Elizabeth Beers-Curtis

Elizabeth Beers-Curtis de Talleyrand-Périgord, Marquise de Talleyrand (November 12, 1847  – March 30, 1933)[1] was an American heiress who married into the French aristocracy.

Marquise de Talleyrand
Born
Elizabeth Beers-Curtis

(1847-11-12)November 12, 1847
Paris, France
DiedMarch 30, 1933(1933-03-30) (aged 85)
Rome, Italy
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1867; div. 1886)​
ChildrenMarie Palma de Talleyrand Périgord
Parent(s)Joseph Curtis
Elizabeth Shipton-Giles Curtis

Early life

Elizabeth "Bessie" was born on November 12, 1847 in Paris. She was the daughter of prominent New York merchant Joseph David Beers-Curtis (1825–1870) and Elizabeth (née Elizabeth Shipton Giles) Beers-Curtis (c. 1824–1861).[2][3] Her younger sister, Josephine Mary Beers-Curtis, was the third wife of Emanuele Ruspoli, 1st Prince of Poggio Suasa and with him, Josephine was the mother of Francesco Alvaro Maria Giorgio Ruspoli, 1st Duke of Morignano.[4]

Her maternal grandparents were Elizabeth (née Ogden) Giles and George Washington Giles, a son of Gen. Aquila Giles, who served alongside George Washington in the American Revolutionary War.[5] Her paternal grandparents were Lewis Agur Curtis and Mary Elizabeth (née Beers) Curtis. Her paternal aunt, Mary Beers Curtis, was married to maternal uncle, William Ogden Giles.[5]

Elizabeth Curtis were members of the "patrician Curtis family"[6] of Murray Hill in New York City and were related to the Hoffmans and Murrays of Murray Hill.[7] Through her father, she was a "descendant of the ancient and honorable Colonial Curtis family of Stratford, Connecticut."[7] Her great-grandfather was Joseph Davis Beers, a Wall Street banker who built the Southern New Jersey Railroad, and she was a lineal descendant of Thomas Welles, the 4th Colonial Governor of Connecticut.[7]

Society life

In February 1892, the Marquise 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.[8][9] Conveniently, 400 was the number of people that could fit into Mrs. Astor's ballroom.[10] During the Great War, she hosted a gathering at her residence in Paris to found "an oeuvre on the grand scale for the greater comfort of convalescent officers and soldiers in the war zone." Elizabeth and a number of others became officially involved, including the Marquise d'Andigné (the former Madeline Ives Goddard of Providence[11][12]), the Countess de Roussy de Sales (also an American), Princess Poniatowski (the former Elizabeth Sperry of California[13]), Mme. Ernest Mallet (the wife of the President of the Bank of France), Mme. la Générale Pau, and Mary Alsop King Waddington (the wife of William Waddington, the former Prime Minister of France).[14]

On her great-grandfather Beers' estate in New Jersey, Elizabeth founded the Chatsworth Country Club,[15] and installed Levi P. Morton, the former Vice President of the United States, and John Edward Parsons as officers.[7]

Personal life

On March 18, 1867, she was married to Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord in Nice, France.[16] Maurice was the son of Alexandre de Talleyrand-Périgord, the 3rd Duke of Dino, Marquis de Talleyrand, and Valentine de Sainte-Aldegonde, and the grandson of Edmond de Talleyrand-Périgord.[17] According to their wedding announcement in The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, "Miss Curtis did not change her religion to that of her husband, because the considerable population of the peasantry of the large Talleyrand Prussian estate are Protestants, and are rejoiced at having for having chatelaine a Protestant and an American.[16] They lived together at the new château in the grounds of the demolished Château de Montmorency. Before their divorce on August 11, 1886,[18] they were the parents of:

In 1887,[20] shocking society, her former husband married the American divorcee Adele Livingston Stevens (née Sampson) (1841–1912) in Paris.[21] His second wife, Adele, was the daughter of Joseph Sampson (a merchant and founder of the Chemical Bank),[22][23] They also divorced on April 3, 1903.[21]

Elizabeth died at the home of her sister, Princess Ruspoli di Poggio Suasa, in Rome, Italy on March 30, 1933.[24] She was buried in Paris where she had spent most of her life.[1]

Descendants

Through her only daughter Palma, she was the grandmother of five, including: Costantino Carlo Michele Agostino dei Principi Ruspoli (1891–1942), who married Elisabeth Catherine Adrienne Marie Anne Comtesse van der Noot d'Assche; Marescotti dei Principi Ruspoli (1892–1942), who married Virginia dei Marchesi Patrizi Naro Montoro; Alessandro Edmondo Eugenio dei Principi Ruspoli (1895–1975), who married Marthe-Marie de Pineton de Chambrun; Emanuele Costantino dei Principi Ruspoli (b. 1900), who married Teresa Tomassetti; and Carlo Maurizio Giuseppe Edgardo dei Principi Ruspoli (1906–1947), who married firstly, Marina dei Conti Volpi di Misurata, and secondly Luisa Maria Camperio.[25]

References
  1. "FORMER MISS CURTIS OF NEW YORK IS DEAD; The Marquise de Talleyrand- Perigord Stricken in Rome at the Age of 85" (PDF). The New York Times. April 1, 1933. Retrieved 10 February 2019.
  2. Rose, David Charles (2016). Oscar Wilde's Elegant Republic: Transformation, Dislocation and Fantasy in fin-de-siècle Paris. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 280. ISBN 9781443887632. Retrieved 7 February 2019.
  3. Allen, Cameron (2013). The History of the American Pro-Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, Paris (1815-1980). p. 513. ISBN 9781475937817. Retrieved 7 February 2019.
  4. "MARQUISE DE TALLEYRAND PERIGORD, 85, DIED IN ROME | Former Elizabeth Curtis of New York; Body to Be Taken to Paris". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. 31 March 1933. p. 41. Retrieved 7 February 2019.
  5. Genealogical Record. The Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York. 1916. p. 23. Retrieved 9 February 2019.
  6. Curtis, Harlow Dunham (1939). A Genealogy of the Curtiss-Curtis family of Stratford, Connecticut : a supplement to the 1903 edition. Retrieved 9 February 2019.
  7. 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. G. Harjes. p. 62. Retrieved 9 February 2019.
  8. 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.
  9. Patterson, Jerry E. (2000). The First Four Hundred: Mrs. Astor's New York in the Gilded Age. Random House. p. 224. ISBN 9780847822089. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  10. 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.
  11. "MARQUISE D'ANDIGNE DIES IN PROVIDENCE; Former Madeleine Goddard Was on Visit to Brother--Decorated by Francs for War Work" (PDF). The New York Times. April 1, 1931. Retrieved 9 February 2019.
  12. "History Bytes: Madeline Ives Goddard". newporthistory.org. Newport Historical Society. 27 August 2018. Retrieved 9 February 2019.
  13. "PRINCESS PONIATOWSKI WAS MISS E. H. SPERRY". Los Angeles Herald. 5 August 1911. Retrieved 9 February 2019.
  14. Atherton, Gertrude Franklin Horn (1916). Life in the War Zone. System printing Company. p. 23. ISBN 9781508427384. Retrieved 9 February 2019.
  15. "CHATSWORTH CLUB". www.chatsworthnjhistory.org. Woodland Township Historical Society. Retrieved 10 February 2019.
  16. "Miscellaneous Items". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. April 27, 1867. p. 4. Retrieved 10 February 2019.
  17. de La Caillemotte de Massue de Ruvigny Ruvigny and Raineval (9th marquis of), Melville Amadeus Henry Douglas Heddle (1914). The Titled Nobility of Europe: An International Peerage, Or "Who's Who", of the Sovereigns, Princes and Nobles of Europe. Harrison & Sons. p. 581. Retrieved 7 February 2019.
  18. "News". The Worthington Advance. December 16, 1886. p. 2. Retrieved 10 February 2019.
  19. "The Late Duke de Dino Was a Strange Blend of Patrician and Socialist". Buffalo Evening News. January 9, 1917. p. 10. Retrieved 7 February 2019.
  20. "MARRIED TO HER MARQUIS; THE FINAL ACT IN A STRANGE LIFE STORY. THE FORMER MRS. ADELE LIVINGSTON STEVENS NOW THE WIFE OF THE MARQUIS DE TALLEYRAND PERIGORD. PARIS" (PDF). The New York Times. January 26, 1887. Retrieved 7 February 2019.
  21. "DUCHESS DE DINO IS DEAD IN PARIS; Former Wife of F.W. Stevens Was Once Prominent in New York and Newport Society". The New York Times. 20 July 1912. Retrieved 17 October 2017.
  22. Semans, Barbara Broome (2009). John Broome and Rebecca Lloyd Vol. I: Their Descendants and Related Families 18th to 21st Centuries. Xlibris Corporation. p. 558. ISBN 9781462811137. Retrieved 7 February 2019.
  23. Winship, Kihm (30 October 2009). "The Livingstons of Skaneateles". kihm6.wordpress.com. Skaneateles. Retrieved 17 October 2017.
  24. "MARQUISE DE TALLEYRAND". The Atlanta Constitution. April 1, 1933. p. 2. Retrieved 7 February 2019.
  25. Almanach de Gotha (in French). Johann Paul Mevius sel. Witwe und Johann Christian Dieterich. 1905. p. 465. Retrieved 7 February 2019.
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