Douglas Robinson Sr.

Douglas Robinson Sr. (March 24, 1824 – November 30, 1893)[1] was a Scottish-American banker and businessman who was prominent in New York society during the Gilded Age. He was married to Fanny Monroe, the daughter of U.S. Representative James Monroe and grandniece of James Monroe, the 5th President of the United States. Their son, Douglas Robinson Jr., was married to Corinne Roosevelt, sister of President Theodore Roosevelt and aunt of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.[2]

Douglas Robinson
Born(1824-03-24)March 24, 1824
Scotland, U.K.
DiedNovember 30, 1893(1893-11-30) (aged 69)
Aboard the SS Kaiser Wilhelm II
Alma materEdinburgh University
Spouse
Frances Monroe
​
(m. 1850)​
ChildrenDouglas Robinson Jr.
Harriet Douglas Robinson
Parent(s)William Rose Robinson
Mary Douglas
RelativesWilliam Rose Robinson (brother)
Theodore Douglas Robinson (grandson)
Corinne Robinson (granddaughter)

Early life

Robinson was born on March 24, 1824, in Scotland and was descended from Scottish landed gentry.[3] He was the youngest of four sons born to William Rose Robinson of Clermiston (1781–1834) and Mary (née Douglas) Robinson (1783–1864).[4] He was the younger brother of Sir William Rose Robinson, KCSI, who served as acting Governor of Madras.[5] His sister, Saida Douglas Robinson, was married to Alexander Davidson.[6]

His paternal grandparents were George Robinson and Elizabeth (née Innes) Robinson. His maternal grandparents were James Douglas of Orchardton, a Glasgow merchant, and Elizabeth (née Douglas) Douglas. His maternal uncle was William Douglas, a Member of Parliament in the House of Commons, and his great-uncle was Sir William Douglas, 1st Baronet, of Gelston Castle, Scotland, both of whom died unmarried with no children.[7] Robinson's maternal grandfather, James Douglas, was the brother of George Douglas, the maternal grandfather of his eventual wife Fanny.[7] According to Marian Campbell Gouverneur (daughter-in-law of Samuel L. Gouverneur, himself a nephew and son-in-law of President Monroe), "George Douglas was a Scotch merchant who hoarded closely. His wine cellar was more extensive than his library."[8]

Career

After studying at Edinburgh University,[9] eighteen year old Robinson emigrated from Scotland to the United States in 1842.[10] He started in business in Philadelphia and later came to New York as a partner in the banking house of James K. Soutter's Sons.[1] He later served as secretary of the Great Western Insurance Company, which was then known as the United States Lloyds.[1]

Society life

In 1892, Robinson, as well as his son Douglas and daughter-in-law Corinne, 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.[11][3] Conveniently, 400 was the number of people that could fit into Mrs. Astor's ballroom.[12]

The Robinson's had a country home in the Catskills, in the style of a Scottish Castle, in Jordanville, New York that was known as Henderson House and modeled after Sir William Douglas' Gelston Castle in Scotland.[13] Henderson House was a 5,000-acre plot of a 15,000-acre grant from Queen Anne to Fanny's 2x great-grandfather, James Henderson.[2] Fanny had inherited the home from her aunt Harriet (née Douglas) Cruger, the sister of her mother, Elizabeth Douglas Monroe.[14][15] Cruger was an eccentric lady known for her many friendships with prominent people of her time, including Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet, William Wordsworth, Juliette Récamier, and Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette.[16]

Around 1872, the Robinson's came to West Orange, New Jersey and built a large home next door to General George McClellan. Their 72-acre estate was known as Overlook.[17] As with his other properties, his son inherited Overlook upon his death in 1893.[17]

Personal life

On November 14, 1850,[4] Robinson was married to his second cousin Frances "Fanny" Monroe (1824–1906),[2] the daughter of Elizabeth Mary "Eliza" (née Douglas) Monroe and Col. James Monroe,[18] a Virginian born member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York who was the nephew of James Monroe, the 5th President of the United States.[19] They were married at Fanwood in Fort Washington, which was then a suburb of New York.[8] Together, they were the parents of two children:[20]

Robinson died on November 30, 1893, aboard the SS Kaiser Wilhelm II (1889), a Lloyd passenger steamer, while sailing from New York.[28] He was buried at the Robinson Cemetery in Herkimer County, New York. His widow died in Warren, New York in August 1906.[2] In 1908, the Robinson children erected the Jordanville Public Library, designed by New York architects Trowbridge & Livingston,[29] as a memorial to their parents in Jordanville, New York.[30]

Descendants

Through his son Douglas Jr., he was a grandfather of Theodore Douglas Robinson (1883–1934), a member of the New York State Senate who married his distant cousin, Helen Rebecca Roosevelt, daughter of James Roosevelt Roosevelt and Helen Schermerhorn Astor (a niece of Franklin D. Roosevelt);[31] Corinne Douglas Robinson (1886–1971), a member of the Connecticut House of Representatives who married Joseph Wright Alsop IV; Monroe Douglas Robinson (1887–1944),[32] who married Dorothy Jordan,[33] the granddaughter of Eben Dyer Jordan;[34] and Stewart Douglas Robinson (1889–1909), who tragically died from a fall while a student at Harvard University.[35]

Through his daughter Harriet, he was a grandfather of Frances Sylvia Wolryche-Whitmore (1889–1939), who married the Rev. William Higgin Beauchamp Yerburgh (1885–1937) in 1925; and Ursula Margaret Wolryche-Whitmore, who in 1934 married Sir Oswald Arthur Scott, K.C.M.G. (1893–1960), the U.K. Minister to Finland between 1947 and 1951 and U.K. Ambassador to Peru from 1951 to 1953.[36]

References
  1. "Douglas Robinson" (PDF). The New York Times. December 7, 1893. Retrieved 28 June 2018.
  2. "MRS. ROBINSON DEAD. Mother-in-Law of President's Sister was 82 Years Old" (PDF). The New York Times. August 24, 1906. Retrieved 28 June 2018.
  3. Patterson, Jerry E. (2000). The First Four Hundred: Mrs. Astor's New York in the Gilded Age. Random House Incorporated. p. 226. ISBN 9780847822089. Retrieved 13 June 2018.
  4. Dobson, David (2009). Scots in the USA and Canada, 1825-1875. Genealogical Publishing Com. p. 90. ISBN 9780806352763. Retrieved 28 June 2018.
  5. Buckland, Charles Edward (1906). Dictionary of Indian biography. London S. Sonnenschein. p. 362. Retrieved 28 June 2018.
  6. Adams, Henry (1982). The Letters of Henry Adams: 1892-1899. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. p. 49. ISBN 9780674526853. Retrieved 28 June 2018.
  7. New York (State) Court of Chancery; Sandford, Lewis Halsey (1850). Reports of cases argued and determined in the Court of Chancery of the State of New-York: before the Hon. Lewis H. Sandford, Assistant Vice-Chancellor of the First Circuit. Gould, Banks & Co. pp. 126-207. Retrieved 28 June 2018.
  8. Gouverneur, Marian Campbell (1911). As I Remember: Recollections of American Society During the Nineteenth Century. D. Appleton. p. 114. Retrieved 28 June 2018.
  9. "A New Theory on the Origins of Fanwood". The Blue Hills Gazette. 16 September 2017. Retrieved 28 June 2018.
  10. 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. 320. Retrieved 28 June 2018.
  11. 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.
  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. "Corinne Roosevelt Robinson". www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org. Theodore Roosevelt Center at Dickinson University. Retrieved 28 June 2018.
  14. Davidson, Angus (1953). Miss Douglas of New York: A Biography. Viking Press. Retrieved 28 June 2018.
  15. Greene, Nelson (1925). History of the Mohawk Valley, Gateway to the West, 1614-1925: Covering the Six Counties of Schenectady, Schoharie, Montgomery, Fulton, Herkimer, and Oneida. S. J. Clarke. p. 440. Retrieved 28 June 2018.
  16. Kelly, Virginia B. (1972). Wood and Stone: Landmarks of the upper Mohawk region. Central New York Community Arts Council. p. 17. Retrieved 28 June 2018.
  17. Fagan, Joseph (June 30, 2013). "Romance Blossoms for Future President and First Lady in West Orange". TAPinto. Retrieved 28 June 2018.
  18. "Death of Col. James Monroe". The New York Times. 10 September 1870. Retrieved 8 December 2016.
  19. "Douglas Robinson, Jr. + Corinne Roosevelt". Stanford.edu. Archived from the original on 2013-10-30.
  20. Touring Historyland: The Authentic Guide Book of Historic Northern Neck of Virginia, the Land of George Washington and Robert E. Lee. Northern Neck Association. 1934. p. 31. Retrieved 28 June 2018.
  21. "DOUGLAS ROBINSON DIES SUDDENLY AT 63. Brother-in-Law of Col. Theodore Roosevelt Stricken with Heart Disease on a Train NOTED AS REALTY OPERATOR Father of State Senator Was Partner of W. H. Wheelock, in Charge of Government Real Estate" (PDF). The New York Times. September 13, 1918. Retrieved 28 June 2018.
  22. "ROBINSON--ROOSEVELT.; A BEAUTIFUL CHURCH WEDDING AND A BRILLIANT HOUSE RECEPTION". The New York Times. 30 April 1882. Retrieved 20 February 2017.
  23. Brogan, Hugh and Mosley, Charles American Presidential Families October 1993, page 568
  24. "CORINNE ROBINSON DIES AT AGE OF 71 | Sister of the Late President Roosevelt Was Widely Known as Poet. | LONG ACTIVE IN POLITICS | Seconded the Nomination of Wood in 1920 - Served as an Adviser to Coolidge". The New York Times. 18 February 1933. Retrieved 20 February 2017.
  25. "ROOSEVELT AT BIER OF MRS. ROBINSON; | President-EIect and Wife Are Among Mourners for Theodore Roosevelt's Sister | 1,000 FRIENDS AT SERVICE | Many Notables in Audience at St. Bartholomew's - Dr. George P. T. Sargent Officiates". The New York Times. 21 February 1933. Retrieved 20 February 2017.
  26. "Autograph Letter Signed Theodore Roosevelt, to Harriet Douglas Robinson Dear Missy, congratulating her on her engagement to Henry Bazeley Wolryche-Whitmore by Theodore Roosevelt on James Cummins Bookseller". www.jamescumminsbookseller.com. James Cummins Bookseller. Retrieved 28 June 2018.
  27. The Wroe and Chancellor Families: With Special Attention to the Descendants of Chancellor Wroe (1782-1818) and His Wife, Elizabeth Monroe Chancellor (1793-1872). W.C. Wroe. 1992. p. 568. Retrieved 28 June 2018.
  28. "DIED. ROBINSON" (PDF). The New York Times. December 7, 1893. Retrieved 28 June 2018.
  29. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
  30. "LIBRARY PRESENTATION | PRESIDENT TAKES PART | Speaks of Welfare of People--Robinson Memorial at Jordanville, N.Y." New-York Tribune. August 27, 1908. p. 7. Retrieved 28 June 2018.
  31. Times, Special To The New York (15 April 1934). "NOTABLES MOURN FOR T. D. ROBINSON; | Mrs. F. D. Roosevelt, His Cousin, Attends the Funeral Near Herkimer, N.Y. | SIMPLE SERVICE AT HOME | Burial in Family Cemetery on Estate - Wagon Substituted for a Hearse". The New York Times. Retrieved 20 February 2017.
  32. "MONROE ROBINSON, WAR FINANCE AIDE; Head of Office Here, Cousin ot President's Wife, Is Dead-Good-Will Ambassador". The New York Times. 9 December 1944. Retrieved 22 April 2021.
  33. Downes, Stephen (2016). The Szymanowski Companion. Routledge. p. 180. ISBN 9781317014447. Retrieved 28 June 2018.
  34. "Eben D. Jordan Dead. Senior Member of the Firm of Jordan, Marsh & Co., of Boston. Millionaire, Once A Penniless Boy. Architect of His Own Fortune. Ranked Among Public-Spirited Citizens and Representative Men" (PDF). New York Times. November 16, 1895. Retrieved 2015-07-29.
  35. "PRESIDENT'S NEPHEW KILLED AT HARVARD; Stewart Douglas Robinson Falls from Sixth-Story Window in Hampden Hall Dormitory. BODY FOUND IN STREET Young Man Complained of Illness to Friends and Had Window Opened to Get Air". The New York Times. 22 February 1909. Retrieved 20 February 2017.
  36. Mosley, Charles (2003). Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes. Wilmington, Delaware: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd. p. 3545. Retrieved 28 June 2018.
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