Cornelia Stuyvesant Vanderbilt
Cornelia Stuyvesant Vanderbilt, later The Hon. Mrs. John Francis Amherst Cecil, later Bulkely-Johnson, later Goodsir, was an American born heiress and member of the Vanderbilt family who inherited the Biltmore Estate. She was known for her eccentric behavior.
Early life
Cornelia was born at the Biltmore Estate in North Carolina on August 22, 1900. She was the daughter, and only child, of George Washington Vanderbilt II and Edith Stuyvesant Dresser. Her father, the youngest child of William Henry Vanderbilt and Maria Louisa Vanderbilt, built a 250-room mansion, the largest privately owned home in the United States, which he named Biltmore Estate. The estate, designed by architect Richard Morris Hunt, was modeled on the Chateau de Blois among other chateaux of the Loire Valley. She was the great-granddaughter of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt, and, on her mother’s side, she was a descendant of Peter Stuyvesant.After her father's death in 1914, Cornelia inherited the Biltmore estate. Her mother sold approximately of the Biltmore property to the United States Forest Service to create the core of Pisgah National Forest. Her mother later married Peter Goelet Gerry, a United States senator from Rhode Island.
Cornelia attended the Madeira School in Virginia for high school. She was privately tutored and attended the University of North Carolina for approximately a year. When she reached 21 years old, she received an annuity of $2,000,000 and at the age of 25, she received her full inheritance of $5,000,000 from her father, who had inherited $10,000,000 from his father and spent millions on Biltmore and a New York townhouse on Fifth Avenue.
Personal life
On April 29, 1924, Cornelia was married to a British aristocrat who was then the first secretary of the British Embassy in Washington, Hon. John Francis Amherst Cecil, the son of [Lord William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley|William Cecil (courtier)|Lord William Cecil] and Mary Cecil, Baroness Amherst of Hackney. The Cecils were descendants of William Cecil. The nationally renowned organist from St. Louis Charles Henry Galloway played organ at the wedding. They divorced in 1934.Cornelia Vanderbilt and Cecil were the parents of two sons:
- George Henry Vanderbilt Cecil, who married Nancy Owen.
- William Amherst Vanderbilt Cecil, who married Mary Lee Ryan, a first cousin of First Lady Jackie Kennedy, as their mothers, Janet Norton Lee and Marion Merritt Lee, were sisters.
One evening as she was having dinner with Edward Adamson in London, Cornelia met William Robert "Bill" Goodsir, their waiter with whom she fell in love. In 1972, Cornelia married for the third and final time to Goodsir, who was 26 years younger than she was. She was a friend and supporter of Adamson, the pioneer of Art Therapy, and tried unsuccessfully to fund his post at Netherne Hospital, and the Adamson Collection through her Mrs Smith Trust.
Cornelia died on February 7, 1976, aged 75, in Oxford, England. Her ashes were placed at a church near her home, The Mount, a farm in the village of Churchill in Oxfordshire, near Kingham.