Mary Cadwalader Rawle Jones

Mary Cadwalader Rawle Jones (December 12, 1850 – September 22, 1935)[1] was an American author and socialite during the Gilded Age.

Mary Cadwalader Rawle Jones
Portrait of Mary by William Oliver Stone, 1868
Born(1850-12-12)December 12, 1850
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
DiedSeptember 22, 1935(1935-09-22) (aged 84)
London, England, U.K.
Spouse(s)
Frederic Rhinelander Jones
​
​
(m. 1870; div. 1896)​
ChildrenBeatrix Cadwalader Jones
Parent(s)William Henry Rawle
Mary Binney Cadwalader
RelativesEdith Wharton (sister-in-law)

Early life

Mary, who was known as Minnie, was born on December 12, 1850 at Powel House, her family home in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was the daughter of William Henry Rawle (1823–1889) and Mary Binney (née Cadwalader) Rawle (1829–1861), both from prominent old Philadelphia families, the Rawles and the Cadwaladers.[2] She had one younger brother, who died young of diphtheria[1] in 1860, around the same time her mother died.[3] Her father, with whom she had a warm relationship,[3] was a prominent attorney in Philadelphia with Rawle & Henderson, a firm founded by her great-grandfather in 1783.[4] When she was eighteen years old,[5] her father remarried to Emily Cadwalader, the daughter of Thomas McCall Cadwalader, her mother's cousin and Mary's own cousin twice removed.[6]

Her paternal grandparents were William Rawle Jr. and Mary Anna (née Tilghman) Rawle, the granddaughter of Chief Justice Benjamin Chew.[7] Her great-grandfather was William Rawle, the U.S. District Attorney in Pennsylvania who was a founder, and first president, of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, a president of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society, and a trustee of the University of Pennsylvania for 40 years.[8] Her mother was the eldest daughter of John Cadwalader, a U.S. Representative and Federal Judge, and his first wife, Mary (née Binney) Cadwalader,[9] a daughter of Horace Binney, also a U.S. Representative who was known for his public speeches as well as the founding of the Hasty Pudding Club at Harvard.[10]

Society life

In 1892, both Mary and her daughter were listed as "Mrs. F.R. Jones" and "Miss Beatrix Jones" in Ward McAllister's "Four Hundred", purported to be an index of New York's best families, published in The New York Times.[11] Conveniently, 400 was the number of people that could fit into Mrs. Astor's ballroom.[12][13] In her New York Times obituary, it stated:[1]

"She held an unquestioned position in the small circle of men and women who directed New York's society at the close of the last century, and after the letting down of the bars in recent years she continued to be regarded as one of those for whom exclusiveness still had value."[1]

She was known for the artistic salon at her New York home, where she entertained the most prominent authors and artists of the day, including Augustus Saint-Gaudens, John Singer Sargent, novelist Francis Marion Crawford, John LaFarge, and Henry Adams (who considered her and novelist Howard Sturgis his best friends).[2] Minnie was known for her "wider view of the world" than most 19th century women,[3] and her close relationships with men, which she viewed as the "most natural, and even desirable, thing in the world."[3]

Personal life
Photograph of Mary's daughter, architect Beatrix Farrand.

On March 24, 1870, she was married to Frederic Rhinelander "Freddy" Jones (1846–1918) in New York City.[14] Jones was the elder son of George Frederic Jones and Lucretia (née Stevens) Rhinelander Jones.[15] His younger sister was famed Pulitzer Prize winning novelist Edith Newbold (née Jones) Wharton, known for her novel The Age of Innocence.[3] Minnie and Freddy lived at 21 East 11th Street, which she retained after their divorce, living there for 50 years in total.[1] Together, they were the parents of one child:[2]

Minnie and Freddy began living apart in 1891, five years before divorcing in 1896, and thereafter was known as Mrs. Cadawalader Jones.[1] Despite their divorce, Minnie remained close friends with her ex-husband's sister Edith.[2] When Freddy died at his residence in Paris in 1918,[14] neither Minnie or Edith mourned him.[3]

On September 22, 1935, en route back to New York City after spending summer at Le Pavillon Colombe, Wharton's home on Rue de Montmorency in Saint-Brice-sous-Forêt, Minnie died of pneumonia in London, England.[1] Edith coordinated the funeral arrangements and she was buried at St John the Baptist Churchyard in Aldbury, Hertfordshire, England, next to fellow writer Mary Augusta Ward.[3]

Philanthropy

She was active as a volunteer worker at the New York City Hospital School, where she eventually became the chairwoman of the advisory board of the Nursing School.[3]

Legacy

The Jones' summer home or cottage, known as the Reef Point Estate, in Bar Harbor on Mount Desert Island in Maine. Mary deeded Reef Point to her daughter Beatrix in 1917. After Mary's death in 1935, her daughter and son-in-law turned Reef Point into a horticultural study center.[18]

Published works

References
  1. "MRS. MARY C. JONES, SOCIAL LEADER, DIES; As Mrs. Cadwalader Jones She Was Long Member of Circle of Exclusive Aristocrats. LIVED 50 YEARS IN 11TH ST Was Subscriber to the Original Assemblies With the Astors, Belmonts and Whitneys". The New York Times. September 23, 1935. Retrieved 21 June 2018.
  2. Morrone, Francis (23 January 2013). "Edith Wharton's New York: She Was Brilliant with Them". Edith Wharton's New York. Retrieved 21 June 2018.
  3. James, Henry (1999). Dear Munificent Friends: Henry James's Letters to Four Women. University of Michigan Press. p. 125. ISBN 0472110101. Retrieved 22 June 2018.
  4. Waite, Morrison Remick; Rawle, William Henry (1900). The Orations of Chief Justice Waite and of William Henry Rawle on the Occasion of the Unveiling of the Bronze Statue of Chief Justice Marshall at Washington, May 10, 1884. T. H. Flood. pp. 19–20. Retrieved 21 June 2018.
  5. Charles Penrose Keith (1883). The provincial councillors of Pennsylvania, who held office between 1733–1776: and those earlier councillors who were some time chief magistrates of the province, and their descendants. W.S. Sharp Printing Company. pp. 260, 389–390.
  6. John W. Jordan (1978). Colonial and Revolutionary Families of Pennsylvania. Genealogical Publishing Company. p. 156. ISBN 978-0-8063-0811-1.
  7. "Rawle Family Papers 1682–1921". hsp.org. The Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Retrieved 22 June 2018.
  8. Glenn, Thomas Allen (1900). Some Colonial Mansions and those who lived in them: with genealogies of the various families mentioned. H. T. Coates & company. pp. 184-185. Retrieved 21 June 2018.
  9. Charles Penrose Keith (1883). The provincial councillors of Pennsylvania, who held office between 1733–1776: and those earlier councillors who were some time chief magistrates of the province, and their descendants. W.S. Sharp Printing Company. pp. 260, 381–382.
  10. "Binney family papers 1809–1894". quod.lib.umich.edu. Manuscripts Division William L. Clements Library University of Michigan. Retrieved 1 December 2017.
  11. 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 5 October 2017.
  12. 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.
  13. Homberger, Eric (2004). Mrs. Astor's New York: Money and Social Power in a Gilded Age. Yale University Press. pp. 199, 289n.99. ISBN 0300105150. Retrieved 6 March 2018.
  14. "DIED -- JONES". The New York Times. June 13, 1918. p. 13. Retrieved 21 June 2018.
  15. Gray, Christopher (September 12, 2004). "Edith Wharton: A Manhattan Literary Giant Who Didn't Love New York". The New York Times. Retrieved 21 June 2018.
  16. "MRS. FARRAND, 86, DESIGNER, IS DEAD; Landscape Architect Served Universities -Cited by Botanical Garden Here". The New York Times. March 1, 1959. p. 86. Retrieved 21 June 2018.
  17. "DR. MAX FARRAND, LIBRARY AUTHORITY; Former College Professor Dies at 79--Was Noted for His Research on Constitution Some of His Honors Researeh on Constitution". The New York Times. June 18, 1945. Retrieved 21 June 2018.
  18. Raver, Anne (November 27, 2003). "NATURE; Beatrix Farrand's Secret Garden". The New York Times. Retrieved 21 June 2018.
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