Richard James Cross

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.[1]

Richard James Cross
Born(1845-11-03)November 3, 1845
Liverpool, England
DiedMarch 30, 1917(1917-03-30) (aged 78)
Miami, Florida, U.S.
EducationMarlborough College
Spouse(s)
Matilda Redmond
​
​
(m. 1872; died 1883)​

​
​
(m. 1885; his death 1917)​
Children6, including Eleanor, John, Eliot
Parent(s)William Cross
Anna Chalmers Wood Cross
RelativesGeorge Eliot (sister-in-law)

Early life

Cross was born in Liverpool, England on November 3, 1845.[2] He was the son of William Cross (1809–1862), an English financier with J & A Dennistoun,[3] and Anna Chalmers (née Wood) Cross (1812–1878), his Scottish born wife.[4] 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.[5]

He was educated at Marlborough College in Marlborough, Wiltshire, England.[2]

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.[6] His uncle, William Wood, worked in New York at Dennistoun, Wood & Co.[3]

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.[2] 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.[2]

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.[7][8] Conveniently, 400 was the number of people that could fit into Mrs. Astor's ballroom.[9] 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.[4]

Personal life

On June 3, 1872, Cross was married to the American Matilda Redmond (1838–1883).[10] She was the daughter of wealthy merchant William Redmond and Sabina Elizabeth (née Hoyt) Redmond.[11] Among her many siblings was Goold H. Redmond,[1] Sabina Redmond Wood, Henry Redmond,[12] Mary Redmond, Emily Redmond, Frances Redmond[13] (the wife of Henry Beekman Livingston).[14][15] 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.[16] 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),[10] namely:[17]

Tragically, 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,[4] Annie Redmond (1852–1929),[5]

The Cross also maintained a massive stone Tudor summer home in Newfoundland in northern New Jersey,[4] known as "Cross Castle",[6][lower-alpha 2] and built in 1907.[30] 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."[30]

Cross died in Miami, Florida on March 30, 1917.[31]

Descendants

Through his eldest son, he was the grandfather of Emily Redmond Cross (c. 1914–2006),[32] 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,[33] in March 1940.[34]

References
Notes
  1. Julia Appleton Newbold (1891–1972)[22] was a direct descendant of Thomas Jefferson through her mother, Sarah Lawrence Coolidge (1858–1922),[23] who was the daughter of T. Jefferson Coolidge, a Boston Brahmin businessman who served as the U.S. Minister to France under President Harrison,[24] and Mehitable Sullivan "Hetty" (née Appleton) Coolidge.[25][26]
  2. Cross himself referred to the residence as "Beaufort House."[30]
Sources
  1. "REDMOND" (PDF). The New York Times. December 24, 1906. Retrieved 12 November 2018.
  2. Leonard, John William; Mohr, William Frederick; Holmes, Frank R.; Knox, Herman Warren; Downs, Herman Warren (1907). Who's Who in New York City and State. L.R. Hamersly Company. p. 358. Retrieved 15 November 2018.
  3. Henry, Nancy (2018). Women, Literature and Finance in Victorian Britain. Springer. p. 146. ISBN 9783319943312. Retrieved 19 November 2018.
  4. Pennoyer, Peter; Walker, Anne (2014). New York Transformed: The Architecture of Cross & Cross. The Monacelli Press, LLC. p. 222. ISBN 9781580933803. Retrieved 12 November 2018.
  5. "Mrs. Annie Redmond Cross" (PDF). The New York Times. March 25, 1929. Retrieved 16 November 2018.
  6. Vaughan, Samantha (2001). West Milford. Arcadia Publishing. p. 83. ISBN 9780738505039. Retrieved 19 November 2018.
  7. 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.
  8. Patterson, Jerry E. (2000). The First Four Hundred: Mrs. Astor's New York in the Gilded Age. Random House Incorporated. p. 225. ISBN 9780847822089. Retrieved 13 June 2018.
  9. 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.
  10. "DIED. CROSS" (PDF). The New York Times. May 17, 1883. Retrieved 16 November 2018.
  11. Selleck, Charles Melbourne (1896). Norwalk. Charles Melbourne Selleck. p. 358. Retrieved 12 November 2018.
  12. "Mrs. Henry S. Hoyt" (PDF). The New York Times. November 10, 1905. Retrieved 12 November 2018.
  13. "DIED" (PDF). The New York Times. June 7, 1916. Retrieved 26 June 2018.
  14. "DIED. LIVINGSTON--Henry Beekman" (PDF). The New York Times. September 10, 1931. Retrieved 27 June 2018.
  15. Reynolds, Cuyler (1914). 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. Lewis Historical Publishing Company. p. 1345. Retrieved 5 June 2017.
  16. Superior Court of the City of New York, General Term. 1890. Retrieved 12 November 2018.
  17. Decennial Record of the Class of 1896, Yale College. Class at the De Vinne Press. 1907. p. 297. Retrieved 12 November 2018.
  18. "MRS. ALLAN MARQUAND" (PDF). The New York Times. February 28, 1950. Retrieved 15 November 2018.
  19. "Eleanor Cross Marquand Papers (PP)". www.nybg.org. The New York Botanical Garden. Retrieved 15 November 2018.
  20. "W. REDMOND CROSS; Retired Banker, Ex-Head of New York Zoological Society, Dies" (PDF). The New York Times. November 17, 1940. Retrieved 15 November 2018.
  21. Decennial Record of the Class of 1896, Yale College. Class at the De Vinne Press. 1907. p. 297. Retrieved 15 November 2018.
  22. "Mrs. W. Redmond Cross, Led Horticultural Society" (PDF). The New York Times. May 12, 1972. Retrieved 18 October 2018.
  23. "NEWBOLD" (PDF). The New York Times. December 30, 1922. Retrieved 18 October 2018.
  24. "THOMAS J. COOLIDGE DEAD | Minister to France in 1892-3 Dies in His Boston Home at 89". The New York Times. 18 November 1920. Retrieved 23 August 2017.
  25. America's Textile Reporter For the Combined Textile Industries. America's Textile Reporter. 1920. p. 4067. Retrieved 23 August 2017.
  26. Coolidge, Thomas Jefferson (1923). "The autobiography of T. Jefferson Coolidge, 1831-1920". Houghton Mifflin company. Retrieved 23 August 2017.
  27. "MISS MARY R. CROSS" (PDF). The New York Times. September 10, 1942. Retrieved 15 November 2018.
  28. Gray, Christopher (February 7, 2014). "A White-Shoe Firm Unbuttons". The New York Times. Retrieved 15 November 2018.
  29. "MISS EMILY R. CROSS" (PDF). The New York Times. September 22, 1955. Retrieved 15 November 2018.
  30. Genader, Ann (August 10, 2018). "Cross Castle is gone forever, but the memories remain". North Jersey. Retrieved 19 November 2018.
  31. "Died" (PDF). The New York Times. March 31, 1917. Retrieved 15 November 2018.
  32. Collected Papers to Commemorate Fifty Years of the Monticello Association of the Descendants of Thomas Jefferson. Charlottesville, VA: Monticello Association. 1965. p. 280. Retrieved 18 October 2018.
  33. Miller, Tom (15 July 2016). "The Thomas Newbold Mansion -- No. 15 East 79th Street". Daytonian in Manhattan. Retrieved 18 October 2018.
  34. "Miss Emily Redmond Cross Is Married To John K. Vaughan-Morgan of London" (PDF). The New York Times. March 14, 1940. Retrieved 18 October 2018.
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