Egerton Leigh Winthrop

Egerton Leigh Winthrop
Born(1838-10-07)October 7, 1838
New York City, New York, U.S.
DiedApril 6, 1916(1916-04-06) (aged 77)
New York City, New York, U.S.
Alma materColumbia College
Spouse
Charlotte Troup Bronson
​
​
(m. 1861; died 1872)​
Children3
Parent(s)Benjamin Robert Winthrop
Elizabeth Ann Neilson Coles

Egerton Leigh Winthrop (October 7, 1838 – April 6, 1916)[1] was an American lawyer and clubman who was prominent in New York society during the Gilded Age.

Early life

Winthrop was born on October 7, 1838, in New York City. He was the son of Benjamin Robert Winthrop (1804–1879) and Elizabeth Ann Neilson "Eliza" (née Coles) Winthrop.[2] His siblings included Benjamin Robert Winthrop, Jr.; Anna Neilson Winthrop, who married Horatio Greenough Curtis;[3] and William Neilson Winthrop, who married Louise Van Zandt. His father inherited significant properties and was a noted philanthropist before his death in London in 1879.[1]

His maternal grandfather was William Neilson Coles. His paternal grandparents were Benjamin Winthrop, a descendant of Wait Winthrop and Joseph Dudley, and Judith (née Stuyvesant) Winthrop, a direct descendant of Peter Stuyvesant, the Director-General of New Netherland,[4] and Robert Livingston the Elder, the 1st Lord of Livingston Manor.[5] His paternal aunt, Elizabeth Sheriffe Winthrop, was married to the Rev. Dr. John White Chanler and they were the parents of U.S. Representative John Winthrop Chanler, Egerton's first cousin who was married to Margaret Astor Ward, the daughter of Samuel Cutler Ward and granddaughter of William Backhouse Astor, Sr.[4] Another aunt, Margaret Cornelia Winthrop, was married to George Folsom, the U.S. Chargé d'affaires to the Netherlands.[6]

Career

Winthrop was admitted to the bar in 1860 after graduating from Columbia College that same year,[1] where he was a member of Delta Phi fraternity.[7][8] He practiced law and served as a vice president of the Union Square Savings Bank and a trustee of the United States Trust Company and the Institute for Savings of Merchants' Clerks, until his retirement.[9]

Society life

In 1892, the widowed Winthrop, along with his son Frederic and several members of his wife's family, 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.[10][11] Conveniently, 400 was the number of people that could fit into Mrs. Astor's ballroom.[12]

Winthrop was a member of the Columbia University Alumni Association, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Union Club of the City of New York, the City Club, the Metropolitan Club, the Century Club, and the Knickerbocker Club, of which he served as president.[1] He was also a member of the Saint Nicholas Society, a charitable organization in New York City of men who are descended from early inhabitants of the State of New York.[7]

Personal life

In 1861, Winthrop was married to Charlotte Troup Bronson (1840–1872),[13][14] the daughter of Frederic Bronson and sister of Frederic Bronson Jr.[15] Charlotte's grandfather, Isaac Bronson, was a founder of the New York Life and Trust Company. The Winthrops lived at 23 East 33rd Street in New York.[16] Together, they were the parents of:[17][18]

  • Egerton Leigh Winthrop, Jr. (1862–1926), a lawyer and banker in New York who married Emeline Dore Heckscher (1874-1948), the daughter of John G. Heckscher and Cornelia Lawrence (née Whitney) Heckscher. Egerton also served as a president of the Board of Education.[19][20]
  • Charlotte Troup Bronson (1863–1893), who married Henry Spencer Cram (1852–1895), brother of John Sergeant Cram, in Newport on November 28, 1892.[21]
  • Frederic Bronson Winthrop (1863–1944), a prominent lawyer with Winthrop & Stimson who did not marry.[22]

Winthrop died on April 6, 1916, at his home in New York City.[1] After a service at Trinity Church, he was buried at St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery Churchyard in New York.[7] He left his estate in one third portions to his two sons and his only daughter's only child.[9] His New York home and Newport cottage were to his sons as tenants in common and the Stuyvesant family heirlooms, including the Stuyvesant clock and christening bowl were left to his eldest son.[9]

Descendants

Through his eldest son Egerton, he was the grandfather of Muriel E. Winthrop (b. 1895), who married several times, including to Richard de Blois Boardman (1878–1937),[23][24] and later, Harold Aymar Sands (1886-1951),[25] a grandson of banker Samuel Stevens Sands.[26]

Through his daughter Charlotte, he was the grandfather of Charlotte Winthrop Cram (1893–1970), whose birth led to the death of Winthrop's daughter Charlotte five days later.[27] Charlotte was married to lawyer Robert Ludlow Fowler Jr. (1887–1974)[28][29] in 1914, with her Winthrop grandfather walking her down the aisle.[30] Ludlow, as her husband was known, was a close friend of author F. Scott Fitzgerald and served as best man at the wedding of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald.[28] Fitzgerald based the main character of his short story, The Rich Boy on Fowler.[28] Charlotte and Ludlow were the parents of Robert Ludlow Fowler III (1919–1942) and Angela Fowler (1915–1989), who married Craig Wylie (1908–1976).[31]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e "EGERTON L. WINTHROP DEAD | Veteran Lawyer and Banker Was Ex-President of Knickerbocker Club" (PDF). The New York Times. April 7, 1916. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  2. ^ "FUNERAL OF BENJAMIN R. WINTHROP" (PDF). The New York Times. August 21, 1879. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  3. ^ "DEATHS | CURTIS" (PDF). The New York Times. August 15, 1940. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  4. ^ a b 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-. Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York. 1905. p. 32. Retrieved 30 March 2018.
  5. ^ Reynolds, Cuyler (1914). Genealogical and Family History of Southern New York and the Hudson River Valley: A Record of the Achievements of Her People in the Making of a Commonwealth and the Building of a Nation. Lewis Historical Publishing Company. pp. 1011–1015. Retrieved 30 March 2018.
  6. ^ "The Death of Hon. George Folsom" (PDF). The New York Times. April 11, 1869. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  7. ^ a b c "FUNERAL OF E. L. WINTHROP | Burial in the St. Mark's Old Churchyard, in Tenth Street" (PDF). The New York Times. April 11, 1916. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  8. ^ Columbia Alumni News. Alumni Council of Columbia University. 1915. p. 871. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  9. ^ a b c "WILL OF EGERTON L. WINTHROP | Relics of Dutch Days and Stuyvesant Heirlooms Left to Sons" (PDF). The New York Times. April 18, 1916. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  10. ^ 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.
  11. ^ Patterson, Jerry E. (2000). The First Four Hundred: Mrs. Astor's New York in the Gilded Age. Random House Incorporated. p. 234. ISBN 9780847822089. Retrieved 13 June 2018.
  12. ^ 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.
  13. ^ "DIED. WINTHROP" (PDF). The New York Times. February 17, 1872. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  14. ^ Lewis, Arnold; Turner, James; McQuillin, Steven (2016). The Opulent Interiors of the Gilded Age: All 203 Photographs from "Artistic Houses," with New Text. Courier Corporation. p. 70. ISBN 9780486319476. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  15. ^ MacRury, Elizabeth Banks (1968). More About The Hill: Greenfield Hill. Printed by City Print. Co. pp. 101, 163. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  16. ^ "THE ACADEMY OF ROME A Lecture and Stereopticon Exhibition at Egerton L. Winthrop's Home" (PDF). The New York Times. February 6, 1898. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  17. ^ The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography: Being the History of the United States as Illustrated in the Lives of the Founders, Builders, and Defenders of the Republic, and of the Men and Women who are Doing the Work and Moulding the Thought of the Present Time. University Microfilms. 1967. p. 303. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  18. ^ Greene, Richard Henry; Stiles, Henry Reed; Dwight, Melatiah Everett; Morrison, George Austin; Mott, Hopper Striker; Totten, John Reynolds; Pitman, Harold Minot; Ditmas, Charles Andrew; Forest, Louis Effingham De; Mann, Conklin; Maynard, Arthur S. (1954). The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record. New York Genealogical and Biographical Society. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  19. ^ "EGERTON WINTHROP, IS DEAD; Formerly Was President of the Board of Education of This City. ACTIVE IN PHILANTHROPY Served for Years as Head of the Legal Aid Society -- Was Born In France" (PDF). The New York Times. January 13, 1926. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  20. ^ Pennoyer, Peter; Walker, Anne (2003). The Architecture of Delano & Aldrich. W. W. Norton & Company. p. 31. ISBN 9780393730876. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  21. ^ "Charlotte Winthrop (1863-1893)". www.nyhistory.org. New-York Historical Society. Retrieved 16 October 2017.
  22. ^ "B. WINTHROP DEAD; STIMSON PARTNER; Senior Member of Law Firm Here Was 80mA Leader in Social, Charity Circles" (PDF). The New York Times. July 15, 1944. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  23. ^ "MISS WINTHROP WED TO R.D. BOARDMAN; Only Daughter of Mr. and Mrs. E.L. Winthrop Married in St. Mark's-in-the-Bouwerie" (PDF). The New York Times. January 9, 1921. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  24. ^ "SHOT KILLS BOARDMAN AT MARBLEHEAD HOME; Weetamoe's Pilot Is Found Fatally Wounded With a Pistol at His Side" (PDF). The New York Times. November 17, 1937. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  25. ^ "Harold A. Sands Dies; Retired Exchange Member". Newport Mercury. June 1, 1951. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  26. ^ "MRS. M. BOARDMAN TO WED H. C. SANDS; Engagement of Daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Egerton L. Winthrop Is Announced" (PDF). The New York Times. November 17, 1925. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  27. ^ "Funeral of Mrs. Harry Spencer Cram" (PDF). The New York Times. October 31, 1893. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  28. ^ a b c Owens, Carole (August 4, 2017). "Gilded Age rich boywho fell up the stairs". The Brattleboro Reformer. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  29. ^ "MISS CRAM ENGAGED | Will Wed Robert Ludlow Fowler, Jr., Son of New York Surrogate" (PDF). The New York Times. September 16, 1913. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  30. ^ "R. L. FOWLER, JR., WEDS.; Surrogate's Son Married to Miss Charlotte W. Cram in Trinity" (PDF). The New York Times. January 6, 1914. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  31. ^ "Tankard | New York City about 1760 John Brevoort (American, about 1715–1775)". www.mfa.org. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. 6 February 2017. Retrieved 29 June 2018.