One might think an arranged marriage between the daughter of an American horse breeder from Kentucky and the heir to a British earl something only found in fiction, but Stella Kendrick’s predicament was inspired by a very real phenomenon. Between 1869 and 1911, more than a hundred American heiresses or “Million Dollar Princesses” crossed the Atlantic and married into the highest levels of British society. The money-strapped British aristocracy was in desperate need of an infusion of funds and America’s new industrial millionaires needed to solidify their social standing back home. So, these daughters of bankers, industrialists and railroad barons, including a Colgate, Gould, Jerome, Vanderbilt and Whitney, exchanged dollars for titles. Some did so willingly; some were not given a choice. Consuelo Vanderbilt was a spectacular example of the latter. However they landed into the British aristocracy, these women left an indelible mark. Nancy Langhorne Astor of Virginia was the first woman to sit as a Member of Parliament. Jennie Jerome Spencer-Churchill of New York was Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s mother. The future king of England Prince William’s great-great grandmother was Francis Work Burke Roche of Ohio. Even the television series Downton Abbey was inspired by one of these real life pioneering American women. To read more, I recommend To Marry an English Lord: Tales of Wealth and Marriage, Sex and Snobbery by Gail MacColl and Carol McD. Wallace. This resource was invaluable to me in telling Stella Kendrick, my “dollar princess’s” tale.
Murder at Morrington Hall Page 27