Robert L. Cutting Jr.

Robert Livingston Cutting Jr. (July 2, 1836 – January 13, 1894) was an American banker and clubman who was prominent in New York Society during the Gilded Age.[1] He was also prominent as a municipal reformer who tried to clean New York up from Boss Tweed's corrupt influence.[2]

Robert L. Cutting
portrait by Raimundo de Madrazo y Garreta
Born
Robert Livingston Cutting Jr.

(1836-07-02)July 2, 1836
New York City, New York, U.S.
DiedJanuary 13, 1894 (1894-01-14) (aged 57)
New York City, New York, U.S.
Resting placeGreen-Wood Cemetery
Alma materColumbia College
Political partyDemocrat
Spouse
Judith Carter Moale
​
​
(m. 1867)​
Parent(s)Robert Livingston Cutting
Julianna DeWolf
RelativesFrancis B. Cutting (uncle)

Early life

Cutting was born in New York City on July 2, 1836, and was known as Bob Cutting.[1] He was the oldest of four children born to Robert Livingston Cutting (1812–1887)[3] and Julianna (née DeWolf) Cutting (1816–1891).[4][5] His father was a past president of the New York Stock Exchange and a co-founder of the Continental Bank of New York.[6] His siblings included James DeWolf Cutting, a Yale graduate;[7] Walter Cutting, a broker who married Maria Center Pomeroy;[8][9] and Julia Cutting who did not marry.[5] His mother was the granddaughter of U.S. Senator James DeWolf.[5][10]

His paternal grandparents were William Cutting (1773–1820) and Gertrude (née Livingston) Cutting (1779–1864). Among his uncles were U.S. Representative Francis Brockholst Cutting, and Robert Fulton Cutting, who married the poet Elise Justine Bayard.[11][12] His great-grandfather was Walter Livingston, the first Speaker of the New York State Assembly,[13] and his great-uncle was U.S. Representative Henry Walter Livingston,[14][15]

Career

In 1862, Cutting became a special partner in the brokerage firm of Lee, Lyon & Co., with an office located at 19 William Street. The firm name was changed to John Benjamin Lee & Co., and later to Lee, Livingston & Co.[1] In 1864, he became a member of the New York Stock Exchange.[16]

A Democrat and a municipal reformer, Cutting served on the Committee of Seventy in 1871 which sought to oust the Boss Tweed and his cohorts from city government.[17]

Society life

In 1892, Cutting 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.[18] Conveniently, 400 was the number of people that could fit into Mrs. Astor's ballroom.[19]

Cutting was a member of the Manhattan Club, the Knickerbocker Club, the Union Club of the City of New York, the Metropolitan Club, the Racquet Club, and the Tuxedo Club.[20]

Personal life

On October 24, 1867, Cutting was married to Judith Carter Moale (1847–1915),[21] a "celebrated Baltimore belle" who was the daughter of William Armistead Moale of Baltimore,[22] a direct descendant of the Carter and Byrd families of Virginia.[23] Judith's sister, Evelyn Byrd Moale, was married to I. Townsend Burden of the Burden Iron Works. Together, they were the parents of:[1][4][24]

  • Robert Livingston Cutting III (1868–1910), who married Minnie Seligman, an actress, in 1892. He was disinherited by his parents after this marriage, and was eventually sued by his mother for allegedly embezzling part of her fortune.[25]
  • John Carter Cutting (1870–1870), who died young.[1]
  • William Armistead Moale Cutting (1871–1878), who died young.[1]
  • James DeWolf Cutting (1875–1917), who was attending Yale College at the time of his father's death.[1] He later became a broker and inherited his mother's entire estate upon her death in 1915.[21] He never married.[26]

Cutting resided at 141 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. Around 1885, his wife who was an invalid for many years, moved to Paris, where she lived for the rest of her life.[1]

Cutting died unexpectedly of Bright's disease while traveling in a Broadway cable car on January 13, 1894, at the age of 57.[27][28] After a service at Grace Church, he was buried in the family fault in Green-Wood Cemetery.[20] His funeral was attended by many prominent New Yorkers, including Cornelius Vanderbilt II, Chauncey M. Depew, J. Pierpont Morgan, Henry Clews, Judge Charles A. Peabody, Col. Stephen Van Rensselaer Cruger, and many others.[20]

References
  1. "R. L. CUTTING DEAD. The Wealthy Clubman Sticken in a Broadway Cable Car. On His Way to His Office to Keep an Appointment. Removed to a Hallway, Where He Soon Expired". The Evening World. 13 January 1894. Retrieved 14 May 2018.
  2. "ROBERT L. CUTTING DEAD | Prominent in New York Business and Social Circles". The Philadelphia Times. January 14, 1894. p. 5.
  3. "Funeral of Robert L. Cutting". The New York Times. March 1, 1887. Retrieved November 5, 2017.
  4. Post, Marie Caroline (1905). The Post Family. Sterling Potter. p. 263. Retrieved 14 May 2018.
  5. Perry, Calbraith Bourn (1902). Charles D'Wolf of Guadaloupe, his ancestors and descendants: being a complete genealogy of the "Rhode Island D'Wolfs," the descendants of Simon De Wolf, with their common descent from Balthasar De Wolf of Lyme, Conn. (1668): with a biographical introduction and appendices of the Nova Scotian de Wolfs and other allied families. Higginson Books Co. p. 160. Retrieved 4 May 2018.
  6. "Continental Bank to Mark 70th Year; Institution Has 3,500 Depositors and 6,000 Stockholders". The New York Times. New York City, New York, United States. August 1, 1940. Retrieved November 2, 2017.
  7. Yale University (1895). Catalogue. p. 383. Retrieved 4 May 2018.
  8. Delta Phi (1907). Delta Phi catalogue [of the members of the fraternity] 1827-1907. Mason-Henry Press. p. 167. Retrieved 4 May 2018.
  9. Palmer, Henry L.; Codding, James H. (1907). Proceedings Scottish Rite (Masonic order) Supreme Council for the Northern Jurisdiction. New York: Jack Kempster Printing Company. p. 319. Retrieved 4 May 2018.
  10. "Robert L. Cutting Dead; Close of a Long and Successful Business Career". The New York Times. February 26, 1887. Retrieved November 5, 2017.
  11. Dunn, Elwood D.; Beyan, Amos J.; Burrowes, Carl Patrick (December 20, 2000). Historical Dictionary of Liberia. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 9781461659310. Retrieved 30 April 2017.
  12. "Mrs. William Cutting (ca. 1776-1864)". www.nyhistory.org. New-York Historical Society. Retrieved 30 April 2017.
  13. Bergen, Tunis Garret (1915). Genealogies of the State of New York: A Record of the Achievements of Her People in the Making of a Commonwealth and the Founding of a Nation. Lewis Historical Publishing Company. Retrieved 30 April 2017.
  14. American Millionaires: The Tribune's List of Persons Reputed to Worth a Million Or More. Lines of Business in which the Fortunes Were Made. Tribune Association. 1892. Retrieved 30 April 2017.
  15. Family Magazine: Or Monthly Abstract of General Knowledge. Redfield and Lindsay. 1839. Retrieved 30 April 2017.
  16. "Robert Livingston Cutting, Jr. (1837-1894)". www.nyhistory.org. New-York Historical Society. Retrieved 4 May 2018.
  17. "Robert Livingston Cutting, Jr. (1837-1894)". www.nyhistory.org. New-York Historical Society. Retrieved 14 May 2018.
  18. 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.
  19. 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.
  20. "ROBERT LIVINGSTON CUTTING'S FUNERAL; Attended by Members of the Many Organizations to Which He Belonged". The New York Times. January 18, 1894. Retrieved 14 May 2018.
  21. "DISINHERITS SON NOW DEAD. Mrs. Cutting in Will Declares Robert Was Undutiful and Disloyal". The Washington Post. July 4, 1915. p. 5. Retrieved 14 May 2018.
  22. "Judith Carter Moale Livingston Cutting (c.1847-1915)". www.nyhistory.org. New-York Historical Society. Retrieved 14 May 2018.
  23. Magruder, Alexander Contee; Miller, Oliver; Brewer Jr., Nicholas; Stockett, John Shaaf; Brantly, William Theophilus; Perkins, William Henry; Tiffany, Herbert Thorndike; Coan, Malcolm J. (1917). Reports of Cases Argued and Adjudged in the Court of Appeals of Maryland. p. 553. Retrieved 19 September 2017.
  24. Weeks, Lyman Horace (1898). Prominent Families of New York: Being an Account in Biographical Form of Individuals and Families Distinguished as Representatives of the Social, Professional and Civic Life of New York City. Historical Company. p. 150. Retrieved 14 May 2018.
  25. "Judith Carter Moale Cutting". www.nyhistory.org. New-York Historical Society. Retrieved 14 May 2018.
  26. "J. D'W. CUTTING DIES OF HEART DISEASE | Third Generation of Wall Street Family and a Patron of Music". New York Herald. April 18, 1917. p. 7. Retrieved 14 May 2018.
  27. "BOTH SAD AND SUDDEN! THE WARNING GIVEN BY MR. CUTTING'S DEATH. Some Timely Words of Advice to Certain Men and Women Who Do Not Realise Their Condition -- Are You in Danger". The New York Times. January 16, 1894. Retrieved 14 May 2018.
  28. "DIED. CUTTING". The New York Times. January 17, 1894. Retrieved 14 May 2018.
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