Amos Tuck French


Amos Tuck French was an American banker who was prominent in society.

Early life

French was born on July 20, 1863, in Boston, Massachusetts. He was the son of Ellen French and Francis Ormond French, a Harvard graduate who served as president of the Manhattan Trust Company. His sister, Ellen "Elsie" Tuck French, was a close friend of Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney and married Gertrude's brother, Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt, in 1901. Elsie and Alfred divorced in 1909, he later died on the Lusitania, and she remarried to Paul Fitzsimons in 1919. Another sister, Elizabeth Richardson French, was the wife of Herbert Eaton, 3rd Baron Cheylesmore.
His paternal grandparents were Elizabeth Smith French, a daughter of William Merchant Richardson, and Benjamin Brown French, who was Clerk of the United States House of Representatives from 1845 to 1847 and was Commissioner of Public Buildings under President Abraham Lincoln. His maternal grandfather, and namesake, was Amos Tuck, a U.S. Representative and a founder of the Republican Party. His uncle, Edward Tuck, was Vice Consul of the American Legation in Paris who owned and lived at Domaine de Vert-Mont and Château de Bois-Préau.
He graduated from Harvard College with an A.B. degree in 1885.

Career

In 1887, he became a member of the New York Stock Exchange, and in 1888, he became treasurer, then secretary and eventually vice-president of the Manhattan Trust Company, retiring in 1900 but staying a director until 1908. He served as a director of the Northern Pacific Railway, and the Northern Securities Company.
French was a leader for years in New York and Newport social life and was a member of many clubs, including the Harvard Club of New York, the New York Yacht Club, the Knickerbocker Club, the Turf and Field Club, the Tuxedo Club, the Newport Casino, and the Grolier Club.

Personal life

On December 2, 1885, French was married to Pauline LeRoy at All Saints' Chapel in Newport, Rhode Island by Bishop Henry C. Potter. Pauline was the daughter of Stuyvesant LeRoy and Pauline Winslow LeRoy. Before their separation in August 1911, and eventual divorce in March 1913, they were the parents of:
  • Pauline Leroy French, who first married Samuel Jones Wagstaff, son of Alfred Wagstaff Jr., in 1908. They divorced in 1920, and in December 1920, he married Polish émigré Olga Thomas and, in March 1921, she married young banker Donald Oliver MacRae.
  • Francis Ormond French II, who married Eleanor Livingston Burrill, a daughter of Edward Livingston Burrill, in 1914. They divorced in 1923, and in 1930 he married Mary Frances Cleneay, daughter of Harry Quinton Cleneay.
  • Julia Estelle French, who eloped with chauffeur John Paul Geraghty in 1911, causing a rift in the family. They divorced in 1920, and she married Howard Thomas Williams, an insurance broker, in 1921.
  • Stuyvesant LeRoy French, who married Harriet Hall Rittenhouse in 1933. They divorced and he married Maud Coster, the former wife of Otto von Salm-Hoogstraeten, in 1965.
  • Edward Tuck French, who died aged 19.
  • Amos Tuck French Jr., who married Emma Dulany Hunter in 1930.
In 1914, he remarried to Martha Beeckman at the home of her sister in Goshen, New York. Martha was the daughter of Gilbert Livingston Beeckman and Margaret Atherton Beeckman and the sister of Robert Livingston Beeckman, the 52nd Governor of Rhode Island. Martha was a descendant of Robert Livingston the Elder, Declaration of Independence signer Philip Livingston and "The Chancellor" Robert Livingston.
French died on November 15, 1941, at his estate, Journey's End, in Chester, New Hampshire. He was buried at the Chester Village Cemetery in Rockingham County, New Hampshire.

Descendants

Through his son Francis, he was the grandfather of Ellen Tuck French, who was the first wife of John Jacob Astor VI in 1934. After their divorce in May 1943, she remarried to Raymond R. Guest in 1953. Ellen's sister, Virginia Middleton French, would marry William Force Dick, Astor's half-brother, on December 18, 1941, before her later marriage to Philip B. Pool.