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Margaret Howard, Countess of Suffolk

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The Right Honourable
The Countess of Suffolk
Portrait of Daisy Leiter, by John Singer Sargent, 1898.
Born
Margaret Hyde Leiter

(1879-09-01)1 September 1879
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Died5 April 1968(1968-04-05) (aged 88)
Lancaster, California, U.S.
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1904; died 1917)​
ChildrenCharles Howard, 20th Earl of Suffolk
Cecil John Arthur Howard
Greville Reginald Howard
Parent(s)Mary Theresa Carver
Levi Ziegler Leiter
RelativesMary Curzon, Baroness Curzon (sister)

Margaret Howard, Countess of Suffolk (born Margaret Hyde Leiter; 1 September 1879 – 5 March 1968) was an American-born heiress who married into the British aristocracy and was known as one of the "Dollar Princesses."

Early life

The Countess of Suffolk, 1910.

Margaret Hyde "Daisy" Leiter was born in Chicago on 1 September 1879. She was the third daughter and youngest of four children born to Mary Theresa (née Carver) and Levi Ziegler Leiter, the co-founder of Field and Leiter dry goods business, and later partner in the Marshall Fields retail empire. Her three older siblings were Joseph Leiter, a Harvard graduate,[1] Mary Leiter, who married the British Conservative statesman George Curzon, later 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston,[2] and Nancy Lathrop Carver Leiter, the sponsor of USS Illinois who married Colin Powys Campbell.[3] On her father's side, she was of Swiss-German descent.[4][5]

In 1881, her family moved to Washington, D.C. and entered society there, while summering in Bar Harbor, Maine.[6] While in Washington, they lived in the former home of James G. Blaine on Dupont Circle for several years before moving into the palatial Leiter House.[7] Daisy and her two sisters attended finishing school in England.[8]

In 1898, Daisy was painted by the prominent American portrait artist John Singer Sargent. In 1994, the Hon. Mary Howard bequeathed the painting to English Heritage, Kenwood[9] Also that year, it was announced that she was chosen by Governor John Riley Tanner to christen the battleship USS Illinois.[10] The report was incorrect and her older sister Nancy, was in fact, the honored.[11]

Personal life

In 1903, while visiting her sister Mary in India for the Delhi Durbar celebrations,[12] Daisy met the aide-de-camp of her brother-in-law, George, who was Viceroy of India.[13] He was Henry Molyneux Paget Howard, 19th Earl of Suffolk, 12th Earl of Berkshire, who was known to be short of money.[12] In July 1904, she was reportedly engaged to Major Crawley, but the engagement was called off.[14] They eventually became engaged and when The New York Times reported the engagement in December 1904, they noted that the Earl's "estate Charlton Park... in Wiltshire will be restored to the glory of its former days."[15] Daisy and Lord Suffolk eventually wed on 26 December 1904, several months after the death of her father, at the Leiter family residence in Washington, D.C., with Daisy wearing "a coronet of diamonds, part of the family jewels of the house of Suffolk and Berkshire, which was sent from England for the event."[6] Henry was the eldest son of Henry Howard, 18th Earl of Suffolk.[16] Together, they were the parents of:[16][17]

While she was in India with her sister, her husband died after shrapnel pierced his heart at the Battle of Istabulat on 21 April 1917 while commanding his battery. He was buried at Basra War Cemetery in Iraq.[20] Her eldest son, who became the 20th Earl of Suffolk, was killed in 1941 by a bomb he was attempting to defuse and was succeeded by his six year old son, Michael Howard, 21st Earl of Suffolk.[21]

Later life

In 1922, while riding in Charlton Park, she fell from her horse and broke her leg.[22] Two years later in 1924, she again fell from her horse and broke several ribs.[23]

Upon her father's death in 1904,[24] he bequeathed her millions of dollars in his will, which stipulated that she had to live four months of every year in the United States.[25][26] In 1930, she agreed to sell the Pelican Portrait of Queen Elizabeth I, which was at Charlton House, to Spink & Son for a rich collector.[27] In 1934, she bought property on Magee Road at the foothills of the Santa Catalina Mountains in Oro Valley, Arizona from Matthew Baird III.[8] In 1935, she hired architect Robert A. Morse to design her a house "that hinted at art deco" and featured five master bedrooms, air-conditioning, and "a bomb shelter that ran under the perimeter of the house."[28] She called it "Forest Lodge" and owned the property until 1957 when she felt the nearby city of Tucson was encroaching on her property and sold it to the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (which became the Immaculate Heart High School).[7] She then purchased a 3,500 acre ranch in Oracle, Arizona, which today is part of Biosphere 2.[8]

In her later years, she became a helicopter pilot and was known to fly from her Cornish home to her suite at The Ritz Hotel via the Battersea Heliport.[12] While flying to California to visit her son Cecil, the Dowager Countess of Suffolk and Berkshire had a heart attack and later died at Antelope Valley Hospital in Lancaster, California on 5 March 1968.[29]

During the 2014-2015 exhibition at London's National Portrait Gallery, Margaret was featured among the high-profile American heiresses to marry into British aristocracy.[30] Included in the exhibition were Jeanette ('Jennie') Churchill (née Jerome), Lady Randolph Churchill, Mary Victoria (née Leiter), Lady Curzon of Kedleston, Mary Carolyn Campbell ('May', née Cuyler), Lady Grey-Egerton, Consuelo Montagu, Duchess of Manchester, Consuelo (née Vanderbilt), Duchess of Marlborough (later Mrs. Balsan), John Spencer-Churchill, 10th Duke of Marlborough, and Cornelia (née Martin), Countess of Craven.[31]

References

  1. ^ "WIFE AND CHILDREN GET LEITER ESTATE; Will to Be Filed in Chicago To- day Disposes of Fortune That May Exceed $10,000,000. WIFE TO GET TRUST INCOME Son Thomas, 20, Inherits Racing Stable and Famous Library Started by Grandmother" (PDF). The New York Times. 21 April 1932. Retrieved 24 July 2018.
  2. ^ "LADY CURZON'S WILL. Value of the Estate $59,875 — Most of It Left to Her Husband" (PDF). The New York Times. 8 August 1906. Retrieved 24 July 2018.
  3. ^ "She is Back From India". Newark Daily Advocate. Newark, Ohio: 3. 19 September 1900.
  4. ^ Bradford, Sarah (9 August 1995). "Lady Alexandra Metcalfe". The Independent. London. Retrieved 6 January 2015.
  5. ^ Wilson, A.N. (2005). After the Victorians. Hutchinson. p. 596. ISBN 9780091794842.
  6. ^ a b Times, Special to The New York (27 December 1904). "DAISY LEITER MARRIES; Bride of the Earl of Suffolk -- Will Go Abroad This Week" (PDF). The New York Times. Retrieved 18 September 2019.
  7. ^ a b Leighton, David (20 October 2014). "Street Smarts: Neighborhood, road named for Lady Suffolk". Arizona Daily Star. Tucson, Arizona.
  8. ^ a b c Needham, Sybil (12 February 2016). "In Search of the Countess". Oro Valley Historical Society. Retrieved 24 September 2019.
  9. ^ "Daisy Leiter, Later Margaret Hyde, 19th Countess of Suffolk". artuk.org. Art UK. Retrieved 24 September 2019.
  10. ^ "Miss Daisy Leiter Honored" (PDF). The New York Times. 7 September 1898. Retrieved 24 September 2019.
  11. ^ "GOV. TANNER MAKES AN ERROR.; Miss Nannie Leiter as a Result Will Christen the Illinois" (PDF). The New York Times. 8 September 1898. Retrieved 24 September 2019.
  12. ^ a b c "Marguerite Hyde ('Daisy', née Leiter), Countess of Suffolk". www.npg.org.uk. National Portrait Gallery, London. Retrieved 24 September 2019.
  13. ^ "No. 27308". The London Gazette. 26 April 1901. p. 2861.
  14. ^ "Daisy Leiter's Engagement Broken?" (PDF). The New York Times. 26 July 1904. Retrieved 24 September 2019.
  15. ^ "DAISY LEITER ENGAGED TO EARL OF SUFFOLK; Mrs. Leiter Makes the Announcement in Chicago. WEDDING IN NEAR FUTURE Third of Late L. Z. Leiter's Daughters to Wed Englishman -- Engagement Rumored Before, but Denied" (PDF). The New York Times. 12 December 1904. Retrieved 24 September 2019.
  16. ^ a b c d "Suffolk, Earl of (E, 1603)". cracroftspeerage.co.uk. Heraldic Media Limited. Archived from the original on 25 April 2014. Retrieved 18 September 2019.
  17. ^ "Cracroft's Peerage: The Complete Guide to the British Peerage & Baronetage", "Suffolk, Earl of (E, 1603)" Archived 2014-04-25 at the Wayback Machine, The Peerage Research Trust. Retrieved 27 May 2014.
  18. ^ "BRITISH PEER TO WED MISS MIMI CRAWFORD; The Earl of Suffolk, Kin of Late Chicago Merchant, Engaged to English Dancer" (PDF). The New York Times. 22 February 1934. Retrieved 24 September 2019.
  19. ^ "CECIL J.A. HOWARD WEDS; Frances Drake Is Married to Brother of Earl of Suffolk" (PDF). The New York Times. 14 February 1939. Retrieved 18 September 2019.
  20. ^ "EARL OF SUFFOLK KILLED.; Husband of "Daisy" Leiter Meets Death at Front in France" (PDF). The New York Times. 26 April 1917. Retrieved 24 September 2019.
  21. ^ "Earl of Suffolk and Berkshire Is Killed by Bomb at Age of 35; Peer Whose Grandfather Was Levi Z. Leiter Dies in Blast With His Secretary and Six Soldiers -- Served in France" (PDF). The New York Times. 14 May 1941. Retrieved 24 September 2019.
  22. ^ "COUNTESS OF SUFFOLK HAS FALL, BREAKS LEG; Former Miss Daisy Leiter Injured in accident While Riding a Horse" (PDF). The New York Times. 4 August 1922. Retrieved 24 September 2019.
  23. ^ "COUNTESS OF SUFFOLK BREAKS RIBS IN FALL; Former Daisy Leiter Has Second Hunting Accident in England in Two Years" (PDF). The New York Times. 10 December 1924. Retrieved 24 September 2019.
  24. ^ "LEVI Z. LEITER DIES IN MAINE OF HEART DISEASE; Had Been Ill a Long Time, but Death Was Unexpected" (PDF). The New York Times. 10 June 1904. Retrieved 24 September 2019.
  25. ^ "LEVI Z. LEITER'S WILL.; Two-thirds to the Children -- Trust Fund for Lady Curzon" (PDF). The New York Times. 21 June 1904. Retrieved 24 September 2019.
  26. ^ Marriott, Barbara (2012). Legendary Locals of Marana, Oro Valley, and Catalina. Arcadia Publishing. p. 56. ISBN 9781439650035. Retrieved 24 September 2019.
  27. ^ David Starkey, Susan Doran, Elizabeth: The Exhibition at the National Maritime Museum (National Maritime Museum, 2003), p. 192
  28. ^ Marriott, Barbara; Society, Oro Valley Historical (2008). Oro Valley. Arcadia Publishing. p. 98. ISBN 9780738548340. Retrieved 24 September 2019.
  29. ^ "Margaret Lady Howard Dies; Dowager Countess of Suffolk". The New York Times. 6 March 1968. Retrieved 18 September 2019.
  30. ^ MacColl, Gail; Wallace, Carol McD (2012). To Marry an English Lord: Tales of Wealth and Marriage, Sex and Snobbery. Workman Publishing. pp. 77, 249, 302, 309, 340. ISBN 9780761171959. Retrieved 24 September 2019.
  31. ^ "Old Titles and New Money: American Heiresses and the British Aristocracy". www.npg.org.uk. National Portrait Gallery, London. Retrieved 17 September 2019.
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