The Hon. Cynthia Burke Roche (10 April 1884 – 18 December 1966) was a British-American socialite and art collector from
Newport, Rhode Island
Newport is an American seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island. It is located in Narragansett Bay, approximately southeast of Providence, south of Fall River, Massachusetts, south of Boston, and northeast of New Yor ...
.
Life and work
She was born on 10 April 1884 in London to
James Roche, 3rd Baron Fermoy
James Boothby Burke Roche, 3rd Baron Fermoy (28 July 1851 – 30 October 1920), was a Member of Parliament in the British House of Commons, and he held a title in the Peerage of Ireland during the final two months of his life. He was a great-gr ...
(1852–1920), an
Irish peer
The Peerage of Ireland consists of those titles of nobility created by the English monarchs in their capacity as Lord or King of Ireland, or later by monarchs of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It is one of the five divisi ...
who was a
Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...
in the
House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...
, and
Frances Ellen Work
Frances Ellen Work (October 27, 1857January 26, 1947) was an American heiress and socialite. She was a great-grandmother of Diana, Princess of Wales, and her great-great-grandchildren include the Prince of Wales and Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, a ...
(1857–1947), an American heiress and socialite. Her brothers were
Maurice Roche, 4th Baron Fermoy
Edmund Maurice Burke Roche, 4th Baron Fermoy (15 May 1885 – 8 July 1955) was a British Conservative Party politician who held a title in the Peerage of Ireland. He was the maternal grandfather of Diana, Princess of Wales.
Life and career
Roch ...
, the maternal grandfather of
Diana, Princess of Wales, and the Hon. Francis Burke Roche.
In 1904, ''
Good Housekeeping
''Good Housekeeping'' is an American women's magazine featuring articles about women's interests, product testing by The Good Housekeeping Institute, recipes, diet, and health, as well as literary articles. It is well known for the "Good Hous ...
'' magazine described her as among the members of New York's Four Hundred (see
The Four Hundred (1892)
The Four Hundred was a list of New York society during the Gilded Age, a group that was led by Caroline Schermerhorn Astor, ''the'' "Mrs. Astor", for many years. After her death, her role in society was filled by three women: Mamie Fish, Ther ...
) who were daring and skilful automobilists. Roche was also recognised as a skilled tennis player and
horserider.
In 1908, Roche became a
naturalised
Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-citizen of a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country. It may be done automatically by a statute, i.e., without any effort on the part of the i ...
United States citizen
Citizenship of the United States is a legal status that entails Americans with specific rights, duties, protections, and benefits in the United States. It serves as a foundation of fundamental rights derived from and protected by the Constituti ...
.
Personal life
On 11 June 1906, Roche married
Arthur Scott Burden
Arthur Scott Burden (August 11, 1879 – June 15, 1921) was an American banker, equestrian, and member of the young set of New York society during the Gilded Age.
Early life
Burden was born on August 11, 1879, in Troy, New York. He was the yo ...
. Burden was the grandson of industrialist
Henry Burden and President of the family business
Burden Iron Works, but his career was significantly impaired after two horse falls, the second of which seriously aggravated the injuries incurred from the first.
As a result of these injuries, Burden was placed under constant care from late 1913, and
James A. Burden Jr., Arthur Burden's brother, filed a petition in Cynthia Roche's absence, (as both she and her daughter were in London at the time), requesting that Arthur Burden be declared incompetent.
Burden died from
pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severi ...
in June 1921.
The couple had a daughter:
* Eileen Burden (1910–1970),
who married investment banker Walter Maynard (d. 1971), a son of
Walter E. Maynard, and had three children.
They later divorced and in 1963, she married Thomas Robins.
Robins was the son of
Thomas Robins, inventor of the
conveyor belt.
In 1922, after her first husband's death, Roche married Guy Fairfax Cary Sr. (1879–1950) and they honeymooned at the fishing lodge of
Robert Walton Goelet
Robert Walton Goelet (March 19, 1880 – May 2, 1941) was a financier and real estate developer in New York City. He was one of the largest property owners in the city by the time of his death.
Early life
Robert Walton Goelet, nicknamed Bertie ...
. Cary, a lawyer who was a partner with
Shearman & Sterling, was the son of
Clarence Cary and Elisabeth Miller Potter. His father and aunt,
Constance Cary
Constance Cary Harrison ( pen name, Refugitta; April 25, 1843 – November 21, 1920), also referred as Mrs. Burton Harrison, was an American playwright and novelist. She and two of her cousins were known as the "Cary Invincibles"; the three sewed ...
(1843–1920), were the children of Archibald Cary and Monimia Fairfax. Together, they had two children:
* Guy Fairfax Cary Jr. (1923–2004), who died unmarried.
*
Cynthia Cary (1924–2019), who married Charles Bingham Penrose Van Pelt (1922–2003) and had three children.
She later married
Edwin F. Russell (1914–2001), who had four children.
Cynthia died at her home in Newport, aged 82, on 18 December 1966.
She left an estate valued at $300,000. Her home and the residue of her estate were received by her son, Guy Fairfax Cary Jr.
Descendants
Through her eldest daughter, she was the grandmother of Sheila Maynard, a clinical social worker who worked in
Islamabad
Islamabad (; ur, , ) is the capital city of Pakistan. It is the country's ninth-most populous city, with a population of over 1.2 million people, and is federally administered by the Pakistani government as part of the Islamabad Capital ...
,
married
Nicholas Platt
Nicholas Platt (born March 10, 1936) is an American diplomat who served as U.S. Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Pakistan, Philippines, Zambia, and as a high level diplomat in Canada, China, Hong Kong, and Japan. He is the former p ...
,
a career diplomat who served as US ambassador to
Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...
,
Zambia
Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most central point. Its neighbours are t ...
and the
Philippines
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
,
and had 3 sons: Adam Platt, a ''
New York'' magazine restaurant critic,
Oliver Platt
Oliver Platt (born January 12, 1960) is a Canadian-born American actor. He is known for his starring roles in many films such as ''Flatliners'' (1990), ''Beethoven'' (1992), '' Indecent Proposal'', ''The Three Musketeers'' (both 1993), '' Execut ...
(b. 1960), the actor, and Nicholas Platt Jr. Also through her eldest daughter, she was the grandmother to Walter Maynard Jr., an investment advisor with
Morgan Stanley
Morgan Stanley is an American multinational investment management and financial services company headquartered at 1585 Broadway in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. With offices in more than 41 countries and more than 75,000 employees, the fir ...
who married Pamela S. Silver in 1954 and has issue, and John Maynard.
Legacy
In 1981, the
Redwood Library received her collected art as the ''Cynthia Cary Collection''. It was donated by her son,
Guy Fairfax Cary Jr. The art collection was amassed over decades by her. The collection was previously exhibited at
Rhode Island School of Design
The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD , pronounced "Riz-D") is a private art and design school in Providence, Rhode Island. The school was founded as a coeducational institution in 1877 by Helen Adelia Rowe Metcalf, who sought to increase the ...
and
Christie's in
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Roche, Cynthia
1884 births
1966 deaths
Daughters of barons
Cynthia
Cynthia is a feminine given name of Greek origin: , , "from Mount Cynthus" on Delos island. The name has been in use in the Anglosphere since the 1600s. There are various spellings for this name, and it can be abbreviated to Cindy, Cyndi, Cyndy, ...
British emigrants to the United States
Deaths from pneumonia in Rhode Island
People from Newport, Rhode Island