Wikipedia

Duncan Elliot

Duncan Elliot (October 1, 1862 – November 2, 1919)[1] was an American banker and soldier who was prominent in New York society during the Gilded Age.

Duncan Elliot
Born(1862-10-01)October 1, 1862
New York City, New York, U.S.
DiedNovember 2, 1919(1919-11-02) (aged 57)
Annapolis, Maryland, U.S.
Alma materColumbia University
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1891; div. 1901)​
Children3
Parent(s)George Thompson Elliot Jr.
Sally Duncan Elliot
RelativesDaniel Giraud Elliot (uncle)

Early life

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Elliot was born in New York City on October 1, 1862. He was the son of Dr. George Thompson Elliot Jr. (1827–1871)[2] and Sally (née Duncan) Elliot (1834–1888).[3] His father was a prominent physician at Bellevue Hospital in New York.[4][5] After his father's death in 1871, he mother remarried to Jacob Post Giraud Foster (1827–1886).[6] His brother was Richard Elliot.[1]

His maternal grandparents were William T. Duncan and Rebecca (née Lincoln) Duncan. His paternal grandparents were George Thompson Elliot Sr. and Rebecca Giraud (née Foster) Elliot. His uncle was zoologist Daniel Giraud Elliot. Through his Elliot grandfather, he was descended from Richard Treat, an early colonist from Wethersfield, Connecticut, and through his Foster grandmother, he was descended from the Girauds who emigrated from France with the Huguenots.[7]

Career

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After graduating from Columbia University in 1884,[8] Elliot began his career with a banking house in New York. During the Spanish American War, he served as a cavalry officer. He later volunteered for service with the 26th Volunteer Infantry as Adjutant in the Philippines in 1899 during the Philippine–American War,[1] with the assistance of then governor Theodore Roosevelt and U.S. Representative William Astor Chanler.[9]

In 1917, he was assigned commandant of cadets at St. John's College in Annapolis by the War Department and, the following year, was promoted to colonel.[1]

Society life

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In 1892, Elliot and his wife Sallie 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.[10][8] Conveniently, 400 was the number of people that could fit into Mrs. Astor's ballroom.[11][12]

During their marriage, his wife occupied Dellmain Cottage on Narragansett Avenue in Newport, Rhode Island, before purchasing the William Starr-Miller place on Bellevue Avenue. The Miller home, a French Norman-style "cottage", was commissioned by William Starr Miller II and designed by Miller's brother-in-law, Whitney Warren (a partner in Warren and Wetmore) and named High Tide, with interiors by noted designer Ogden Codman.[13]

Personal life

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On September 15, 1891, Elliot was married to heiress Sallie Jeannette Hargous at All Saints' Memorial Church in Newport.[14] Sallie, who was described as "the handsomest, richest, brightest, gayest, most admired young women in the upper-most circles of society",[9] was the sister of Robert L. Hargous (who lived in Venice, Italy),[15] Nina Hargous Appleton,[16] and Anita Hargous de Forest,[17][14] was considered "one of the most popular members of the younger set," and had inherited a fortune when she became of age.[18][19][20] Sallie and Duncan, "the tall blonde athlete" were introduced by her brother at an "Apple Blossom Ball" in 1890.[21] Together, they were the parents of three children, all boys:

  • Duncan Elliot Jr. (b. 1893), who became a naturalized British subject and married the English born Miriam Stammers.[22]
  • Robert Hargous Elliot (b. 1896), who also became a naturalized British subject and married Iris Medora Stammers, the sister of his brother's wife, in 1917.[22]
  • Giraud Elliot, who left Harrow to enlist and fight in World War I. He received the Military Cross for gallantry under fire in 1917.[23] He later married the American, Elizabeth Sands.[21][24]

In 1901, after several years of rumors,[25] and much speculation in the media regarding his drunkenness and philandering,[9][26] his wife filed for divorce.[18] After their divorce, his former wife remarried to Woodbury Kane in 1905, a few months before his death.[27] After his death, Elliot reportedly tried to get Sallie to remarry him,[28] but she refused and instead, married Douglas Howard Gill of the British Army.[1][29]

In poor health, Elliot committed suicide in Annapolis, Maryland, on November 2, 1919.[1] After a service at St. Anne's Protestant Episcopal Church in Annapolis, he was buried in at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx.[1]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g "COL. DUNCAN ELLIOT ILL, ENDS HIS LIFE WITH ARMY PISTOL Was Once Prominent in New York Society and Served in Spanish War". The Evening World. November 3, 1919. p. 15. Retrieved 13 November 2018.
  2. ^ "Marriages and Deaths". New York Daily Herald. January 31, 1871. p. 9. Retrieved 13 November 2018.
  3. ^ Index to Marriages and Deaths in the New York Herald: 1835-1855. Genealogical Publishing Com. 1987. p. 9. ISBN 9780806311845. Retrieved 13 November 2018.
  4. ^ Bellevue and Charity Hospital Reports. D. Appleton. 1870. p. 158. Retrieved 13 November 2018.
  5. ^ The Washington Life Insurance Company: Historical, Actuarial and Medical Statistics. Washington Life Insurance Company. 1889. p. 10. Retrieved 13 November 2018.
  6. ^ The Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York: History, Customs, Record of Events, Constitution, Certain Genealogies, and Other Matters of Interest. V. 1-. Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York. 1905. p. 132. Retrieved 13 November 2018.
  7. ^ Annual Register ...: Constitution of the General Society. 1894. p. 55. Retrieved 13 November 2018.
  8. ^ a b Patterson, Jerry E. (2000). The First Four Hundred: Mrs. Astor's New York in the Gilded Age. Random House Incorporated. p. 216. ISBN 9780847822089. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  9. ^ a b c "TO SEPARATE FOREVER | STALWART LIEUT. DUNCAN ELLIOT AND PRETTY SALLIE HARGOUS ELLIOT | SHE WILL GET A DIVORCE | While He Has Sailed Away to Fight the Filipinos--She Thinks Luzon an Excellent Place for Lieut. Elliot to Go To--Particularly Attentive to a Woman Who Wasn't His Wife". The Saint Paul Globe. 15 October 1899. p. 14. Retrieved 13 November 2018.
  10. ^ 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.
  11. ^ 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.
  12. ^ Homberger, Eric (2004). Mrs. Astor's New York: Money and Social Power in a Gilded Age. Yale University Press. p. 282. ISBN 0300105150. Retrieved 13 November 2018.
  13. ^ Platt, Frederick (1976). America's Gilded Age: Its Architecture and Decoration. A. S. Barnes. ISBN 9780498013225. Retrieved 13 November 2018.
  14. ^ a b "THE ELLIOT-HARGOUS WEDDING. A SOCIETY EVENT THAT HAS LONG BEEN AWAITED AT NEWPORT" (PDF). The New York Times. September 16, 1891. Retrieved 13 November 2018.
  15. ^ The American Architect and Building News. James R. Osgood & Company. 1898. p. 262. Retrieved 13 November 2018.
  16. ^ "Society". Boston Home Journal. 57 (12). Samuel T. Cobb & Company: 6. March 23, 1901. Retrieved 13 November 2018.
  17. ^ Nicholls, Charles Wilbur de Lyon (1912). The 469 Ultra-fashionables of America: A Social Guide Book and Register to Date. Broadway Publishing Company. p. 64. Retrieved 13 November 2018.
  18. ^ a b "DUNCAN ELLIOTT SUED. Wife, Who Was Sallie Hargous, Seeks Divorce — He Is a Soldier in the Philippines" (PDF). The New York Times. February 27, 1901. Retrieved 13 November 2018.
  19. ^ "Sallie J. Hargous (ca. 1871-after 1934)". www.nyhistory.org. New-York Historical Society. Retrieved 13 November 2018.
  20. ^ Hall, Henry (1895). America's Successful Men of Affairs: The city of New York. New York Tribune. p. 297. Retrieved 13 November 2018.
  21. ^ a b "Sallie Ruined Sister's Evening". New York Daily News. July 4, 1943. p. 283. Retrieved 13 November 2018.
  22. ^ a b "ELLIOT--STAMMERS | American in British Army Weds Sister of His Brother's Wife". The Sun. March 28, 1917. p. 7. Retrieved 13 November 2018.
  23. ^ "GIRAUD ELLIOT WINS CROSS. | Son of New York Woman Decorated by British". The Sun. June 15, 1917. p. 7. Retrieved 13 November 2018.
  24. ^ Williams, George Ebenezer (1989). A Genealogy of the Descendants of Joseph Bolles of Wells, Maine. G.E. Williams. Retrieved 13 November 2018.
  25. ^ Form: An Illustrated Weekly Pub. Every Sat. in the Interests of American Society at Home and Abroad. 1898. p. 37. Retrieved 13 November 2018.
  26. ^ The Illustrated American. Illustrated American Publishing Company. 1898. p. 530. Retrieved 13 November 2018.
  27. ^ "WOODBURY KANE TO WED. Mrs. Sallie Hargous Elliott the Bride-to-Be" (PDF). The New York Times. March 27, 1905. Retrieved 13 November 2018.
  28. ^ "Dashing Captain Duncan Elliot Did It--After Beautiful Sally Hargous Divorced Him ONCE and Married Captain Kane TWICE -- and NOW She's Going to Marry Captain Elliot TWICE!". The San Francisco Examiner. December 4, 1910. p. 57. Retrieved 13 November 2018.
  29. ^ Social Register, New York. Social Register Association. 1920. p. 222. Retrieved 13 November 2018.
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