Clarence Cary

Clarence Cary (March 18, 1845 – August 27, 1911)[1] was an American lawyer who was prominent in New York society during the Gilded Age.

Clarence Cary
Born(1845-03-18)March 18, 1845
Fairfax County, Virginia, U.S.
DiedAugust 27, 1911(1911-08-27) (aged 66)
Greenwich, Connecticut, U.S.
Resting placeIvy Hill Cemetery, Alexandria, Virginia
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1878)​
Parent(s)Archibald Cary
Monimia Fairfax
RelativesConstance Cary Harrison (sister)
Virginia Randolph (grandmother)
Fairfax Harrison (nephew)
Francis Harrison (nephew)

Early life

Clarence Cary was born in Fairfax County, Virginia on March 18, 1845,[2] into a planter class family. His parents were Archibald Cary and Monimia (née Fairfax) Cary. His sister, the author Constance Cary, was married to Burton Harrison, the former private secretary for Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Through his sister, he was the uncle of Fairfax Harrison, who was a President of the Southern Railway Company, and Francis Burton Harrison, who served as a Governor-General of the Philippines.[2] The family lived at Cumberland, Maryland, where his father was editor of its leading newspaper, The Cumberland Civilian.

His paternal grandparents were Wilson Jefferson Cary and Virginia (née Randolph) Cary.[3] His maternal grandparents were Thomas Fairfax, 9th Lord Fairfax of Cameron (who never assumed the English title) and Margaret (née Herbert) Fairfax, herself the granddaughter of John Carlyle and Sarah Fairfax. Cary was also the great-grandnephew of Thomas Jefferson.[4] Among his large and prominent family members was uncle Gouverneur Morris of Morrisania,[5] who married Anne Cary Randolph.[6]

When Archibald died in 1854, his mother moved the family to his grandmother's plantation, known as Vaucluse in Fairfax County, Virginia. Following the outbreak of the Civil War,[7] Vaucluse was seized and torn down to construct Fort Worth as a part of the defenses of Washington, D.C. The family moved again to Richmond, Virginia, staying there during the War.[8]

Career
The CSS Palmetto State, of which Cary served on during the U.S. Civil War.

During the War, Cary served as a midshipman in the Confederate States Navy and reportedly, "did some very clever acting during the war on the amateur stage and on the naval war boards. In his sailor role he served on the blockade runner, Nashville, on the Palmetto State ironclad, off the Carolina coast and on the James River fleet, proving himself a good officer."[9]

After the war, he studied law and practiced in New York, founding the successful firm of Cary & Whitridge, where he was a trusted advisor to Varina Davis, the widow of Jefferson Davis.[10] Following his brother-in-law Harrison's return to the United States after the Civil War, they practiced law together.[9]

Cary was a fan of Oriental culture and art, traveling for extended periods to the Far East, setting up a committee with other businessmen known as the "Committee on American Interests in China." He was known for ridiculing Secretary of State John Sherman by calling Sherman's reluctance to Chinese trade as "quaint and dangerous".[11] He worked as the legal counsel for the American China Development Company, and helped found the American Asiatic Association in 1898.[12]

Society life

In 1892, Cary and his wife 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.[13][4] Conveniently, 400 was the number of people that could fit into Mrs. Astor's ballroom.[14]

He also translated several of the classic Latin poets,[15] particularly Horace.[9]

Personal life

In 1878, Cary was married to Elisabeth Miller Potter (1856–1945),[16] the daughter of Howard Potter, a diplomat and investment banker with Brown Bros. & Co., and his wife, Mary Louisa (née Brown) Potter.[9] Together, they were the parents of:

Cary died on August 27, 1911, in Greenwich, Connecticut.[1] He was buried in Ivy Hill Cemetery, Alexandria, Virginia.

Descendants

Through his son Guy, he was the grandfather of Guy Fairfax Cary II (1923–2004), who died unmarried,[21] and Cynthia Cary (b. 1924), who married Charles Bingham Penrose Van Pelt (1922–2003) and had three children.[21] She later married Edwin F. Russell (1914–2001).[22]

References
  1. "DIED. Cary" (PDF). The New York Times. August 29, 1911. Retrieved March 21, 2018.
  2. "Mrs. Constance Cary Harrison," in Raymond, Ida; Mary Tardy (1870). Southland Writers: Biographical and Critical Sketches of the Living Female Writers of the South. With Extracts from Their Writings, Vol. 2. Claxton, Remsen & Haffelfinger. p. 775.
  3. Pecquet du Bellet, Louise; Edward Jaquelin; Martha Cary Jaquelin (1907). Some Prominent Virginia Families, Vol. 2. Bell. p. 81.
  4. Patterson, Jerry E. (2000). The First Four Hundred: Mrs. Astor's New York in the Gilded Age. Random House Incorporated. p. 212. ISBN 9780847822089. Retrieved June 1, 2018.
  5. "Miss Burton Harrison". Famous Women Authors. 1901. Retrieved March 16, 2009.
  6. Louise Pecquet du Bellet, Some Prominent Virginia Families, p. 81,2
  7. Pecquet du Bellet, Louise; Edward Jaquelin; Martha Cary Jaquelin (1907). Some Prominent Virginia Families, Vol. 2. Bell. p. 180.
  8. Gaillynn M., Bowman (2003). "Constance Cary Harrison, Refugitta of Richmond: A Nineteenth-Century Southern Woman Writer's Critically Intriguing Antislavery Narrative Strategy" (PDF). Marshall College. Retrieved March 16, 2009. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  9. De Leon, Thomas Cooper (1909). Belles, Beaux and Brains of the 60's. G.W. Dillingham Company. p. 246. Retrieved July 19, 2018.
  10. Confederate Veteran: Published Monthly in the Interest of Confederate Veterans and Kindred Topics. S.A. Cunningham. 1911. p. 541. Retrieved July 19, 2018.
  11. Hamilton, Richard F. (2017). America's New Empire: The 1890s and Beyond. Routledge. p. 175. ISBN 9781351532181. Retrieved July 19, 2018.
  12. Jacobson, Matthew Frye (2001). Barbarian Virtues: The United States Encounters Foreign Peoples at Home and Abroad, 1876-1917. Macmillan. p. 30. ISBN 9780809016280. Retrieved July 19, 2018.
  13. McAllister, Ward (February 16, 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 March 26, 2017.
  14. Keister, Lisa A. (2005). Getting Rich: America's New Rich and How They Got That Way. Cambridge University Press. p. 36. ISBN 9780521536677. Retrieved October 20, 2017.
  15. Sutherland, Daniel E. (1988). The Confederate Carpetbaggers. LSU Press. p. 335. ISBN 9780807114704. Retrieved July 19, 2018.
  16. "Mrs. Clarence Cary (1859-1945)". www.nyhistory.org. New-York Historical Society. Retrieved July 19, 2018.
  17. "MRS. GUY CARY, DIES; NEWPORT FIGURE, 82". The New York Times. December 19, 1966. Retrieved June 14, 2017.
  18. "Mrs. Burden To Wed Guy F. Cary Today. Widow of Arthur Scott Burden Will Marry New York Lawyer at Newport. Bride Is the Only Daughter of Mrs. Burke-Roche and a Sister of Baron Fermoy". The New York Times. July 24, 1922. Retrieved August 28, 2009.
  19. "Mrs. Burden Weds Guy Fairfax Cary. Seventy Relatives and Friends at Widow's Marriage to New York Lawyer at Roche Home. Amid 11,000 Columbia Roses. Bridal Pair Leave by Motor for R. W. Goelet's Fishing Lodge in Canada to Spend Honeymoon". The New York Times. July 25, 1922. Retrieved August 28, 2009.
  20. du Bellet, Louise Pecquet (1976). Some Prominent Virginia Families. Genealogical Publishing Com. p. 91. ISBN 9780806307220. Retrieved July 19, 2018.
  21. "Paid Notice: Deaths — CARY, GUY FAIRFAX". The New York Times. November 19, 2004.
  22. Meier, Barry (December 25, 2001). "Edwin F. Russell, 87, Newspaper Publisher". The New York Times. Retrieved June 14, 2017.
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