H. De Courcy Forbes

Henry De Courcy Forbes (February 24, 1849 – July 1920)[1] was an American attorney, clubman, and member of the Forbes family who was prominent in New York society during the Gilded Age.

H. De Courcy Forbes
Born
Henry De Courcy Forbes

(1849-02-24)February 24, 1849
DiedJuly 1, 1920(1920-07-01) (aged 71)
Paris, France
Alma materTrinity Hall, Cambridge
Parent(s)Paul Siemen Forbes
Valeria Medora Wright
RelativesWilliam Howell Forbes (brother)
Robert Bennet Forbes (uncle)
John Murray Forbes (uncle)

Early life

Forbes was born on February 24, 1849. He was the second son of Valeria Medora (née Wright) Forbes and Paul Siemen Forbes (1808–1886), who traveled to China in 1857 joined his cousin John Murray Forbes, the United States Consul in Canton who was a partner in Russell & Co., the largest American trading house in Qing dynasty China from the 1840s until its closing in 1891.[2] He had two brothers, William Howell Forbes and Paul Revere Forbes; and a sister, Mary Elizabeth "Nellie" Forbes (1854–1932),[3][4] who married Gaston Louis Philippe de Choiseul, the 6th Duc de Praslin, the son of Françoise, duchesse de Praslin and Charles de Choiseul-Praslin, the 5th Duc de Praslin, in 1874.[5] After his brother William's death in 1896, William's widow, the former Dora Delano (sister of Frederic Adrian Delano and Sara (née Delano) Roosevelt), married Henry's other brother, Paul.[6]

His maternal grandparents were Eliza Lee (née Warner) Wright and Samuel Turbutt Wright, the 2nd Adjutant General of Maryland.[7] After his grandfather's early death in 1810, his grandmother remarried to Forbes' namesake, William Henry De Courcy Wright, the son of U.S. Senator and Governor of Maryland Robert Wright and Sarah (née De Courcy) Wright.[7]

Forbes attended and graduated from Trinity Hall, Cambridge.[8][9]

Career

Following the family tradition, Forbes entered Russell & Co. as a director,[10] serving as an attorney for his father.[11] While the firm had been extremely successful in the past, increased competition led to its decline. Russells attempted to rescue itself when it was about to bankrupt by founding the National Bank of China to draw some capital. Forbes, his brother William, and the Howqua family became founders of the Bank. S. W. Pomeroy, a Russell partner and former director of the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank, with other members of the company, criticized the Forbes brothers for sponsoring the new Bank which the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank viewed as rival.[12] This led to further curtailment of credit to Russell & Co., forcing the firm to sell its assets resulting in a full collapse on June 9, 1891. The business was acquired by two of its employees, Robert Shewan and Alexander Charles Tomes, who renamed the firm Shewan, Tomes & Co. in 1895.[12]

Society life

In 1892, Forbes was included in Ward McAllister's "Four Hundred", purported to be an index of New York's best families, published in The New York Times.[13][14] Conveniently, 400 was the number of people that could fit into Mrs. Astor's ballroom.[15]

Forbes was heavily interested in horse racing and was a prominent member of the New York Jockey Club when Pierre Lorillard and James R. Keene were racing horses.[1] He also served as a director of the National Horse-Show Association of America.[16]

Personal life

Forbes, who did not marry, lived at the Knickerbocker Club in New York City.[17] He died at the home of his brother Paul, 37 Avenue de l'Alma, in Paris in July 1920.[1]

References
  1. "H. DE COURCEY FORBES IS DEAD IN PARIS Once Prominent New York Sportsman Dies at the Home of His Brother, Paul R. Forbes" (PDF). The New York Times. July 17, 1920. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  2. "Forbes Family. Forbes Family Business Records, 1658–1968: A Finding Aid". Harvard Business School, Boston, MA.
  3. "DUCHESSE DE PRASLIN.; Former Elizabeth Forbes of New York Was 82". The New York Times. November 4, 1932. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  4. "LATEST SCANDAL IN FRENCH SOCIETY Comte Claude de Choiseul-Praslin Accused of Swindling by Means of False "Old Masters."" (PDF). The New York Times. February 5, 1911. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  5. "Forbes Family Papers". Massachusetts Historical Society.
  6. "MARRIED BROTHER-IN-LAW" (PDF). The New York Times. June 12, 1903. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  7. Hardy, Stella Pickett (1911). Colonial Families of the Southern States of America: A History and Genealogy of Colonial Families who Settled in the Colonies Prior to the Revolution. Wright. p. 537. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  8. Emory, Mrs Mary Edwardine Bourke (1900). Colonial Families and Their Descendants, by One of the Oldest Graduates of St. Mary's Hall, Burlington, N. J.: "The First Female Church-school Established in the United States, which Has Reached Its Sixty-first Year. Press of the Sun printing office. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  9. Alumni Cantabrigienses: Abbas-Cutts. vol. II. Dabbs-Juxton. vol. III. Kaile-Ryves. vol. IV. Saal-Zuinglius. University of Cambridge Press. 1944. p. 531. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  10. Whitaker, Joseph (1884). An Almanack for the Year of Our Lord ... J. Whitaker. p. 36. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  11. Journal of the Legislative Council of New South Wales | Session 1875 | Commencing 27 January, and Ending 11 August 1875 (Vol. XXV ed.). Sydney: Thomas Richards, Government Printer. 1875. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  12. He, Sibing (2011). "Russell and Company in Shanghai, 1843–1891: U. S. Trade and Diplomacy in Treaty Port China" (PDF). Hong Kong University.
  13. McAllister, Ward (16 February 1892). "THE ONLY FOUR HUNDRED | WARD M'ALLISTER GIVES OUT THE OFFICIAL LIST. HERE ARE THE NAMES, DON'T YOU KNOW, ON THE AUTHORITY OF THEIR GREAT LEADER, YOU UNDER- STAND, AND THEREFORE GENUINE, YOU SEE" (PDF). The New York Times. Retrieved 26 March 2017.
  14. Patterson, Jerry E. (2000). The First Four Hundred: Mrs. Astor's New York in the Gilded Age. Random House Incorporated. p. 214. ISBN 9780847822089. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  15. Keister, Lisa A. (2005). Getting Rich: America's New Rich and How They Got That Way. Cambridge University Press. p. 36. ISBN 9780521536677. Retrieved 20 October 2017.
  16. Outing. Outing Publishing Company. 1897. p. 198. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  17. Social Register, New York. Social Register Association. 1901. p. 156. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
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