Elizabeth Winthrop Chanler Explained

Elizabeth Winthrop Chanler
Birth Name:	Elizabeth Astor Winthrop Chanler
Birth Date:	February 23, 1866
Death Place:	Barrytown, New York, U.S.
Children:	Chanler Armstrong Chapman
Relations:	See Astor family
Parents:	John Winthrop Chanler Margaret Astor Ward

Elizabeth Astor Winthrop Chanler, Mrs. John Jay Chapman (February 23, 1866 – June 5, 1937), was an American heiress and socialite during the Gilded Age.

Early life and family

Elizabeth Astor Winthrop Chanler was the eldest surviving daughter born to U.S. Representative John Winthrop Chanler (1826–1877) and Margaret Astor (née Ward) Chanler (1838–1875) of the wealthy Astor family. Through her father, she was a descendant of Peter Stuyvesant, the last Dutch Director-General of New Amsterdam, Wait Winthrop and Joseph Dudley. Through her mother, she was a grand-niece of Julia Ward Howe, John Jacob Astor III, and William Backhouse Astor, Jr. (husband of Caroline Schermerhorn Astor, who was Elizabeth's godmother). Chanler and her siblings became orphans after the death of their mother in December 1875 and their father in October 1877, both to pneumonia. The children were raised at Rokeby, their parents' 43 room estate in Barrytown.^[1]

Elizabeth, a "beautiful and tough-minded woman who even in the nursery was known as 'Queen Bess' by her siblings,"^[2] had nine brothers and sisters, including John Armstrong Chanler (who married novelist Amélie Louise Rives);^[3] politicians William Astor Chanler,^[4] Lewis Stuyvesant Chanler, and the artist Robert Winthrop Chanler. Her sister, Margaret Livingston Chanler,^[5] served as a nurse with the American Red Cross during the Spanish–American War (and wife of Richard Aldrich), Winthrop Astor Chanler, served in the Rough Riders in Cuba^[6] and was wounded at the Battle of Tayacoba.^[7]

Society life

At her father's death in 1871, his estate was valued between $1,500,000 (equivalent to $) and $2,000,000 (equivalent to $ in dollars).^[8] John Winthrop Chanler's will provided $20,000 a year for each child for life, enough to live comfortably by the standards of the time.^[9]

In 1892, Elizabeth, her sisters, Margaret and Alida,^[10] and her brother Winthrop and his wife Margaret, were all included in Ward McAllister's "Four Hundred", purported to be an index of New York's best families, published in The New York Times.^[11] Conveniently, 400 was the number of people that could fit into Mrs. Astor's ballroom.^[12] Elizabeth was a member of the Cosmopolitan Club of New York.

In 1893, while she was in London for a brother's wedding, John Singer Sargent, the most famous and sought after portrait artist of the day, painted a portrait of the then twenty-six year old Elizabeth. According to Sargent, she had "the face of the Madonna and the eyes of a child." Her son donated the portrait to the Smithsonian American Art Museum in 1980.^{[13] [14]}

Personal life

On April 23, 1899, Chanler married author John Jay Chapman (1862–1933), the son of Henry Grafton Chapman, a president of the New York Stock Exchange, and Eleanor Kingsland (née Jay) Chapman, a great-granddaughter of John Jay, the first Supreme Court Chief Justice. Chapman was previously married to Minna Timmins, who died in 1897. Elizabeth and her husband had one child together:

• Chanler Armstrong Chapman (1901–1982),^[15] who married Olivia James, a niece of Henry James. They divorced and he married the former Helen Riesenfeld, a writer, in 1948.^[16] After her death in 1970, he married Dr. Ida R. Holzbert Wagman in 1972.^[17]

Her husband died at her home, "Good Hap", on November 4, 1933, near Barrytown, New York.^{[18] [19]} After his death, Elizabeth spent several years working on a volume of his collected letters, which she completed just before her own death.

Elizabeth died on June 5, 1937, and was buried at Saint Matthew's Episcopal Churchyard in Bedford, New York.^[20]

Residences

In 1902, Elizabeth bought the former Livingston mansion, known as Edgewater, and located next to her childhood home, Rokeby, in Barrytown, New York, for $20,000 from the estate of the second owner, Robert Donaldson Jr.^[21] In 1905, she and her husband moved into a new house, known as Sylvania,^{[22] [23]} that was designed by architect Charles A. Platt, and built on the hill above Edgewater. Thereafter, her mother-in-law lived at Edgewater from 1910 until at least 1914.^{[24] [25]} In 1917, Elizabeth sold Edgewater to her stepson, Conrad Chapman, for $1.00. Conrad lived abroad most of his life and eventually sold the house in 1947.^[26] The house was later owned by writer Gore Vidal and financier Richard Jenrette.^{[27] [28]} Shortly before her husband's death, they moved into a cottage built on the grounds of Sylvania they named "Good Hap" and turned Sylvania over to her son, Chanler Chapman.^{[29] [30]}

References

Notes

Sources

External links

• Video "Director's Choice – Elizabeth Winthrop Chanler by John Singer Sargent"

Notes and References

1. News: Green . Penelope . Who Lives There: The House Inherited Them (In an Old Mansion, Creativity and History Meet) . December 18, 2021 . . July 21, 2010 . https://archive.today/20140808203719/http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/22/garden/22hudson.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 . 2014-08-08.
2. Book: Middleton . Daniel . The Chanler Chapman Show . About Town . Duchess County, New York.
3. Book: Lucey . Donna M. . Archie and Amélie: Love and Madness in the Gilded Age . 2007 . . 9780307351456 . 18 February 2019 . en.
4. News: Wm. Astor Chanler Is Dead In France. African Explorer and Soldier a Member of Celebrated American Family. Once Served In Congress. Great-Grandson of Original John Jacob Astor. Brother of Late Robert W. Chanler . . March 5, 1934 . 2013-12-10 .
5. Web site: Margaret Livingston Chanler. . digitalgallery.nypl.org . . February 18, 2019 . en.
6. Book: Rice . Wallace . Heroic Deeds in Our War with Spain: An Episodic History of the Fighting of 1898 on Sea and Shore . 1898 . G. M. Hill . February 18, 2019 . en.
7. News: FIGHTING FILIBUSTERS; Expedition to Cuba Has Several Brushes with Spaniards. GEN. NUNEZ'S BROTHER KILLED Winthrop Chanler of New York and Five Cubans Wounded. Guns of the Peoria Do Great Execution Among the Enemy – Two Shiploads of Supplies for the Insurgents Landed. . February 18, 2019 . . July 15, 1898.
8. News: JOHN WINTHROP CHANLER'S WILL.. February 7, 2017. The New York Times. December 21, 1877. en.
9. Thomas, Lately. The Astor Orphans: A Pride of Lions, W. Morrow, 1971;
10. Book: Jacob . Kathryn Allamong . King of the Lobby: The Life and Times of Sam Ward, Man-About-Washington in the Gilded Age . 2010 . . 9780801893971 . 158 . 18 February 2019 . en.
11. 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.. March 26, 2017. The New York Times. February 16, 1892. en.
12. Book: Keister. Lisa A.. Getting Rich: America's New Rich and How They Got That Way. 2005. Cambridge University Press. 9780521536677. 36. October 20, 2017. en.
13. Web site: Elizabeth Winthrop Chanler (Mrs. John Jay Chapman) . americanart.si.edu . . February 18, 2019.
14. Book: Wouters . Gina . Gollin . Andrea . Robert Winthrop Chanler: Discovering the Fantastic . 2016 . The Monacelli Press, LLC . 9781580934572 . 236 . February 18, 2019 . en.
15. News: Chanler Chapman dead at 80 . February 12, 2019 . . March 24, 1982 . en.
16. News: HELEN RIESENFELD MARRIED AT HOME; Vassar Graduate, a Writer, Becomes Bride of Chanler A. Chapman, Also an Author. October 12, 2017. The New York Times. August 10, 1948.
17. News: Times. Special To the New York. Chanler A Chapman and Dr. Ida Wagman Are Wed. October 12, 2017. The New York Times. March 5, 1972.
18. News: JOHN J. CHAPMAN, AUTHOR, POET, DIES; New Yorker Succumbs to Long Illness at Age of 71 in Poughkeepsie Hospital. ABANDONED LAW TO WRITE Was Central Figure in Several Controversies Funeral in This City Next Wednesday.. October 12, 2017. The New York Times. November 5, 1933.
19. News: HUNDREDS ATTEND CHAPMAN FUNERAL; Bishop Manning Officiates at Service in Christ Church for Lawyer and Author.. October 12, 2017. The New York Times. November 9, 1933.
20. News: MRS. JOHN JAY CHAPMAN; Widow of Essayist and Poet Dies at Her Home in Barrytown. October 12, 2017. The New York Times. June 6, 1937.
21. Deed recorded September 17, 1902, Robert Bronson, executor, to Elizabeth Chapman, for $20,000.
22. For the date of completion of the house, see: Book: M. A. DeWolfe . Howe . John Jay Chapman and his letters . 1937 . Houghton Mifflin Company . Boston . 162 . June 13, 2022.
23. Book: Rand . Christopher T. . Silver Diaspora . 2014 . 9781491739945 . 28 . February 18, 2019 . en.
24. Social Register Association, New York 1911 Social Register, November 1910, page 105.
25. Social Register Association, New York 1915 Social Register, 1914, page 115.
26. Conrad Chapman's address in his 1921 NY Social Register entry was Oxford, England, and in the 1931 edition, Paris.
27. Book: Jenrette . Richard Hampton . More Adventures with Old Houses: The Edgewater Experience . 2010 . Classical American Homes Preservation Trust . 9780982573709 . February 18, 2019 . en.
28. News: Foreman . John . Big Old Houses: A Consummation of Earthly Bliss . February 18, 2019 . . June 16, 2015 . en.
29. Book: Lucey . Donna M. . Sargent's Women: Four Lives Behind the Canvas . 2017 . . 9780393634785 . 178–179 . February 18, 2019 . en.
30. News: Matthews . Kathryn . The 'Great Love' of a Collector of Old Mansions . February 18, 2019 . . July 6, 2007.