Mary Carpenter Knowlton was born inBrooklyn on 2 July 1870, and lived at 201Columbia Heights, the former home of former mayorSeth Low.[1] She was the only child of Ella (née Carpenter) Knowlton (1841–1878) and Edwin Franklin Knowlton (1834–1898),[2] a straw goods manufacturer.[3][4]
In February 1892, shortly before her marriage, the unmarried Miss Knowlton was included inWard McAllister's "Four Hundred", purported to be an index of New York's best families, published inThe New York Times.[6][7] Conveniently, 400 was the number of people that could fit intoMrs. Astor's ballroom.[8] After her marriage, she continued to be listed on the Social Register.[9]
Count Hans Clemens von Francken-Sierstorpff (1895–1944),[16] who married Princess Elisabeth zuHohenlohe-Öhringen (1896–1975), the granddaughter of PrinceHugo zu Hohenlohe-Öhringen, a politician and mining industrialist. Hans "fled Hitler's Germany, leaving his wife, a Nazi sympathizer, and their grown children behind" and married Clotilde Knapp (1908–2004) in 1942. After his death, his widow remarried to AmericanUnder Secretary of State for AdministrationCharles E. Saltzman.[17]
Mary died inBerlin,Germany on 21 July 1929. Her son inherited the income from a $1,200,000 Knowlton Trust created by her father.[19] Her will directed that "the chief heir of the family lands and fortunes over which she has power of disposition shall be the eldest son of her son or, if he has no son, to his eldest daughter."[19]
Through her son's first marriage, she was the grandmother of Count Edwin Graf von Francken-Sierstorpff, Countess Constance Gräfin von Francken-Sierstorpff (who married Count Hyazinth Stachwitz in 1943, and after their divorce in 1945, marriedWilliam D. Denson in 1949 following his military service as aU.S. Chief Prosecutor for War Crimes committed in theDachauconcentration camps duringWWII), and Countess Elisabeth Christine von Francken-Sierstorpff.[20] From his second marriage, she was the posthumous grandmother to Michael M. Sierstorpff.[17]