Arthur Scott Burden

Arthur Scott Burden (August 11, 1879 – June 15, 1921)[1] was an American banker, equestrian, and member of the young set of New York society during the Gilded Age.

Arthur Scott Burden
Born(1879-08-11)August 11, 1879
Troy, New York, U.S.
DiedJune 16, 1921(1921-06-16) (aged 41)
White Plains, New York, U.S.
EducationHarvard University
Spouse(s)
​
​
(m. 1906)​
ChildrenEileen Burden
Parent(s)James Abercrombie Burden Sr.
Mary Margaret Proudfit Irvin
RelativesI. Townsend Burden (uncle)
James A. Burden Jr. (brother)
William Fletcher Burden (uncle)
Irvin McDowell (uncle)
Henry Burden (grandfather)
Richard Irvin (grandfather)

Early life

Burden was born on August 11, 1879 in Troy, New York. He was the youngest of four sons born to James Abercrombie Burden Sr. (1833–1906) and Mary Margaret Proudfit (née Irvin) Burden (1837–1920). His siblings included James A. Burden Jr., who married Florence Adele Sloane (daughter of Emily Thorn Vanderbilt); Richard Irvin Burden; and William Proudfit Burden, who married Natica Belmont (daughter of Oliver Belmont).

Burden was a grandson of merchant Richard Irvin and Scottish born entrepreneur Henry Burden, who founded Burden Iron Works of Troy, of which his brother James later served as the president of beginning in 1906.[2] Among his relatives was uncle William Fletcher Burden, uncle-in-law Gen. Irvin McDowell, and uncle I. Townsend Burden, who was prominent in New York society and was a member of the infamous 400 of New York Society, as dictated by Mrs. Astor and Ward McAllister and published in The New York Times on February 16, 1892.[3][4]

Burden graduated from Harvard University with a S.B. in 1903.[5]

Career

Following his graduation from Harvard, Burden was connected with the Iron Works which his father and grandfather had been president of.[1] He later purchased a seat on the New York Stock Exchange and became a banker, working until his fall from during a hunting trip in England and then from a horse while playing polo at his estate in Jericho on Long Island, in 1913.[1]

Society life

Along with his wife Cynthia, brother William, sister-in-law Natica, and close friends Reginald Vanderbilt and Alfred Vanderbilt, he was part of a notable group of the younger set in society, both in New York City and Newport, Rhode Island.[1] His wife and sister-in-law were very close friends and "were girls of exceptional charm and vivacity and few rivals for popularity at the dances and other entertainments of those days."[1]

Besides Arthur, many members of the group died early deaths, including sister-in-law Natica Rives Belmont (adopted daughter of George L. Rives and stepdaughter of Alva Vanderbilt Belmont) who died in 1908 of asphyxiation a few months after her marriage to William,[6] Alfred, who died aboard the RMS Lusitania in 1915,[7] and Reginald (father of Gloria Vanderbilt), who died from cirrhosis due to alcoholism in 1925.[8]

Personal life

On June 11, 1906, he was married to the Hon. Cynthia Burke Roche (1884–1966), the daughter of James Roche, 3rd Baron Fermoy, an Irish peer who was a Member of Parliament in the House of Commons, and Frances Ellen née Work, an American heiress and socialite. Among her siblings was brother Maurice Roche, 4th Baron Fermoy, the maternal grandfather of Diana, Princess of Wales. Together, they were the parents of a daughter:[9]

  • Eileen Burden (1910–1970),[10] who married Walter Maynard (1906–1971), an investment banker, in 1932.[11] They later divorced and in 1963,[12] she married Thomas Robins (1897–1977).[13] Robins was the son of Thomas Robins, inventor of the conveyor belt.[14]

In late 1913, Burden fell twice from his horse and sustained injuries that caused him to be placed under constant care. As a result, in May 1921, his brother James filed a petition while his sister-in-law, Cynthia Roche's, was away in London, requesting that he be declared incompetent.[15] Later that month, a sheriff's jury found Burden to be "incompetent to care for his person and property."[16] Arthur, however, died shortly thereafter, at a branch of the New York Hospital in White Plains, New York, from pneumonia on June 15, 1921.[1] He left his entire estate to his widow.[17] Coincidentally, ten years later in 1931, his brother James was also injured in a fall,[18] and died the following year of an embolism as a consequence of the fall.[2]

A year after his death, his widow Cynthia was remarried to Guy Fairfax Cary Sr. and became the mother of two more children, Guy Fairfax Cary II and Cynthia Cary, who married Charles Bingham Penrose Van Pelt,[19] and later, the newspaper publisher Edwin Fairman Russell. Russell was previously married to Lady Sarah Consuelo Spencer-Churchill, daughter of John Spencer-Churchill, 10th Duke of Marlborough.[20]

Descendants

Through his daughter Eileen, he was the grandfather of Sheila Maynard, a clinical social worker who worked in Islamabad,[21] who married Nicholas Platt (b. 1936), a career diplomat who served as U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan, Zambia and the Philippines.[22] They are the parents of New York Magazine restaurant critic Adam Platt, actor Oliver Platt (b. 1960), and Nicholas Platt, Jr.

References
  1. "A.S. BURDEN DIES IN WHITE PLAINS; A Victim of Pneumonia, He Passes Away in Hospital After a Brief Illness. HE WAS 42 YEARS OLD Twice Injured by Falls From His Horse--Husband of Cynthia Roche". The New York Times. June 16, 1921. Retrieved 19 June 2018.
  2. "James A. Burden Dead In Syosset". The New York Times. June 2, 1932. Retrieved 2015-08-04. President of Iron Company Bearing the Family Name Victim of Embolism. Sequel To An Accident. Prominent In New York Society Prince of Wales Entertained at Woodside, His Estate
  3. 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.
  4. King, Moses (1899). Notable New Yorkers of 1869-1899: A Companion Volume to King's Handbook of New York City. Moses King. p. 568. Retrieved 19 September 2017.
  5. Thayer, William Roscoe; Castle, William Richards; Howe, Mark Antony De Wolfe; Pier, Arthur Stanwood; Voto, Bernard Augustine De; Morrison, Theodore (1922). The Harvard Graduates' Magazine. Harvard Graduates' Magazine Association. p. 149. Retrieved 19 June 2018.
  6. "NATICA RIVES BURDEN KILLED BY GAS LEAK; Accidentally Asphyxiated in Her Sleep by Outpouring from a Loose Fixture. HAD BEEN READING IN BED And Turned Off a Reading Lamp on Which the Tube Fitted Imperfectly -- Allied to Many Social Leaders". The New York Times. February 22, 1908. Retrieved 19 June 2018.
  7. "VANDERBILT LEFT HIS WIFE AT HOME; | Wealthiest Youth in America Expected to Make Only a Short Stay Abroad. | BEST KNOWN AS HORSEMAN | Inherited $100,000,000 and Married Mrs. Smith Hollins McKim When Ellen French Divorced Him". The New York Times. 8 May 1915. Retrieved 27 April 2017.
  8. "Reginald Vanderbilt Dies Suddenly Today". The Meridien Daily Journal. 4 September 1925. Retrieved 15 March 2011.
  9. "Mrs. Burden To Wed Guy F. Cary Today. Widow of Arthur Scott Burden Will Marry New York Lawyer at Newport. Bride Is the Only Daughter of Mrs. Burke-Roche and a Sister of Baron Fermoy". The New York Times. July 24, 1922. Retrieved 2009-08-28. The social colony here received a big surprise today when it became known that Mrs. Arthur Scott Burden of 147 East Sixty-first Street, New York, and Guy Fairfax Cary of 54 Park Avenue, New York, are to be married at one o'clock tomorrow afternoon at Elm Court, the Summer home of Mrs. Burden's mother on Bellevue Avenue.
  10. "DEATHS". The New York Times. March 26, 1970. Retrieved 19 June 2018.
  11. Times, Special To The New York (29 November 1971). "Walter Maynard Is Dead at 65; Leader in Securities Industry". The New York Times. Retrieved 14 June 2017.
  12. "Cynthia Roche". Princeton Alumni Weekly. Princeton University. 24 May 1963. p. 19.
  13. "Thomas Robins Jr., Company Chairman. Headed Hewitt-Robins, Producers of Synthetic Rubber". The New York Times. 29 May 1977. Retrieved 14 April 2016.
  14. "Thomas Robins, Inventor, 89, Dies. Developer of Heavy-Duty Conveyor Belt Had Headed Hewitt-Robins Company". The New York Times. 5 November 1957. Retrieved 18 December 2013.
  15. "Asks Burden Committee; Brother in Application Calls Relative Incompetent". The New York Times. 3 May 1921. p. 2. Retrieved 12 September 2009.
  16. "A.S. BURDEN INCOMPETENT.; Sheriff's Jury Returns Finding on Victim of Fall From Polo Pony". The New York Times. May 21, 1921. Retrieved 19 June 2018.
  17. "File A.S. Burden's Will". The New York Times. September 8, 1921. Retrieved 19 June 2018.
  18. "James A. Burden Injured in Fall". The New York Times. March 19, 1931. Retrieved 2015-08-04. James A. Burden, whose country estate, Woodside, is near this village, is confined to his bed ...
  19. Times, Special to The New York (24 August 1947). "CYNTHIA CARY WED TO C.B.P. VAN PELT; She Is Gowned in Ivory Satin at Her Marriage in Newport to Alumnus of Harvard". The New York Times. Retrieved 14 June 2017.
  20. Meier, Barry (25 December 2001). "Edwin F. Russell, 87, Newspaper Publisher". The New York Times. Retrieved 14 June 2017.
  21. "Weddings; Camilla Campbell, Oliver Platt". The New York Times. 1992-09-13. Retrieved 2008-03-10.
  22. Kipen, David (1995-04-03). "Oliver Platt: from second banana to pick of the bunch". L.A. Life. Los Angeles Daily News. p. L1.
  • Spinzia, Raymond E. and Judith A. Long Island's Prominent North Shore Families: Their Estates and Their Country Homes. vol I. College Station, Texas, VirtualBookworm, 2006.
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