May Cuyler

Mary Carolyn Campbell McCreery (née Cuyler, formerly Lady Grey-Egerton) (23 December 1871 – 25 November 1958) was an American socialite.

Photograph of Lady Grey Egerton, Library of Congress

Early life

May was born on 23 December 1871 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She was a daughter of Alice (née Holden) Cuyler and Maj. James Wayne Cuyler (1841–1883) of Baltimore, Maryland. Her father, a West Point graduate and engineer, fought for the Union Army in the U.S. Civil War.[1]

Her paternal grandparents were physician and Bvt. Brig.-Gen. John Meck Cuyler (son of Judge Jeremiah La Touche Cuyler) and Mary Campbell (née Wayne) Cuyler (a daughter of Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States James Moore Wayne).[2][lower-alpha 1] A first cousin of her grandfather was U.S. Representative Rudolph Bunner. Her maternal grandparents were Wisconsin State Assemblyman and avid abolitionist Edward Dwight Holton and Lucinda Caroline (née Millard) Holton (a second cousin of Millard Fillmore).[4] Her aunt, Mary Holton, married Robertson James, the youngest brother of novelist Henry James.[5]

Personal life

On 4 January 1893, May was married to Sir Philip Grey Egerton, 12th Baronet in London.[6] Sir Philip was the only son of Sir Philip Grey-Egerton, 11th Baronet and Hon. Henrietta Denison (eldest daughter of Albert Denison, 1st Baron Londesborough). Their engagement had been announced in The New York Times on 29 October 1892,[7] and the "wedding received extensive press coverage, featuring lists of the jewels received as gifts, including a diamond tiara."[8] After their marriage, "she became as great a belle in London society as she had been" in the United States. Before their divorce in May 1905,[9] they were the parents of twin sons and a daughter:

After their divorce,[lower-alpha 2] May married Richard Stephen McCreery (1866–1938) on 2 March 1907 at May's residence on Hallam Street in London.[13] McCreery, who was divorced from Edith Kip, was a son of Andrew Buchanan McCreery and Isabel (née Swearingen) McCreery.[14][lower-alpha 3] His maternal aunt, Mary Swearingen, was the wife of Supreme Court Justice Stephen Johnson Field,[13][24] and his nephew was Gen. Sir Richard McCreery, Commander of the British Eighth Army.[lower-alpha 4] With her second husband, she was the mother of:

  • Isobel McCreery,[25] who married Augustus Taylor, Jr.[26] in 1937.[27]

Her first husband, Sir Philip, died on 4 July 1937, and her second husband died in 1938. As both of their sons predeceased their father, the baronetcy passed to the Rev. Sir Brooke de Malpas Egerton, Sir Philip's first cousin once removed.[10] May died at her home, 2202 Forest Drive in Burlingame, California on 25 November 1958.[26]

Descendants

Through her daughter Cecily, she was a grandmother to three: Cynthia Mary Denise Prideaux-Brune (b. 1919), Philip Egerton Edmund Prideaux-Brune (b. 1921), and Rowland Denys Charles Prideaux-Brune (1925–2008).[10]

During the 2014 to 2015 exhibition at London's National Portrait Gallery, May was featured among the high-profile American heiresses to marry into British aristocracy. Included in the exhibition were Jeanette ('Jennie') Churchill (née Jerome), Lady Randolph Churchill, Mary Victoria (née Leiter), Lady Curzon of Kedleston, Cornelia Craven (née Martin), Countess of Craven, Consuelo Montagu, Duchess of Manchester, Consuelo (née Vanderbilt), Duchess of Marlborough (later Mrs. Balsan), John Spencer-Churchill, 10th Duke of Marlborough, Lord Ivor Spencer-Churchill, Marguerite Hyde ('Daisy', née Leiter), Countess of Suffolk.[28]

References
Notes
  1. May's great-uncle (her grandmother's brother), Henry Constantine Wayne, married Mary Louisa Nicoll, sister to Elizabeth Smith (née Nicoll) Hamilton (the wife of Gen. Alexander Hamilton, oldest grandson of Alexander Hamilton).[3]
  2. In April 1910, Sir Philip remarried to Aimée Mary (née Cumming) Clarke, the former wife of Sir Rupert Clarke, 2nd Baronet.[12]
  3. McCreery's first wife, Edith Kip,[15] was a daughter of Lawrence Kip and Eva Lorillard Kip (the daughter of Lorillard Tobacco Company heir Pierre Lorillard III).[16][17] Eva and Richard had married in April 1894 and divorced in 1904.[18] After their divorce, Eva married the Hon. Henry Thomas Coventry (son of George Coventry, 9th Earl of Coventry), in December 1907.[19][20] From his first marriage, McCreery had two sons: Lawrence B. McCreery[21] and Lorillard Kip McCreery (d. 1926).[22][23]
  4. Gen. Sir Richard McCreery was a son of McCreery's younger brother, Walter Adolph McCreery and Emilia (née McAdam) McCreery, a great-great granddaughter of Scottish engineer John Loudon McAdam.[14]
Sources
  1. "Lady Grey Egerton" (PDF). The New York Times. 6 February 1898. Retrieved 23 October 2019.
  2. Nicoll, Maud Churchill (1912). The Earliest Cuylers in Holland and America and Some of Their Descendants: Researches Establishing a Line from Tydeman Cuyler of Hasselt, 1456. T.A. Wright, Printer and Publisher. p. 52. Retrieved 23 October 2019.
  3. Woodhull Genealogy: The Woodhull Family in England and America. H.T. Coates. 1904. p. 99. Retrieved 24 October 2019.
  4. "Holton, Edward Dwight 1815 - 1892". www.wisconsinhistory.org. Wisconsin Historical Society. 8 August 2017. Retrieved 23 June 2022.
  5. The United States Biographical Dictionary and Portrait Gallery of Eminent and Self-made Men; Wisconsin Volume. Chicago, Milwaukee, Cincinnati: American Biographical Publishing Company. 1877. pp. 412–417. Retrieved February 20, 2013.
  6. "Miss Cuyler's Wedding.; Arrangements for the Ceremony to-Day in London" (PDF). The New York Times. 4 January 1893. Retrieved 23 October 2019.
  7. "A Baltimore Girl Engaged" (PDF). The New York Times. 29 October 1892. Retrieved 23 October 2019.
  8. "Mary Carolyn Campbell ('May', nee Cuyler), Lady Grey-Egerton". www.npg.org.uk. National Portrait Gallery, London. Retrieved 23 June 2022.
  9. "GRAY-EGERTON DIVORCE.; Obtained in London from Sir Philip by His American Wife" (PDF). The New York Times. 27 June 1905. Retrieved 23 October 2019.
  10. Mosley, Charles, editor. Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes. Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003, volume 2, pages 1669-1679.
  11. "Captain P De M W Egerton | War Casualty Details 274088". www.cwgc.org. Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Retrieved 23 June 2022.
  12. Walford, Edward. The county families of the United Kingdom; or, Royal manual of the titled and untitled aristocracy of England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. Dalcassian Publishing Company. p. 425. Retrieved 23 June 2022.
  13. "RICHARD M'CREERY WEDDED IN LONDON; Lady Grey-Egerton Becomes the Bride of a New Yorker. COUPLE BOTH DIVORCED Bride a Daughter of an Army Officer -- Bridegroom Descended from Justice" (PDF). The New York Times. 3 March 1907. Retrieved 23 October 2019.
  14. Mead, Richard (19 January 2013). The Last Great Cavalryman: The Life of General Sir Richard McCreery Commander Eighth Army. Casemate Publishers. ISBN 978-1-78340-893-1. Retrieved 23 June 2022.
  15. "RECENT WILLS". The Guardian. June 17, 1949. p. 4. Retrieved 25 June 2018.
  16. "DEATH LIST OF A DAY. | Mrs. Eva Lorillard Kip" (PDF). The New York Times. 24 February 1903. Retrieved June 25, 2018.
  17. Kip, Frederic Ellsworth (1928). History of the Kip family in America. Hudson Printing Co. pp. 370-371. Retrieved 25 June 2018.
  18. "MARRIED IN GRACE CHURCH. Miss Edith Kip Wedded to Richard McCreery of London" (PDF). The New York Times. April 19, 1894. Retrieved 25 June 2018.
  19. "Edith Kip (ca. 1872-after 1945)". www.nyhistory.org. New-York Historical Society. Retrieved 25 June 2018.
  20. Whitaker's Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage, and Companionage ... J. Whitaker & Sons. 1916. p. 282. Retrieved 25 June 2018.
  21. The World Almanac and Book of Facts. Newspaper Enterprise Association. 1908. p. 479. Retrieved 25 June 2018.
  22. "EARL'S SON WOULDN'T SIGN.; Mrs. McCreery Coventry Sues to Set Aside $2,000,000 Provision for Her Son". The New York Times. November 12, 1908. Retrieved 25 June 2018.
  23. American Historical Company (1941). Encyclopedia of American Biography: New series. American Historical Society. p. 10. Retrieved 25 June 2018.
  24. The Stulls of "Millsborough": Descendants of Catherine (Stull) Swearingen, Susanna (Stull) Swearingen. C.H. Bailey. 2000. pp. 599, 662. Retrieved 23 June 2022.
  25. Steger, Pat (25 December 1995). "THE SOCIAL SCENE -- A Swell Time To Come Out / Debutantes shine at annual Cotillion". SFGATE. Retrieved 23 June 2022.
  26. "Mrs. McCreery, Socialite, Dies". The San Francisco Examiner. 10 November 1958. p. 3. Retrieved 23 June 2022.
  27. "bel McCreery Takes Vows At Brilliant Church Nuptials". The San Francisco Examiner. 7 June 1937. p. 15. Retrieved 23 June 2022.
  28. "Old Titles and New Money: American Heiresses and the British Aristocracy". www.npg.org.uk. National Portrait Gallery, London. Retrieved 17 September 2019.
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