THE RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF AMERICAN HEIRESSES IN

TRANSATLANTIC MARRIAGES DURING THE GILDED AGE

Patricia Ploehn

Historical Paper – Senior Division

March 2014

1

The emergence of a self-made American upper-class during the Reconstruction period

after the Civil War introduced social exclusiveness and high competition between the “nouveaux

riches.” The privileges that the daughters of these families acquired allowed them into some of

the highest social circles in America. With new privileges come new responsibilities. If they

were not admitted into “the most hallowed circles” of the elite then these daughters, thinking of

the increased responsibilities towards their families, began to seek out the noble aristocrats in

Europe, especially Englishmen, for husbands. This search led to an increase in transatlantic

marriages between American heiresses wedding men with inherited titles and aristocratic British

saving their households with their wives’ dowries. These transatlantic marriages would help

shape the relationship between America and Britain into the 20th century.

The foundation for a new upper class in America had been laid during the 1820s and

1830s with the success of merchants and bankers under President Andrew Jackson.1 Their

progress was accelerated drastically when the Gilded Age began. Men such as Cornelius

Vanderbilt, John D. Rockefeller, and Andrew Carnegie created financial empires from

practically nothing and made millions of dollars in enterprises such as shipping and

manufacturing. They also had significant influence over stock markets and politics,2 giving them

political and social power in addition to wealth. These men became role models for many others

who wished to become millionaires and power brokers like them.

The title of “upper class” during the Gilded Age became synonymous with those born

into wealthy American families. Sons were taught the importance of their lineage, and how

necessary it was to remember their family lineage. Daughters were reminded that the reputation

1 Maureen Montgomery, Gilded Prostitution: Status, Money, and Transatlantic Marriages, 1870-1914, (London ; New York: Routledge, 1989).

2 Elisabeth Kehoe, The Titled Americans: Three American Sisters and the British Aristocratic World into Which They Married, (New York: Atlantic Monthly, 2004).

2

and traditions of the family would be theirs to maintain one day,3 through marriage and the

upbringing of their own children. Children grew up in lavishly decorated homes, surrounded by

art and architecture that normal citizens could never afford to have. These children grew

comfortable around the massive parties and large dinners that their families hosted. Parents left

their children in nurseries with nannies at a very young age, “to provide [them] with highly

structured, methodical, and well-regulated routines.”4 Education was a very important factor in

the home, especially for daughters; these girls had new opportunities to be educated, but their

knowledge was only used to captivate and interest British aristocratic men with their ability to

talk about a wide variety of subjects. Lessons on etiquette and manners were part of the normal

routine, along with studies in religion, astronomy, history, foreign languages, and the arts. Visits

with their governesses to museums and national galleries were common.5 Mothers were pleased

to learn that their daughters would grow up to be dignified and able to engage in conversation.

Fathers like Leonard Jerome, who was a New York financier, the father of Jennie Jerome (the

future Lady Randolph Churchill), and the grandfather of the British Prime Minister Winston

Churchill, were proud of their daughters’ achievements and skills.6

Most wealthy Americans were able to take their families on vacations and extended stays

outside of the United States, especially in Europe, where they could flaunt their wealth and status

as elites. Many women, heiresses and aristocrats alike, grew in maturity during these family

trips. Lady Constance Primrose, daughter of the Scottish politician Archibald Primrose, Lord

Dalmeny and future wife of Henry Wyndham, 2nd Baron of Leconfield, kept a diary and recorded

3 Pamela Horn, Ladies of the Manor: Wives and Daughters in Country-house Society, 1830-1918, (Gloucestershire: A. Sutton, 1991).

4 Olwen Claire Niessen, Aristocracy, Temperance and Social Reform: The Life of Lady Henry Somerset, (London: Tauris Academic Studies, 2007).

5 Horn, Ladies.6 Kehoe, Titled.

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the beauty and grace of the cultures and luxurious European locations where she visited.7

Sometimes, recording their experiences was required as a part of these heiress’s educations; the

American heiress Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan, who was the daughter of William Vanderbilt (the

second son of Cornelius Vanderbilt) and married Charles Spencer-Churchill, 9th Duke of

Marlborough, said in her autobiography The Glitter and the Gold that as a young girl, “…even

sightseeing on our visits ashore [overseas] became part of our education…we were expected to

write an account of all we had seen.”8 These heiresses began, at very young ages, to “affront their

destinies” by showing off their abilities and family’s wealth.9

Although women during this time had many new rights that they could enjoy, they also

had increased responsibilities to their families and communities. Along with the education they

received, girls were also taught that they would become a sort of “Lady Bountiful,” a benefactor

for the future area in which they lived. Many young women recall traveling with their mothers to

donate clothing and food to charities.10 They applied some of their skills, like sewing and

reading, to help the unfortunate by fixing old clothing or by reading to children. They also visited

the elderly and sick; Consuelo Vanderbilt recalls traveling as a girl with her governess to visit a

workman’s sick daughter and seeing the deplorable conditions the workman’s family lived in.

Balsan was grateful that her governess allowed her to see the “inequalities of human destinies”,

saying, “…it was from her I learned the happiness helping others brings.” She was able to

appreciate the good services done by her mother and governess, and she said that it impacted her

for the rest of her life; after divorcing her first husband, Balsan remarried and became active in

7 Horn, Ladies.

8 Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan, The Glitter and the Gold: The American Duchess - In Her Own Words, (New York: Harper, 1952).

9 Montgomery, Gilded.10 Horn, Ladies.

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public works, which included building a hospital for the Parisian working class.11 These

charitable acts showed the lower classes that the wealthy were not cold and distant, but were

warm, inviting, and ready to help others.

Creating ties with their community was important, but even more so were the

responsibilities these women had towards their families. The families’ daughters were the

“jewels” of their households, the new members of society upon whom everyone was focused.

Whatever they did was documented in newspapers, like the popular middle-class periodical The

Lady’s Pictorial, which depicted the fashions and social events of the rich. They became icons

for the lower classes; the clothing they wore and the places they went were emulated as much as

possible by those less able to afford such luxuries. The daughters thus had important roles in

maintaining the family’s image in high society as well as the general public.

The ultimate responsibility of a young lady of the upper class was to marry and raise

children. Women of high social status, upon their “coming out” between the ages of 16 and 18,

were required to showcase their skills and attributes both within their own social circles, and the

circles they aspired to be in. British socialite Frances Maynard, who became the Countess of

Warwick, remembers being, “‘fêted, feasted, courted, and adored’” during her coming out

period.12 Being eloquent and charming as a débutante would attract a suitable match and allow

the girls to become engaged as soon as possible. Hosting the right kind of parties and wearing the

perfect style of clothing was a must; jewelry was large and obvious, like Lady Arthur Paget’s

lavishly decorated dress for the Devonshire House Ball in 1897. Her clothing is embroidered

with many precious jewels, which makes a statement about her wealth.13 Many times the parties

11 Balsan, The Glitter.

12 Horn, Ladies.13 Photograph, Mrs. Arthur Paget at the Devonshire House Ball. 1897. 15 inches x 12 inches. The Victoria and Albert Museum. From:

The Lafayette Negative Archive, http://lafayette.org.uk/pag1400a.html (accessed on November 11, 2013).

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would incorporate themes, like the one Lady Randolph Churchill (the mother of Winston

Churchill) attended later in her married life, where she dressed as the Byzantine Empress

Theodora. Her crown and royal dress accentuate the riches these women were able to afford.14

Women had to try their best to woo a man of the highest possible social standing. If a lady was

not successful in her first season, then she would have to compete with new sets of women

during the successive seasons. With each passing season, the chance for them to find ideal

husbands significantly decreased.

After entering society through the “coming out” process, it was a young lady’s duty

towards her family to marry well and produce an heir. Marriage was the climax of a wealthy

girl’s life, and she competed with other women in her social circle for the richest, most

fashionable and well-to-do men of the time. In America, if a wealthy family was not on Mrs.

Astor’s esteemed “Four Hundred” list (a list of the most prestigious and well-known families in

the United States at the time), then their children had little hope of marrying into any upper class

families besides those in their immediate social circles.15 This situation is what prompted Mrs.

Clara Jerome, wife of Leonard Jerome and mother of the future Lady Randolph Churchill, to

move her family from New York to Paris, where they could “mingle with royalty” and have her

daughters presented in the royal courts.16 However, because of turmoil in France, they were later

forced to move to England, where her daughter Jennie Jerome met Lord Randolph Churchill.

They were completely taken with each other, and married soon after meeting one another.17

14 Photograph, Lady Randolph Churchill at the Devonshire House Ball. 1897. 15 inches x 12 inches. The Victoria and Albert Museum. From: The Lafayette Negative Archive, http://lafayette.org.uk/chu1467e.html (accessed on November 11, 2013).

15 Pat Ryan, "For Edith Wharton’s Birthday, Hail Ultimate Social Climbers." New York Times. Last modified January 19, 2012. Accessed October 22, 2013. <http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/20/books/heiresses-of-whartons-era-in-fashion-on-her-150th-birthday.html?_r=1&>.

16 Kehoe, Titled.17 Charles Higham, Dark Lady: Winston Churchill's Mother and Her World, (New York: Carroll & Graf, 2007).

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Other heiresses were not as lucky as Jerome. Many were not ready to marry, because they

were still in their late teenage years and had yet to gain any life experience. They were constantly

reminded that “‘romantic attachment is confined to novels and novel-readers.’”18 These women

were young adults who had ambitions and personal hopes, but were eventually forced into early

marriages by family members, especially mothers.

Many heiresses in America were seen as solutions to the problems that young British

aristocratic men faced in England. These men had their own responsibility to continue the family

line, but when a “decline in land values and in agricultural rents” bankrupted many landed

estates, a large number of British men found their debts were increasing into the millions of

pounds sterling.19 These young men needed wives that could provide, through their own

independent finances and personal incomes,20 a sizeable dowry to save their land.21 The annual

income that a husband received from his wife could be as much as £40,000 per year or more,

which would certainly be enough to guarantee the survival of most inherited estates.22 American

heiresses brought over with them an estimated £1 billion in today’s monetary values.23 In return,

the American families would be presented with an aristocratic title of some sort, as well as a

higher social position in Europe compared to those in the top echelons of American society.

The change from an American society to an English one was a bit shocking for some

heiresses. Their families in America benefitted from the press they received when their

18 Horn, Ladies.19 David Cannadine, Aspects of Aristocracy: Grandeur and Decline in Modern Britain, (New Haven: Yale UP, 1994).

20 F.M.L. Thompson, The Rise of Respectable Society: A Social History of Victorian Britain, 1830-1900, (Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1988).

21 David Spring, ed., European Landed Elites in the Nineteenth Century, (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1977).

22 Adeline Hartcup, Love and Marriage in the Great Country Houses, (London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1984).

23 Adrian Lee. "The Woman Who Saved Downton: How America’s Dollar Princesses Married into the Crumbling British Aristocracy." Mail Online. Last modified October 1, 2012. Accessed October 22, 2013. <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2211179/Downton-Abbey-prequel-How-Americas-Dollar-Princesses-married-crumbling-British-aristocracy.html>.

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daughter’s marriage was announced in fashion and wealth articles, and their social statuses rose

as a result. The married women, however, felt isolated and lonely without the constancy of their

family around them; many wished that they had gained more experience managing a household

before marriage.24 There were multiple trips to their husband’s family houses, and everywhere

they were greeted with music announcing their arrival, large crowds (sometimes even full

villages), and gifts from each community member. 25 This eased the transition into becoming a

mother and mistress of the household, because they knew that there were people surrounding

them who supported them and wished them well. Realizing their influence over the countryside,

some heiresses became politically active. When their husbands campaigned for positions in the

House of Commons or other leadership roles, their wives campaigned right along with them,

canvassing and speaking on their behalf. Often, they organized parties and gatherings to

encourage attendees to vote for their husbands.26 Although these women did not yet have any

real political rights, they certainly used their influence as icons and figures of the upper class.27

Some of these aristocratic men would not have achieved any political success had it not been for

the influence of their American wives in British society.

American heiresses were often met with mixed thoughts from the urban British within

established social circles. The British watched as America tore itself apart during the Civil War;

many British aristocrats chose sides and fought over whether the South had a constitution-based

right to secede, or if the North and its abolitionists were more worthy of their support.28

However, by the time the Civil War ended and new millionaires began emerging in the United

States, American women became “rivals” to British upper class women. American girls were

24 Horn, Ladies.25 Hartcup, Love and Marriage.26 Horn, Ladies.27 Hartcup, Love and Marriage.28 K.D. Reynolds, Aristocratic Women and Political Society in Victorian Britain, (Oxford: Clarendon, 1998).

8

oftentimes viewed as “invaders” who “were greedily snatching the most eligible young men.”29

The English royal society closed themselves off from these Americans, because they were not

originally of royal decent and were ostentatiously flaunting their money to attract a husband.30

Not all of England felt this way, though. After the end of the Civil War many British

men, like David Ogilvy, 11th Earl of Airlie, saw opportunities in the American West. Ogilvy

became interested in America while touring the Great Lakes iron-ore region with a group of

American financiers; he later became involved in American ranching and invested in land in the

frontier.31 British middle class women were becoming increasingly interested in the American

suffragette movement and traveled over the Atlantic to go to meetings, march in parades, and

bring back information that they could use to start their own operations.32 There were quite a few

members of high society that had no qualms about their sons marrying the daughters of business

and manufacturing moguls. The Baroness of Alderly, who married the British politician Edward

Stanley, 2nd Baron Stanley of Alderly, allowed her son to marry the daughter of a steel tycoon.

Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, a British statesman who served as Foreign

Secretary and Prime minister, commented that, “‘before the century is out these clever and pretty

women from New York will pull the strings in half the chancelleries in Europe.’”33 Overall,

England was becoming increasingly aware of the impact that Americans had on them, as they

saw changes occur in the cultures and elite societies in the United States.34

29 Horn, Ladies.30 Hartcup, Love and Marriage.31 Mabell Frances Elizabeth Ogilvy, Thatched with Gold: The Memoirs of Mabell, Countries of Airlie, Comp. Jennifer Ellis, 5th ed.

(London: Hutchinson, 1962).

32 Olwen Claire Niessen, Aristocracy, Temperance and Social Reform: The Life of Lady Henry Somerset, (London: Tauris Academic Studies, 2007).

33 Hartcup, Love and Marriage.34 F.M.L. Thompson, The Rise.

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The American viewpoint was quite different than that of the British. Newspapers printed

articles about the popular marriages between heiresses and British elites, keeping track of who

married whom. The media criticized British aristocrats who hastily married heiresses for money

because of their financial situation, publishing “list[s] of available dukes” and ironically asking

women how much they would “bid” for a British man.35 Between 1815 and 1860, more than 22

million immigrants from the United Kingdom moved to America for better work opportunities.36

Ironically, migration reversed from poor immigrants coming to America to wealthy women

ready to leave America, share their inheritance, and produce heirs with British men they

sometimes barely knew. Americans wanted the luxurious and leisurely lifestyles that the English

high societies long enjoyed,37 and they were willing to send their daughters overseas to achieve

that objective.

The introduction of the transatlantic marriages between American heiresses and British

aristocratic men was important in shaping the relationship between America and England. The

privileges that these women were able to enjoy, plus their responsibilities towards their families

and communities, propelled them onto the European stage. British aristocratic men became

dependent on the money and influence their wives had. The effect that American heiresses had

on British society would last far beyond the Gilded Age. The two countries were now world

powers who shared social, economic, and political ties. No longer was England a haughty villain;

Americans constantly traveled to England to enjoy their sophisticated society. Similarly, the

British admired the way the United States was forming into a peaceful – yet powerful – example

35 Hartcup, Love and Marriage.36 Colin Matthew, ed., The Nineteenth Century: The British Isles 1815-1901, vol. 9 of the The Short Oxford History of the British Isles

series (Oxford: Oxford Univ., 2000).

37 Keith Middlemas, Pursuit of Pleasure: High Society in the 1900s, (London: Gordon & Cremonesi, 1977).

10

of democracy and determination.38 The fact that each country recognized the other’s authority

was important in shaping a relationship that each would be thankful for in the years leading to

World War I and beyond.

38 Charles S. Campbell, "Anglo-American Amity," in The Transformation of American Foreign Relations, 1865-1900, (New York: Harper & Row, 1976), 332-33.

11

Appendix A

12

This is an image of Mrs. Arthur Paget, later Lady Paget, posing for the Devonshire House Ball in Piccadilly, London, United Kingdom in 1897. Mrs. Paget is dressed as the Egyptian ruler Cleopatra. Her costume is made of black crêpe de chine, and is adorned with gold and jewels such as diamonds, emeralds, pearls, sapphires, amber, and rubies. The bodice is embroidered with gold scarabs.Appendix B

13

This is an image of Lady Randolph Churchill, previously known as the American heiress Jennie Jerome. Here she is pictured at The Lafayette Studio in London, United Kingdom, posing for the Devonshire House Ball in 1897. She is dressed as the Byzantine Empress Theodora, and wears a dress made of Eastern fabric with cream, green, gold and mauve coloring, is adorned with a crown, and holds a scepter and orb.

Annotated Bibliography

PRIMARY:

Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan, The Glitter and the Gold: The American Duchess - In Her Own

Words, (New York: Harper, 1952).

This book depicts the life of Consuelo Vanderbilt, one of the most prominent American

heiresses during the late 19th century. She talks through her childhood and the constant

demands of her mother, who wants to marry Consuelo off to someone she does not love.

She eventually marries the 9th Duke of Marlborough, thought it is an unhappy marriage

at the end. Consuelo describes every detail of life in Blenheim Palace and the household

and family that she is supposed to run, but has no idea how to do.

Mabell Frances Elizabeth Ogilvy, Thatched with Gold: The Memoirs of Mabell, Countries of

Airlie, Comp. Jennifer Ellis, 5th ed. (London: Hutchinson, 1962).

Personal memoirs of the Countess of Airlie depicting life in a manor home.

14

Photograph, Mrs. Arthur Paget at the Devonshire House Ball. 1897. 15 inches x 12 inches. The

Victoria and Albert Museum. From: The Lafayette Negative Archive,

http://lafayette.org.uk/pag1400a.html (accessed on November 11, 2013).

This picture depicts Mrs. Arthur Paget, aka Minnie Stevens, at a house ball given in the

late 1890s. Mrs. Paget was an American-born woman, who married Sir Arthur Paget and

moved to the UK.

Photograph, Lady Randolph Churchill at the Devonshire House Ball. 1897. 15 inches x 12

inches. The Victoria and Albert Museum. From: The Lafayette Negative Archive,

http://lafayette.org.uk/chu1467e.html (accessed on November 11, 2013).

Lady Randolph Churchill was also an American heiress who married an aristocrat. These

pictures accurately depict the integration of Americans into British society.

SECONDARY:

Adeline Hartcup, Love and Marriage in the Great Country Houses, (London: Sidgwick &

Jackson, 1984).

This book focuses on the increased stress and duty that women in “great country houses”

had in finding a suitable husband and producing and heir.

Adrian Lee. "The Woman Who Saved Downton: How America’s Dollar Princesses Married into

the Crumbling British Aristocracy." Mail Online. Last modified October 1, 2012.

Accessed October 22, 2013.

<http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2211179/Downton-Abbey-prequel-How-

Americas-Dollar-Princesses-married-crumbling-British-aristocracy.html>.

15

This news article by Adrian Lee provides readers with basic information about why so

many American heiresses moved to Europe to marry manor lords, with ties to Downton

Abbey.

Charles Higham, Dark Lady: Winston Churchill's Mother and Her World, (New York: Carroll &

Graf, 2007).

Lady Randolph Churchill was born Jeanette Jerome, daughter to an American financier.

She married Lord Randolph Churchill and was the mother to the later Prime Minister

Winston Churchill. This book is about her life as a young woman, her marriage, and her

life in the British aristocratic society.

Charles S. Campbell, "Anglo-American Amity," in The Transformation of American Foreign

Relations, 1865-1900, (New York: Harper & Row, 1976), 332-33.

This section speaks about the improved relations between England and America during

the Gilded Age, when so many Americans were travelling and living in Europe,

especially in England.

Colin Matthew, ed., The Nineteenth Century: The British Isles 1815-1901, vol. 9 of the The Short

Oxford History of the British Isles series (Oxford: Oxford Univ., 2000).

Part of a series about the British Isles, this volume talks about the 19th century, including

the new ideas on religion, society, and suffrage.

David Cannadine, Aspects of Aristocracy: Grandeur and Decline in Modern Britain, (New

Haven: Yale UP, 1994).

16

This book takes readers through the Victorian age, commenting on the problems people

faced during the time, the elite upper class, and certain individuals important to this time

period.

David Spring, ed., European Landed Elites in the Nineteenth Century, (Baltimore: Johns

Hopkins UP, 1977).

This informational book talks about what trials the “landed elites” had to go through,

including marriage and keeping up a family.

Elisabeth Kehoe, The Titled Americans: Three American Sisters and the British Aristocratic

World into Which They Married, (New York: Atlantic Monthly, 2004).

The story of the Jerome sisters and their entrance into the aristocratic society of England.

F.M.L. Thompson, The Rise of Respectable Society: A Social History of Victorian Britain, 1830-

1900, (Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1988).

This focuses on the lives of the middle - upper class, and includes information about

marriage, family life, and social customs.

K.D. Reynolds, Aristocratic Women and Political Society in Victorian Britain, (Oxford:

Clarendon, 1998).

Women were not allowed to be a part of political life, but this is especially apparent

during the Victorian period, when they were mainly supposed to run good households

and give birth to heirs. This book is about the changes that came about because of new

suffrage.

17

Keith Middlemas, Pursuit of Pleasure: High Society in the 1900s, (London: Gordon &

Cremonesi, 1977).

Book about the pastimes and obligations that those in elite society enjoyed/faced.

Maureen Montgomery, Gilded Prostitution: Status, Money, and Transatlantic Marriages, 1870-

1914, (London ; New York: Routledge, 1989).

This is one of the more important and influential books that I checked out. It talks about

the changes that came about in the USA after the Civil War, what led to the formation of

the new upper social class made up of “self-made” men, the pressures for women in these

new elite positions in America to marry aristocrats in England, and the relationship

between America and Britain because of the influx in Americans living in the UK.

Olwen Claire Niessen, Aristocracy, Temperance and Social Reform: The Life of Lady Henry

Somerset, (London: Tauris Academic Studies, 2007).

A biography about Lady Henry Somerset, a British aristocratic woman who was a major

supporter and campaigner for women’s rights during the 1870s - 1920s; this support she

gave went against practically everything women were taught back then.

Pamela Horn, Ladies of the Manor: Wives and Daughters in Country-house Society, 1830-1918,

(Gloucestershire: A. Sutton, 1991).

The lives of young women and the influence that their mothers and other family members

had on them between 1830 and 1918, before WWI.

Pat Ryan, "For Edith Wharton’s Birthday, Hail Ultimate Social Climbers." New York Times. Last

modified January 19, 2012. Accessed October 22, 2013.

18

<http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/20/books/heiresses-of-whartons-era-in-fashion-on-

her-150th-birthday.html?_r=1&>.

Edith Wharton was born in New York, during the time period between the 19th and 20th

century. She wrote multiple novels about the society she grew up in, the upper class New

Yorkers. The article describes how these upper class citizens achieved the amount of

money that made them able to marry lords: the increase in production and new industrial

opportunities presented to them.

19