
Seat: Burton Hall, near Lincoln
Stone, an engineer originally from Morristown, New Jersey, had fought at Gettysburg and in the Spanish-American War. Turnure, Romaine’s first husband, was from an Old New York banking family descended from the Huguenots. Monson was private secretary to his uncle, Sir Edward Monson, the British ambassador in Paris; his family had long been struggling financially. He and Romaine were married in Paris, after which she lived a very social life in New York and London. Their son married an American; a grandson was the author of Nouveaux Pauvres, a lifestyle manual for poverty-stricken aristocrats.
STURGES, ALBERTA
Daughter of William Sturges of New York
Married July 25, 1905
To: George Charles Montagu, later 9th Earl of Sandwich
*Seat: Hinchingbrooke House, Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire
Alberta’s mother, the widow Sturges, married New York wholesale grocer Frank Leggett and pursued a social career in London. Alberta had a splashy début in 1901 but showed little interest in the social world. Montagu was an earnest young M.P. and heir presumptive to his uncle when he married Alberta. Their son Victor disclaimed the title for life in order to serve in the House of Commons. Hinchingbrooke is now a school.
THAW, ALICE CORNELIA
Daughter of William Thaw of Pittsburgh
Married April 27, 1903
To: George Francis Alexander Seymour, Earl of Yarmouth, later 7th Marquess of Hertford
Seat: *Ragley Hall, Alcester, Warwickshire
The Thaw money was from coal and the Pennsylvania Railroad. Alice’s brother Harry, assassin of Stanford White, met Yarmouth while the latter was pursing a stage career in New York. The 4th Marquess had left all unentailed property, including a fabulous art collection, to his illegitimate son, Sir Richard Wallace, so Yarmouth was deep in debt at the time of his marriage to Alice. (He was also rumored to have proposed first to Alice’s niece by her father’s first marriage.) Alice’s petition for an annulment was granted in 1908 on the ground of nonconsummation; Yarmouth was denied any part of the annual $50,000 settled on him at marriage.
TOUZALIN, ELLEN (Mrs. George Nickerson)
Daughter of A.E. Touzalin
Married January 19, 1910
To: The Hon. Horace Lambert Hood, younger brother of 5th Viscount Hood
Hood was aide-de-camp to Edward VII in 1912; he was knighted posthumously after his death in the Battle of Jutland (1916), and Ellen was granted the style (“Lady Hood”) of a knight’s wife. Their son Samuel succeeded as 6th Viscount.
TUCKER, ETHEL
Daughter of William Austin Tucker of Boston
Married January 31, 1900
To: the Hon. Archibald Lionel Lindesav-Bethune, later 13th Earl of Lindsay
Ethel’s father founded the Tucker, Anthony banking house of Boston and New York. The Lindsays were divorced in 1906, but then married each other again in 1921 and lived in Boston, where he contributed to the British war relief effort. Their son, the 14th Earl, attended Groton.
VANDERBILT, CONSUELO
Daughter of William K. Vanderbilt of New York and Newport
Married November 6, 1895
To: Charles Richard John Spencer-Churchill, 9th Duke of Marlborough
Seat: *Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, Oxfordshire
William K. was a grandson of Commodore Vanderbilt, founder of the great fortune. Consuelo, named for her mother Alva’s best friend, Consuelo Yznaga [q.v.], was brought up in great splendor in the States and abroad. The proud Marlborough (stepson of Lily Hammersley [q.v.] and nephew of Jennie Jerome [q.v.]) was saddled with the immense Blenheim and very little income; both his father and his grandfather were spendthrifts. Minnie Stevens [q.v.], also a good friend of Alva, set up the first meeting between the Duke and Consuelo, whose objections to the match were overruled. The Marlboroughs entertained lavishly at Blenheim, where the Prince of Wales was a frequent guest, and played a highly visible part in Edward VII’s coronation. They separated in 1906 and were divorced in 1920. In 1921 the Duke married Gladys Deacon of Boston (for several years his mistress). Consuelo married French airman Jacques Balsan; she died in 1964 and was buried at her request in the Churchill family plot.
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“O dear me if I was only a little older I might ‘catch’ him yet! But Helas! I am too young .. . And I will have to give up all chance to ever get Marlborough.”
GLADYS DEACON, writing in her diary at age 14, after she read about the 9th Duke’s engagement to Consuelo Vanderbilt; she later beeanie his 2nd Duchess
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The Countess of Tankerville with her only son, Lord Ossulton. The Tankervilles made little splash in London society.
The redoubtable Mrs. Adair was a highly influential hostess, credited with pioneering the use of several small round tables for dinner (thus freeing hostesses from the rigors of precedence).
VAN MARTER, LEONORA SOPHIA
Daughter of James G. Van Matter of New York
Married October 23, 1895
To: George Montagu Ker Bennet, Lord Ossulton, later 7th Earl of Tankerville
Seat: Chillingham Castle, Alnwick, Northumberland
Ossulton, a sportsman, painter and fine tenor, had served in the Royal Navy and as aide-de-camp to one of the Lords-Lieutenant of Ireland. Leonora was also musical and had studied Latin and Greek. They had a son and two daughters.
WADSWORTH, CORNELIA (Mrs. Montgomery Ritchie)
Daughter of Gen. James Wadsworth of Geneseo, New York
Married 1869
To: John Adair of Rathdaire, Ireland
The Wadsworths, with vast holdings in Geneseo, were prominent in many fields (e.g., Hartford’s Wadsworth Atheneum). Cornelia was an aunt of Helen Post [q.v.]; her first husband died in the Civil War. Adair, though untitled, was a big landowner in Ireland (he had bought widely after the potato famine) and had a tract in Texas rumored to produce £40,000 a year. After he died, Cornelia was rumored to be engaged to the Duke of Marlborough in 1887. She attended the 1903 Durbar in India with her own chef and acted as Kitchener’s hostess; she was also a marriage broker.
WADSWORTH, ELIZABETH (Mrs. Arthur Post)
Daughter of Gen. James Wadsworth of Geneseo, New York
Married February 28, 1889
To: Arthur Barry, later created 1st Baron Barrymore
Seat: Fota Island, Co. Cork, Ireland
Elizabeth was the beautiful widow of Arthur Post; her daughter was Helen Post [q.v.]. Barry had been widowed in 1884. Together they added the Long Gallery to Fota Island and continued the program of planting rare specimens in the famous arboretum there.
WALKER
, MARGUERITE
Daughter of Judge Samuel J. Walker of Chicago and Frankfort, Kentucky
Married April 1897
To: the Hon. Oliver Henry Wallop, later 8th Earl of Portsmouth
Seat: Farleigh Wallop, near Basingstoke, Hampshire
Marguerite and Oliver lived a long time in Wyoming, where he was among the best-known residents, then moved to England when he succeeded to the title in 1925. They had two sons, the younger of whom stayed in Wyoming as a rancher; their grandson Malcolm is a U. S. senator from Wyoming.
WHITEHOUSE, LILY
Daughter of William Fitzhugh Whitehouse of New York and Newport
Married January 16, 1900
To: Col. the Hon. Charles John Coventry, 2nd son of 9th Earl of Coventry
Whitehouse, originally a Chicago lawyer, became director of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad and traveled in Europe to educate his six children. One of Lily’s brothers was private secretary to Ambassador Whitelaw Reid, father of Jean Reid [q.v.]. Coventry’s older brother, Viscount Deerhurst, married Virginia Bonynge [q.v.]; his younger brother married Edith Kip [q.v.]. He and Lily rented Stonor Park and, according to the daughter of Mildred Sherman [q.v.], put in a hot-water heater taken from a steamship.
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Mrs. Astor owned a gold dinner service rumored to be worth $75,000. The gold dinner services belonging to Mrs. Whitelaw Reid and William Collins Whitney included plates, candelabra, épergnes and serving dishes as well as cutlery.
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WHITNEY, PAULINE
Daughter of William Collins Whitney of New York, Lenox, Long Island, the Adirondacks
Married November 12, 1895
To: Almeric Paget, later 1st Baron Queenborough
Whitney, a lawyer and politician turned businessman, earned $40 million in just over five years as a founder of Metropolitan Transit. After the death of Pauline’s mother (née Flora Payne) in 1892, he married Edith May Randolph, mother of Adelaide Randolph [q.v.]; she died in 1899, and it was rumored that Frances Work (Burke-Roche) [q.v.] was a candidate for his third wife. Pauline’s mother was a great friend of Mrs. Paran Stevens, mother of Minnie Stevens (Paget) [q.v.] and Almeric’s sister-in-law. Almeric had made money in Minnesota real estate; after his marriage to Pauline (the wedding was overshadowed by that of Consuelo Vanderbilt [q.v.] a week earlier), he worked for Whitney in New York. In 1902 the Pagets moved to England, where they had homes in London and Suffolk. She was socially ambitious and an inveterate card player; he became an M.P. and High Sheriff of Suffolk, and was created Baron for political service.