J. Hooker Hamersley

James Hooker Hamersley (January 26, 1844 – September 15, 1901)[1] was an American heir, lawyer and poet from New York City during the Gilded Age.

J. Hooker Hamersley
Born
James Hooker Hamersley

January 26, 1844
New York City, New York, U.S.
DiedSeptember 15, 1901(1901-09-15) (aged 57)
Garrison-on-Hudson, New York, U.S.
Alma materColumbia University
Columbia Law School
OccupationLawyer, poet
Spouse(s)
Margaret Willing Chisolm
​
​
(m. 1888; his death 1901)​
Children3, including Louis
Parent(s)John William Hamersley
Catherine Livingston Hooker
RelativesJames Hooker (grandfather)
Charles Stickney (brother-in-law)
John H. Livingston (brother-in-law)

Early life

James Hooker Hamersley was born in New York City on January 26, 1844. He was the son of Col. John William Hamersley (1808–1889) and his wife, born Catherine Livingston Hooker (1817–1867).[2] His siblings included Helen Reade Hamersley, who married Charles Dickinson Stickney, a New York State Assemblyman; Virginia Hamersley, who married Cortlandt de Peyster Field (son of Benjamin Hazard Field);[3] and Catherine Livingston Hamersley, who married John Henry Livingston.[4][lower-alpha 1]

His paternal grandparents were Elizabeth (née Finney) Hamersley and Lewis Carré Hamersley, himself a grandson of William Hamersley,[2] who emigrated to America in 1700.[5][lower-alpha 2] Hamersley was also a cousin of Louis Carré Hamersley, the first husband of Lilian Warren Price, later Duchess of Marlborough.[6] His maternal grandparents were James Hooker, a Yale graduate and Erie Canal Commissioner,[7] and Helen Sarah (née Reade) Hooker.[4] Through this grandmother, Hamersley was a fifth generation descendant of Robert Livingston the Elder, the Scottish immigrant who was granted the Livingston Manor by royal charter.[5] Thomas Gordon, a Scottish immigrant who became a judge in New Jersey, was another fifth-generation ancestor.[5]

Hamersley graduated from Columbia University in 1865,[3] and from the Columbia Law School in 1867.[5]

Career

Hamersley was affiliated with the law office of James W. Gerard, and practiced law for ten years.[5] He then withdrew from active practice to manage his, and his family's property.[5] He was nominated for the New York State Assembly, but withdrew in favor of William Waldorf Astor.[3]

Hamersley published The Seven Voices, a volume of poetry, in 1898.[8]

Personal life

Hamersley was one of Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt's boyfriends.[9] Later on April 30, 1888, he married Margaret Willing Chisolm (1863–1904), daughter of William Edings Chisolm and his wife, née Mary Ann Rogers,[10] a niece of William Augustus Muhlenberg.[11] They had three children:

  • Margaret Rogers Hamersley (1889–1891), who died in infancy.[3]
  • Catherine Livingston Hamersley (b. 1891), who married Samuel Neilson Hinckley (1882–1931) in 1914. They divorced in 1921 and she married Henry Coleman Drayton (1887–1942), a grandson of William Backhouse Astor Jr. in 1922. She later married Charles Whitney Carpenter, Jr.
  • Louis Gordon Hamersley (1892–1942),[6] who was ultimately the sole beneficiary of a trust established by James' cousin, Louis Carré Hamersley.[6]

Hamersley died at his country estate, "Brookhurst," on September 15, 1901, at Garrison-on-Hudson, New York.[1][8] His funeral was held at Grace Church in Manhattan and he was buried at Trinity Church Cemetery. His wife died a few years later on January 5, 1904 in her home at 1030 Fifth Avenue in New York City.[12]

References
Notes
  1. John Henry Livingston (1848–1927) was a grandson of Edward Philip Livingston, a Lt. Gov. of New York, and a first cousin of Thomas S. Clarkson, namesake of Clarkson University, Goodhue Livingston, noted architect, and Mary Livingston Ludlow, the mother of Anna Hall Roosevelt and grandmother of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.[4]
  2. William Hamersley (1687–1752), the grandfather of James' grandfather, Lewis Carré Hamersley (1767–1853), was himself a great-grandson of Sir Hugh Hamersley (1565–1636), a 17th-century merchant who was Lord Mayor of London in 1627. William married Lucretia Grevenraet (granddaughter of Johannes Pieterse van Brugh) in New York.
Sources
  1. "Died" (PDF), The New York Times, 19 September 1901
  2. Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York (1905). The Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York: History, Customs, Record of Events, Constitution, Certain Genealogies, and Other Matters of Interest. V. 1-. p. 72. Retrieved 12 March 2018.
  3. Chisholm, William Garnett (1914). Chisholm Genealogy: Being a Record of the Name from A. D. 1254; with Short Sketches of Allied Families. Knickerbocker Press. pp. 54-55. Retrieved 12 March 2018.
  4. Livingston, Edwin Brockholst (1910). The Livingstons of Livingston Manor: Being the History of that Branch of the Scottish House of Callendar which Settled in the English Province of New York During the Reign of Charles the Second; and Also Including an Account of Robert Livingston of Albany, "The Nephew," a Settler in the Same Province and His Principal Descendants. Knickerbocker Press. Retrieved 10 August 2017.
  5. Hall, Henry (1895), America’s Successful Men of Affairs: The City of New York, 1, The New York Tribune, pp. 293–4
  6. "L. G. Hamersley, 49, Heir to $7,000,000", The New York Times, 3 June 1942
  7. The Yale Literary Magazine, vol. 25, no. 1. Herrick & Noyes. 1859. p. 44. Retrieved 20 February 2018.
  8. "The seven voices by Hamersley, J. Hooker (James Hooker), 1844-1901". Internet Archive. Retrieved 19 August 2015.
  9. "J. Hooker Hamersley". Theodore Roosevelt Center at Dickinson State University. Retrieved 19 August 2015.
  10. "MRS. J.H. HAMERSLEY DEAD; Expires at Her Fifth Avenue Home in This City. Family Millions May Again Be Tied Up by Litigation -- Provisions of Her Late Husband's Will". The New York Times. January 6, 1904. Retrieved 6 June 2017.
  11. Mackenzie, George Norbury (1917). Colonial Families of the United States of America: In which is Given the History, Genealogy and Armorial Bearings of Colonial Families who Settled in the American Colonies from the Time of the Settlement of Jamestown, 13th May, 1607, to the Battle of Lexington, 19th April, 1775. Grafton Press. p. 142. Retrieved 12 March 2018.
  12. "Mrs. J. H. Hamersley Dead", The New York Times, 6 January 1904
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