Winthrop Chanler Rutherfurd (February 4, 1862 – March 19, 1944) was an American socialite fromNew York, best known for his romance withConsuelo Vanderbilt and his marriage toLucy Mercer, mistress to American PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt.
Rutherfurd was born on February 4, 1862. He was the youngest son of seven children born toLewis Morris Rutherfurd (1816–1892) and Margaret Chanler Stuyvesant (1820–1890).[1] His elder siblings includedStuyvesant Rutherfurd (1843–1909),[2][3] Louisa Morris Rutherfurd (1855–1892), Margaret Stuyvesant Rutherfurd (1853-1916), who was married toHenry White, and Lewis Morris Rutherfurd, Jr. (1859–1901), who was married toAnne Harriman Vanderbilt (1861–1940).[4]
In 1902, shortly after his first marriage, Rutherfurd and his wife Alice contracted prominent New York City architectWhitney Warren to design for them aTudor revival style mansion known asRutherfurd House. The approximately 38-room home was located alongside his brother Stuyvesant Rutherfurd's property inAllamuchy Township, New Jersey. Besides the mansion, construction included gardens, a boathouse, a swimming beach, a hydroelectric powerhouse, a 9-hole golf course, and kennels.[12] The farm's 1,000 acres became well known for itsHolstein cows andDorset sheep.[12]
In 1895,Consuelo Vanderbilt fell in love with Rutherfurd, and Rutherfurd proposed marriage to her.[16][17] However, Consuelo's motherAlva Vanderbilt forced Consuelo to travel to Europe, and pressured her to marryCharles Spencer-Churchill, 9th Duke of Marlborough, in order to gain the title and status of a duchess. After Consuelo was persuaded that Alva might suffer a fatal heart attack if Consuelo disobeyed her, Consuelo agreed to forsake Rutherfurd and marry the Duke.[18] Rutherfurd then remained a bachelor until age 40, reportedly having numerous affairs with married socialites, includingAva Astor.[11] In 1926, when Consuelo's annulment was announced, the reason from Rome was that "Consuelo, when 17, and in love with 'an American named Rutherfurd,' had been forced by her mother, Mrs. O. H. P. Belmont, to give him up to marry the Duke."[7]
Lewis Morton Rutherfurd (1903–1920), who died age 16.[22]
Winthrop Rutherfurd, Jr. (1904–1988), who married Alice Polk (1917–2009),[23] daughter ofFrank Lyon Polk, in 1940.[24]
John Phillip "Jack" Rutherfurd (1910–1987),[25] who was married to Elizabeth "Betty" Shevlin Smith (1911–1957), daughter ofTom Shevlin (1883-1915), and to Jacqueline Orr (1923–2004).[26]
Hugo Rutherfurd (1911–2006),[27] who was married to Francesca Villa (1922–1995) in 1941.[28][29]
Guy Gerard Rutherfurd (1915–2012),[35] who married Georgette Whelan (d. 2004)[36] in 1938.[37]
In 1913, upon the advice ofAnna Roosevelt Cowles,Lucy Mercer was hired as a social secretary toEleanor Roosevelt, Cowles's niece. In September 1918, Eleanor discovered the affair Lucy had with Eleanor's husband Franklin. The relationship ended and soon, Mercer then became the governess for Rutherfurd's six children.[38] Rutherfurd soon proposed to Mercer, who was almost three decades younger, and Mercer accepted. She was the daughter of Col. and Mrs. Carroll Mercer of Washington.[39] Only weeks before their wedding, which took place on February 11, 1920, Lewis, Rutherfurd's oldest son, died of pneumonia.[10] Various observers described Winthrop and Lucy as devoted to one another, and their marriage as a happy one.[40] Together, they had a daughter:[41]
Barbara Mercer Rutherfurd (1922–2005),[42] who married Robert Winthrop "Bobby" Knowles, Jr. (d. 2003)[43] in 1946.[44][45]
Rutherfurd died in Aiken on March 19, 1944, after a long period of failing health.[46][7] Lucy, who was by FDR's side when he died in 1945, died aged 57, on July 31, 1948.[39] In 1966, both Barbara andFranklin D. Roosevelt Jr. denied the relationship between her mother and his father.[47]
^ab"Lewis Morris Rutherfurd"(PDF).New York Times. June 1, 1892. Retrieved2014-01-09.Lewis Morris Kutherfurd died on Decoration Day at his home, Tranquillity, N.J., in the seventy-sixth [sic] year of his age.
^Stuyvesant Rutherfurd later changed his name to Rutherfurd Stuyvesant in conformity with the will of his mother's great-uncle, Peter Gerard Stuyvesant in order to inherit the Stuyvesant fortune.
^Greene, Richard Henry; Stiles, Henry Reed; Dwight, Melatiah Everett; Morrison, George Austin; Mott, Hopper Striker; Totten, John Reynolds; Pitman, Harold Minot; Ditmas, Charles Andrew; Forest, Louis Effingham De; Maynard, Arthur S.; Mann, Conklin (1880).The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record. New York Genealogical and Biographical Society. p. 160. Retrieved18 July 2017.
