Richard James Cross Explained

Birth Date:November 3, 1845
Birth Place:Liverpool, England
Death Place:Miami, Florida, U.S.
Education:Marlborough College
Parents:William Cross
Anna Chalmers Wood Cross
Spouse:
    Children:6, including Eleanor, John, Eliot
    Relatives:George Eliot (sister-in-law)

    Richard James Cross (November 3, 1845  - March 30, 1917) was an English born railroad official and banker who was a prominent member of New York society during the Gilded Age.

    Early life

    Cross was born in Liverpool, England, on November 3, 1845.[1] He was the son of William Cross (1809–1862), an English financier with J & A Dennistoun,[2] and Anna Chalmers (née Wood) Cross (1812–1878), his Scottish-born wife. His brother, John Walter Cross, a commission agent, was the husband of the English novelist Mary Anne (née Evans) Cross, known by her pen name George Eliot, having married her a few months before her death in 1880.

    He was educated at Marlborough College in Marlborough, Wiltshire, England.[1]

    Career

    After his move to America following his graduation from College, he began working as railroad official, first in New Orleans then in New York.[3] His uncle, William Wood, worked in New York at Dennistoun, Wood & Co.[2]

    Cross later became a member of the New York banking firm of Morton, Bliss & Co., led by former New York Governor Levi P. Morton, from 1878 until his retirement in 1899.[1] He also served as a director of the Manhattan Trust Co., U.S. Lloyds, Commercial Union Assurance Co., Palatine Insurance Co., Atlas Insurance Co., and the Caledonian Insurance Co.[1]

    Society life

    In 1892, Cross (along with his wife's brother Goold, sister Frances and her husband Henry) 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.[4] [5] Conveniently, 400 was the number of people that could fit into Mrs. Astor's ballroom.[6] Cross, who was known as "the wittiest man in N.Y." was a member of the Century Association and helped organize the Racquet and Tennis Club in 1890.[7]

    Personal life

    On June 3, 1872, Cross was married to the American Matilda Redmond (1838–1883).[8] She was the daughter of wealthy merchant William Redmond and Sabina Elizabeth (née Hoyt) Redmond.[9] Among her many siblings was Goold H. Redmond,[10] Sabina Redmond Wood, Henry Redmond,[11] Mary Redmond, Emily Redmond, Frances Redmond[12] (the wife of Henry Beekman Livingston).[13] [14] Her grandfather, Goold Hoyt, was a merchant with Hoyt & Tom who was involved with the East India and China trade and was one of the founders of the Merchants' Exchange National Bank.[15] Together, Matilda and Richard were the parents of six children, all born at Hillside (the stone villa of their grandfather in South Orange, New Jersey),[8] namely:[16]

    His wife Matilda died in 1883, just months after the birth of their youngest child Eliot, and the entire Cross family moved into 6 Washington Square in New York, the home of his late wife's family. Matilda's sister Emily, who was called Demi, cared for the children, and two years later on May 16, 1885, Richard married another Redmond sister,[7] Annie Redmond (1852–1929),[24]

    The Crosses also maintained a massive stone Tudor summer home in Newfoundland in northern New Jersey,[7] known as "Cross Castle",[3] and built in 1907.[25] The estate, built at an estimated cost of $1,500,000, consisted of "365 acres of wooded glens, fields, and farm lands, along with a 77-acre pristine water body known as Hank’s Pond."[25]

    Cross died in Miami, Florida, on March 30, 1917.[26]

    Descendants

    Through his eldest son, he was the grandfather of Emily Redmond Cross (– 2006),[27] who married John Kenyon Vaughan-Morgan, a Member of Parliament for Reigate who was the son of the Sir Kenyon Vaughan-Morgan and the Lady Vaughan-Morgan of London,[28] in March 1940.[29]

    References

    Notes

    Sources

    External links

    Notes and References

    1. Book: Leonard . John William . Mohr . William Frederick . Holmes . Frank R. . Knox . Herman Warren . Downs . Herman Warren . Who's Who in New York City and State . 1907 . L.R. Hamersly Company . 358 . 15 November 2018 . en.
    2. Book: Henry . Nancy . Women, Literature and Finance in Victorian Britain . 2018 . Springer . 9783319943312 . 146 . 19 November 2018 . en.
    3. Book: Vaughan . Samantha . West Milford . 2001 . Arcadia Publishing . 9780738505039 . 83 . 19 November 2018 . en.
    4. News: McAllister. Ward. 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.. 26 March 2017. The New York Times. 16 February 1892. en.
    5. Book: Patterson . Jerry E. . The First Four Hundred: Mrs. Astor's New York in the Gilded Age . 2000 . Random House Incorporated . 9780847822089 . 225 . 13 June 2018 . en.
    6. Book: Keister. Lisa A.. Getting Rich: America's New Rich and How They Got That Way. 2005. Cambridge University Press. 9780521536677. 36. 20 October 2017. en.
    7. Book: Pennoyer . Peter . Walker . Anne . New York Transformed: The Architecture of Cross & Cross . 2014 . The Monacelli Press, LLC . 9781580933803 . 222 . 12 November 2018 . en.
    8. News: DIED. CROSS . 16 November 2018 . . May 17, 1883.
    9. Book: Selleck . Charles Melbourne . Norwalk . 1896 . Charles Melbourne Selleck . 358 . 12 November 2018 . en.
    10. News: REDMOND . 12 November 2018 . . December 24, 1906.
    11. News: Mrs. Henry S. Hoyt . 12 November 2018 . . November 10, 1905.
    12. News: DIED . 26 June 2018 . . June 7, 1916.
    13. News: DIED. LIVINGSTON--Henry Beekman . 27 June 2018 . . September 10, 1931 . en.
    14. Book: Reynolds. Cuyler. Genealogical and Family History of Southern New York and the Hudson River Valley: A Record of the Achievements of Her People in the Making of a Commonwealth and the Building of a Nation. 1914. Lewis Historical Publishing Company. 1345. 5 June 2017. en.
    15. Book: Superior Court of the City of New York, General Term . 1890 . 12 November 2018 . en.
    16. Book: Decennial Record of the Class of 1896, Yale College . 1907 . Class at the De Vinne Press . 297 . 12 November 2018 . en.
    17. News: MRS. ALLAN MARQUAND . 15 November 2018 . . February 28, 1950 . en.
    18. Web site: Eleanor Cross Marquand Papers (PP) . www.nybg.org . . 15 November 2018.
    19. News: W. REDMOND CROSS; Retired Banker, Ex-Head of New York Zoological Society, Dies . 15 November 2018 . . November 17, 1940 . en.
    20. Book: Decennial Record of the Class of 1896, Yale College . 1907 . Class at the De Vinne Press . 297 . 15 November 2018 . en.
    21. News: MISS MARY R. CROSS . 15 November 2018 . . September 10, 1942 . en.
    22. News: MISS EMILY R. CROSS . 15 November 2018 . . September 22, 1955 . en.
    23. News: Gray . Christopher . A White-Shoe Firm Unbuttons . 15 November 2018 . . February 7, 2014 . en.
    24. News: Mrs. Annie Redmond Cross . 16 November 2018 . . March 25, 1929 . en.
    25. News: Genader . Ann . Cross Castle is gone forever, but the memories remain . 19 November 2018 . North Jersey . August 10, 2018 . en.
    26. News: Died. . 15 November 2018 . . March 31, 1917.
    27. Book: Collected Papers to Commemorate Fifty Years of the Monticello Association of the Descendants of Thomas Jefferson . 1965 . . . 280 . 18 October 2018 . en.
    28. News: Miller . Tom . The Thomas Newbold Mansion -- No. 15 East 79th Street . 18 October 2018 . Daytonian in Manhattan . 15 July 2016.
    29. News: Miss Emily Redmond Cross Is Married To John K. Vaughan-Morgan of London . 18 October 2018 . . March 14, 1940 . en.