Mary Wilson Goelet

Mary Rita "May" Wilson Goelet (December 12, 1855 – February 23, 1929) was an American socialite and member of a family known as "the marrying Wilsons".

Mary Wilson Goelet
Born
Mary Rita Wilson

(1855-12-04)December 4, 1855
Loudon, Tennessee, U.S.
DiedFebruary 23, 1929(1929-02-23) (aged 73)
New York City, U.S.
Spouse(s)
​
​
(m. 1877; died 1897)​
ChildrenMary Goelet
Robert Wilson Goelet
Parent(s)Richard Thornton Wilson
Melissa Clementine Johnston
RelativesRichard Wilson Jr. (brother)
Grace Vanderbilt (sister)
George Innes-Ker, 9th Duke of Roxburghe (grandson)

Early life

May was born on December 12, 1855 in Loudon, Tennessee. She was the oldest surviving child born to Richard Thornton Wilson and Melissa Clementine (née Johnston) Wilson.[1] Her father, who has been referred to as a "war profiteer" for his actions during and following the Civil War, moved the family north after the War and became a prominent New York banker.[2]

May and her siblings were known in society as "the marrying Wilsons" due to their marriages to the wealthiest and most prominent families of the day. Among her siblings was sister Belle, who married Sir Michael Henry Herbert, the younger brother of the 13th Earl of Pembroke, and youngest sister, Grace, who became the wife of Cornelius Vanderbilt III.[3][4] Her brothers were banker Richard Thornton Wilson Jr., who married Marion Steedman Mason; and Marshall Orme Wilson, who married Caroline Schermerhorn "Carrie" Astor, youngest daughter of William Astor and Caroline Astor (known as "The Mrs. Astor") of the Astor family.[2]

Society life
The Goelet's New York mansion, 608 Fifth Avenue.
The Goelet's Newport residence, Ochre Court in 1904.

In 1892, May and Ogden were included in Ward McAllister's "Four Hundred", purported to be an index of New York's best families, published in The New York Times.[5][6] Conveniently, 400 was the number of people that could fit into Mrs. Astor's ballroom.[7] May was known as one of the viceregal leaders of the Ultra-fashionable 150, among Mrs. Astor, Mrs. Ogden Mills, Mrs. John Jacob Astor, and Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt Jr.[8]

Residences

May and Ogden owned a townhouse at 608 Fifth Avenue (located on the southwest corner of 49th and Fifth) in New York City,[9] around the corner from a second house at 4 West 49th Street. The family’s stables were at 7 East 52nd Street.[10] The Goelets also had a villa in Nice, France, and when in London, they resided at Wimbourne House.[11] After her death, her son, acknowledging the change in the neighborhood from residential to commercial, tore down the family home in New York City and commissioned Victor L.S. Hafner to design 608 Fifth Avenue.[12]

In 1892, the Goelet's commissioned Ochre Court, a châteauesque mansion in Newport, Rhode Island. The home was built at a cost of $4.5 million and was the second largest mansion in Newport after nearby The Breakers, both designed by architect Richard Morris Hunt.[13] In 1947, her son donated Ochre Court to the Sisters of Mercy for the formation of Salve Regina College.[10]

Personal life
May's daughter, Mary, Duchess of Roxburghe shortly after her marriage to the 8th Duke of Roxburghe in 1903.

In 1877, May married Ogden Goelet (1846–1897). Ogden was the son of Sarah (née Ogden) Goelet and Robert Goelet,[14] both of whom were from prominent New York families and among the wealthiest in America due to their vast real estate holdings.[15] Ogden and his older brother Robert (himself the father of Robert Walton Goelet) were real estate developer who managed the estate of their father and uncle.[16] Together, they were the parents of two children:[17]

May's husband died in 1897 aboard his yacht in the town of Cowes in the Isle of Wight after over five years spent abroad.[11][24] In his will, he left his entire estate to his May and their two children.[25] She was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx alongside her husband.[26] She lived for another 32 years until her death in New York City on February 23, 1929.[17] After her death, her daughter inherited $3,000,000 from the Goelet estate.[27]

Descendants

Through her daughter's marriage to the Duke of Roxburghe, she was the grandmother of George Innes-Ker, 9th Duke of Roxburghe (1913–1974), who succeeded his father's Dukedom in 1932.[28] In 1935, he married Lady Mary Evelyn Hungerford Crewe-Milnes, the daughter of the Marquess of Crewe. The childless marriage ended in divorce in 1953,[29] and in 1954, he remarried to Margaret Elizabeth McConnel,[30] with whom he had two children, Guy David Innes-Ker, 10th Duke of Roxburghe (b. 1954)[31] and Lord Robert Anthony Innes-Ker (b. 1959).[32]

Through her son Robert, she was the grandmother of four grandchildren, including Ogden Goelet (1907–1969), who married three times;[33] Peter Goelet (1911–1986); Robert Wilson Goelet, Jr. (1921–1989), who married twice, Jane Potter Monroe (they divorced), and Lynn Merrick in 1949 (they divorced in 1956); Mary Eleanor Goelet (b. 1927)[34] who married (and later divorced) James Eliot Cross in 1949.[35]

References
  1. "Quality". Time magazine. January 19, 1953. Retrieved May 4, 2010.
  2. Vanderbilt, Arthur T. (1991). Fortune's Children: The Fall of the House of Vanderbilt. Harper Collins. ISBN 9780688103866. Retrieved 28 March 2018.
  3. "Grace Vanderbilt Wed In City Chapel. Becomes Bride of Henry G. Davis 3d, With Patrolman as a Witness. Church Ceremony Later. Cornelius Jr. Declares Family Refuses Forgiveness. Honeymoon in Far West. Grace Vanderbilt Wed In City Chapel". The New York Times. June 29, 1927. Retrieved May 4, 2010.
  4. "Mrs. C. Vanderbilt Dies At Home Here. Leader of New York, Newport Society for Many Years Was Hostess to Royal Figures". New York Times. January 8, 1953. Retrieved 2011-05-28.
  5. 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.
  6. Patterson, Jerry E. (2000). The First Four Hundred: Mrs. Astor's New York in the Gilded Age. Random House Incorporated. p. 223. ISBN 9780847822089. Retrieved 13 June 2018.
  7. 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.
  8. Nicholls, Charles Wilbur de Lyon (1904). The Ultra-fashionable Peerage of America: An Official List of Those People who Can Properly be Called Ultra-fashionable in the United States. New York: George Harjes, Publisher. pp. 7–8. Retrieved 29 November 2016.
  9. Miller, Tom (16 April 2012). "The Lost 1884 Ogden Goelet Mansion -- No. 608 Fifth Avenue". Daytonian in Manhattan. Retrieved 9 September 2018.
  10. Bernier, Maria (2008). "Guide to the Goelet Family Papers" (PDF). library.salve.edu. Salve Regina University. Retrieved 9 September 2018.
  11. "DEATH OF OGDEN GOELET; American Millionaire Expires on His Yacht, Mayflower, at Anchor in Cowes Roads. | ILL FOR ABOUT TWO MONTHS | He Worried over Family Affairs, Particularly the Proposed Marriage of His Daughter to the Duke of Manchester". The New York Times. 28 August 1897. Retrieved 29 November 2016.
  12. Foreman, John (14 November 2012). "Big Old Houses: A Better Fate Than Many". New York Social Diary. Retrieved 29 November 2016.
  13. "Ochre Court". Salve Regina University. Archived from the original on August 10, 2014. Retrieved February 16, 2012.
  14. Genealogical Record of the Saint Nicholas Society: Advanced Sheets, First Series. New York City: Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York. 1902. p. 28. Retrieved 29 November 2016.
  15. "FUNERAL OF ROBERT GOELET". The New York Times. Retrieved 29 November 2016.
  16. "Robert W. Goelet Dies In Home At 61. Corporation Director, Owner of Large Realty Holdings Here, Succumbs to Heart Attack. He Inherited $60,000,000. Sportsman, a Leader in Social Circles in Newport and New York, Kin of Early Settlers". New York Times. May 3, 1941. Retrieved 2010-07-26.
  17. "MRS. OGDEN GOELET DIES OF PNEUMONIA; Duchess of Roxburghe's Mother Long Noted for Her Lavish Entertaining. WAS HOSTESS TO ROYALTY Edward VII, as Prince of Wales, Among Guests--Sister of Mrs. Cornellus Vanderbilt and R.T. Wilson. Her Hospitality. Duchess of Roxburghe Daughter". The New York Times. 24 February 1929. Retrieved 29 November 2016.
  18. "DUCHESS LEFT FORTUNE; Roxburghe Estate Was Founded by Money of American Heiress". The New York Times. 21 November 1937. Retrieved 13 April 2017.
  19. Times, Wireless To The New York (27 April 1937). "DOWAGER DUCHESS OF ROXBURGHE DIES; New York Heiress Was a Close Friend of King George V and Queen Mary". The New York Times. Retrieved 13 April 2017.
  20. Times, Special To The New York (3 September 1903). "DUKE OF ROXBURGHE TO WED MISS GOELET | Engagement Announced in London and Confirmed at Newport. | NEW YORK WEDDING EXPECTED | It is Believed the Couple Will Be Married Here in the Autumn - The Duke Now Mrs. Goelet's Guest". The New York Times. Retrieved 13 April 2017.
  21. "THE ROXBURGHE WEDDING; Private Rehearsal Held at St. Thomas's Church. Programme of Today's Ceremony -- Simple Reception to Follow at the Goelet Residence -- Some of the Gifts". The New York Times. 10 November 1903. Retrieved 13 April 2017.
  22. "MOTHER AND SISTER OF ROXBURGHE HERE; Duchess Denies Story of Objection to American Brides. Plans for the Wedding Complete -- The Decorations at the Church and Home of the Bride". The New York Times. 8 November 1903. Retrieved 13 April 2017.
  23. Quinault 2004.
  24. "GOELET'S BODY AT NEWPORT". The New York Times. 16 September 1897. Retrieved 29 November 2016.
  25. "WILL OF OGDEN GOELET; Except for Two Legacies, His Entire Estate Is Left to His Widow and Children. NO PUBLIC BEQUEST IS MADE No Charity to Benefit by It -- How the Estate Is Divided Between the Widow and the Two Minor Children". The New York Times. 29 September 1897. Retrieved 29 November 2016.
  26. "FUNERAL OF OGDEN GOELET.; Services Held on the Yacht Mayflower in Newport Harbor". The New York Times. September 17, 1897. Retrieved 29 November 2016.
  27. Times, Wireless To The New York (7 August 1929). "DUCHESS INHERITS FORTUNE; Former Miss Goelet Receives $3,000,000 From Mother's Estate". The New York Times. Retrieved 28 November 2016.
  28. Times, Special To The New York (6 January 1954). "DUKE OF ROXBURGHE MARRIES IN LONDON". The New York Times. Retrieved 13 April 2017.
  29. "Obituary: Mary, Duchess of Roxburghe". Telegraph.
  30. Times, Special To The New York (6 January 1954). "DUKE OF ROXBURGHE MARRIES IN LONDON". The New York Times. Retrieved 12 January 2017.
  31. Times, Special To The New York (19 November 1954). "Son to Duchess of Roxburghe". The New York Times. Retrieved 12 January 2017.
  32. Times, Special To The New York (27 September 1974). "George Innes‐Ker, Ninth Duke Of Roxburghe, Dies in Scotland". The New York Times. Retrieved 12 January 2017.
  33. "OGDEN GOELET, SON OF FINANCIER HERE; Heir to Real Estate Holdings Dies in His 62d Year". The New York Times. 10 October 1969. Retrieved 16 April 2017.
  34. Times, Special To The New York (4 September 1927). "Goelet Infant Is Named Mary". The New York Times. Retrieved 16 April 2017.
  35. "James Cross, Gulf Stream Commissioner". Sun Sentinel. Retrieved 16 April 2017.
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