Rutherfurd Stuyvesant

Rutherfurd Stuyvesant or Stuyvesant Rutherfurd (September 2, 1843 – July 4, 1909) was an American socialite and land developer from New York, best known as the inheritor of the Stuyvesant fortune.[1]

Rutherfurd Stuyvesant
Born
Stuyvesant Rutherfurd

(1843-09-02)September 2, 1843
DiedJuly 4, 1909(1909-07-04) (aged 65)
Paris, France
Alma materColumbia College (1863)
Spouses
Mary Pierrepont
​
​
(m. 1863; died 1879)​
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1902)​
    ChildrenLewis Rutherfurd Stuyvesant
    Alan Rutherfurd Stuyvesant
    Parent(s)Lewis Morris Rutherfurd
    Margaret Chanler Stuyvesant
    RelativesWinthrop Rutherfurd (brother)
    Lewis Morris Rutherfurd Jr. (brother)
    John Winthrop Chanler (uncle)
    Henry White (brother-in-law)
    Anne Harriman Vanderbilt (sister-in-law)

    Early life

    Rutherfurd was born on September 2, 1843. He was the oldest of seven children born to Lewis Morris Rutherfurd (1816–1892) and Margaret Chanler Stuyvesant (1820–1890).[2][3] His younger siblings included Louisa Morris Rutherfurd (1855–1892), Margaret Stuyvesant Rutherfurd (1853-1916), who was married to Henry White, Lewis Morris Rutherfurd Jr. (1859–1901), who was married to Anne Harriman Vanderbilt (1861–1940),[4] and Winthrop Rutherfurd (1886-1944),[5] who was married to Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd,[6] a mistress of Franklin D. Roosevelt.[7]

    His paternal grandparents were Robert Walter Rutherfurd (1788–1852) and Sabina Morris (1789–1857) of Morrisania. He was the great-grandson of U.S. Senator John Rutherfurd and 2x great-grandson of Lewis Morris, the Signer of the Declaration of Independence.[2] Rutherfurd was a direct descendant of Peter Stuyvesant, the last Dutch Director-General of New Netherland before it became New York,[8][9] as well as John Winthrop, the first Governor of Massachusetts.[5] His mother's siblings included Elizabeth Winthrop Chanler (1824–1904) and John Winthrop Chanler (1826–1877). Among his cousins was U.S. Representative William Astor Chanler.[1]

    Stuyvesant was an 1863 graduate of Columbia College.[1]

    Name change
    Further information: Stuyvesant family

    In 1847, the six year old Stuyvesant Rutherfurd changed his name to Rutherfurd Stuyvesant to conform with the will of his mother's great-uncle, Peter Gerard Stuyvesant, who died childless, in order to inherit the Stuyvesant fortune. His mother was the niece and adopted daughter of Peter Gerard Stuyvesant (1778–1847),[10] the 2x great-grandson of Peter Stuyvesant, and Helena Rutherfurd Stuyvesant.[11][3]

    Career

    Stuyvesant was known as a very successful land developer of New York City.

    In 1869, Stuyvesant hired Richard Morris Hunt to build the "first true apartment building in New York", located on the present day site of 142 East 18th Street near Gramercy Park.[12] The building was a five story walk up built for middle-class tenants.[12]

    Society life

    Stuyvesant was a collector of arms and armor,[13] fine china and paintings.[1]

    His mansion in New York was located at the corner of Second Avenue and 15th Street, near most of the Stuyvesant and Rutherfurd properties.[1]

    He had an estate in the country, known as Tranquility Farms, near Hackettstown, New Jersey that was the original Stuyvesant homestead. He enlarged the home which was located on 7,000 acres and included a park stocked with elk, deer, ponds with beavers, and pheasants.[1]

    He was a member of the Union Club of New York, the Century Club, the City Racquet Club, the New York Yacht Club, the Atlantic Yacht Club and the Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Clubs, The Downtown Association, The Columbia College Alumni Association, New-York Historical Society, and the American Geographical Society. He was a fellow at the American Museum of Natural History and the National Academy of Design, and a patron and trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.[1]

    Personal life
    Photograph of his second wife, the former Countess de Wassanaer, c. 1915-1920.

    In 1863, he was married to Mary Pierrepont (1842–1879), a daughter of Henry Evelyn Pierrepont (1808–1888)[14][15] and Anna Maria Jay (1819–1902),[16] and a granddaughter of Peter Augustus Jay.[17] She, along with a son, died at the Stuyvesant mansion during childbirth in 1879.

    In 1902, he was married to Countess Mathilde Elizabeth Loewenguth de Wassanaer (1877–1948), the daughter of Joseph Loewenguth, at St. George's Chapel on Albemarle Street in London.[18] She was the widow of a Dutch Count.[1] Together, they were the parents of:

    • Lewis Rutherfurd Stuyvesant (1903–1944),[19] who married Rosalie Stuyvesant Pillot in 1925, daughter of Peter Stuyvesant Pillot. The couple had one child, Peter Winthrop Rutherfurd Stuyvesant (1935–1970),[20][21] before they divorced in 1930.[22] He later married Elizabeth (née Larocque) Smith in 1934. She was the former wife of Schuyler Knowlton Smith and the daughter of Joseph Laroque.[23]
    • Alan Rutherfurd Stuyvesant (1905–1954), who did not marry. He was injured in a car accident in 1934.[24] He died aboard a ship just short of arriving at their destination to France.[25]

    Rutherfurd died suddenly while out for his customary morning walk in the Champs-Élysées in Paris on July 4, 1909.[1][26] After his death, his widow married Prince Alexandre de Caraman-Chimay, the son of Prince Joseph de Caraman-Chimay and brother of Joseph, Prince de Caraman-Chimay. The Princess Alexandre de Caraman Chimay died in 1948 and was buried in the Stuyvesant family plot at Tranquility Cemetery, New Jersey.[27]

    References
    1. "R. STUYVESANT DIES SUDDENLY IN PARIS; Stricken on Street -- Though Born Rutherfurd, an Ancestor Was Gov. Peter Stuyvesant. HE WAS 69 YEARS OLD Ambassador White's Brother-in-Law -- First Wife Was Miss Pierrepont -- Second, Countess de Wassenaer, Survives Him". The New York Times. 5 July 1909. Retrieved 19 July 2017.
    2. "Lewis Morris Rutherfurd" (PDF). New York Times. June 1, 1892. Retrieved 2014-01-09. Lewis Morris Kutherfurd died on Decoration Day at his home, Tranquillity, N.J., in the seventy-sixth [sic] year of his age.
    3. Rutherfurd, Livingston (1894). Family Records and Events: Compiled Principally from the Original Manuscripts in the Rutherfurd Collection. De Vinne Press. p. 252. Retrieved 18 July 2017.
    4. "W.K. VANDERBILT DIES IN FRANCE IN HIS 71ST YEAR; Was Eldest Male Survivor of Family That Built Fortune in New York Central. CHILDREN AT HIS BEDSIDE Duchess of Marlborough and Her Brothers Present with Financier's Widow. ESTATE NEAR $100,000,000 $300,000,000 Left by His Father in Eight Shares Believed to be Over Billion Total Now". The New York Times. 23 July 1920. Retrieved 18 July 2017.
    5. "W. RUTHERFURD, 82, LEADER IN SOCIETY; Sportsman, Member of Noted Family, Dies Was Owner of Famous Terrier Kennels". The New York Times. 21 March 1944. Retrieved 18 July 2017.
    6. "MRS. W. RUTHERFURD". The New York Times. 1 August 1948. Retrieved 18 July 2017.
    7. Persico, Joseph E. (2009). Franklin and Lucy: Mrs. Rutherfurd and the Other Remarkable Women in Roosevelt's Life. Random House Trade Paperbacks. p. 299. ISBN 9780812974966. Retrieved 18 July 2017.
    8. Vanderbilt, Arthur T. (1991). Fortune's Children: The Fall of the House of Vanderbilt. HarperCollins. p. 152. ISBN 9780688103866.
    9. Greene, Richard Henry; Stiles, Henry Reed; Dwight, Melatiah Everett; Morrison, George Austin; Mott, Hopper Striker; Totten, John Reynolds; Pitman, Harold Minot; Ditmas, Charles Andrew; Forest, Louis Effingham De; Maynard, Arthur S.; Mann, Conklin (1880). The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record. New York Genealogical and Biographical Society. p. 160. Retrieved 18 July 2017.
    10. Hughes, Stefan (2012). Catchers of the Light: The Forgotten Lives of the Men and Women Who First Photographed the Heavens. ArtDeCiel Publishing. ISBN 9781620509616. Retrieved 18 July 2017.
    11. "Peter Gerard Stuyvesant (1778-1847)". www.nyhistory.org. New-York Historical Society. Retrieved 18 July 2017.
    12. Pommer, Alfred; Pommer, Joyce (2015). Exploring Gramercy Park and Union Square. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 9781625853639. Retrieved 19 July 2017.
    13. Dean, Bashford (1929). Catalogue of European Daggers: including the Ellis, De Dino, Riggs and Reubell collections. Metropolitan Museum of Art. p. 195. Retrieved 19 July 2017.
    14. "H.E. PIERREPONT'S FUNERAL". The New York Times. 1 April 1888. Retrieved 14 July 2017.
    15. "HENRY E. PIERREPONT DEAD.; Retired Merchant Was One of the Brooklyn Family of Pierreponts". The New York Times. 5 November 1911. Retrieved 14 July 2017.
    16. "MRS. A. M. PIERREPONT DEAD.; Was a Granddaughter of John Jay, First Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court". The New York Times. 3 January 1902. Retrieved 14 July 2017.
    17. 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. p. 768. Retrieved 14 July 2017.
    18. "RUTHERFORD STUYVESANT MARRIED IN LONDON.; He Weds the Comtesse de Warranaer -- Ambassador Choate Present at the Ceremony". The New York Times. 17 June 1902. Retrieved 19 July 2017.
    19. "LEWIS STUVYSANT DIES IN CLUB HERE; Sportsman, War. Veteran Was Consul in India -- Descendant of Peter Stuyvesant". The New York Times. 8 September 1944. Retrieved 19 July 2017.
    20. "Son to Mrs. L. R. Stuyvesant". The New York Times. 18 December 1935. Retrieved 19 July 2017.
    21. "REMEMBRANCES OF A WAR'S END; A GOVERNOR'S DESCENDANTS". The New York Times. 13 August 1995. Retrieved 19 July 2017.
    22. "RENO DIVORCE GRANTED MRS. L.R. STUYVESANT; Mental Cruelty Is Reported as Grounds--Husband American Consul General of Calcutta". The New York Times. 7 August 1930. Retrieved 19 July 2017.
    23. Times, Special To The New York (13 July 1934). "MRS. E. L. SMITH NEW JERSEY BRIDE; Simple Ceremony Unites Her to Lewis R. Stuyvesant, a Prominent Sportsman. HE IS PRINCETON ALUMNUS Bridegroom, a Well-Known .Big Game Hunter, Is Son of Queen Astrid's Lady-in-Waiting". The New York Times. Retrieved 19 July 2017.
    24. Times, Special To The New York (19 June 1934). "O'RYAN SECRETARY HURT.; A.R. Stuyvesant Victim of Auto Crash at Princeton, N.J." The New York Times. Retrieved 19 July 2017.
    25. Times, Special To The New York (10 February 1954). "ALAN STUYVESANT DIES IN LINER FALL; Descendant of Dutch Governor Succumbs in France -- Found Hurt on the United States". The New York Times. Retrieved 19 July 2017.
    26. Times, Special To The New York (10 October 1909). "BEQUEST OF $20,000 FOR THE ART MUSEUM; Metropolitan Benefits from the Estate of Rutherfurd Stuyvesant, Valued at Millions. MONEY GIFTS FOR RELATIVES Use of Tranquility, His Country Estate, for His Widow During Her Life, Who Gets City Residence Also". The New York Times. Retrieved 19 July 2017.
    27. "PRIHCESS CHIMAY DIES IN HOME HERE; The Former Mrs. Rutherfurd Stuyvesant Aided Charity Drive in 1st World War". The New York Times. 11 July 1948. Retrieved 19 July 2017.
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