May Cuyler

Mary Carolyn Campbell McCreery was an American socialite.

Early life

May was born on 23 December 1871 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She was a daughter of Alice Cuyler and Maj. James Wayne Cuyler of Baltimore, Maryland. Her father, a West Point graduate and engineer, fought for the Union Army in the U.S. Civil War.
Her paternal grandparents were physician and Bvt. Brig.-Gen. John Meck Cuyler and Mary Campbell Cuyler. A first cousin of her grandfather was U.S. Representative Rudolph Bunner. Her maternal grandparents were Wisconsin State Assemblyman and avid abolitionist Edward Dwight Holton and Lucinda Caroline Holton. Her aunt, Mary Holton, married Robertson James, the youngest brother of novelist Henry James.

Personal life

On 4 January 1893, May was married to Sir [Philip Grey Egerton, 12th Baronet] in London. Sir Philip was the only son of Sir Philip Grey-Egerton, 11th Baronet and Hon. Henrietta Denison. Their engagement had been announced in The New York Times on 29 October 1892, and the "wedding received extensive press coverage, featuring lists of the jewels received as gifts, including a diamond tiara." After their marriage, "she became as great a belle in London society as she had been" in the United States. Before their divorce in May 1905, they were the parents of twin sons and a daughter:

Philip de Malpas Wayne Grey-Egerton, a Captain in the 19th Royal Hussars who was killed in action at Brancoucourt Farm.
Rowland le Belward Grey-Egerton, a Second Lieutenant in the Royal Welsh Fusiliers who was also killed in action.
Cecily Alice Grey Grey-Egerton MBE, who married Lt. Col. Denys Edward Prideaux-Brune DSO, second son of Hon. Katharine Hugessen and Col. Charles Robert Prideaux-Brune of Prideaux Place, in 1918.

After their divorce, May married Richard Stephen McCreery on 2 March 1907 at May's residence on Hallam Street in London. McCreery, who was divorced from Edith Kip, was a son of Andrew Buchanan McCreery and Isabel McCreery. His maternal aunt, Mary Swearingen, was the wife of Associate [Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court Justice] Stephen Johnson Field, and his nephew was Gen. Sir Richard McCreery, Commander of the British Eighth Army. With her second husband, she was the mother of:

Isobel McCreery, who married Augustus Taylor, Jr. in 1937.

Her first husband, Sir Philip, died on 4 July 1937, and her second husband died in 1938. As both of their sons predeceased their father, the baronetcy passed to the Rev. Sir Brooke de Malpas Egerton, Sir Philip's first cousin once removed. May died at her home, 2202 Forest Drive in Burlingame, California on 25 November 1958.

Descendants

Through her daughter Cecily, she was a grandmother to three: Cynthia Mary Denise Prideaux-Brune, Philip Egerton Edmund Prideaux-Brune, and Rowland Denys Charles Prideaux-Brune.

In popular culture

During the 2014-2015 exhibition at London's National Portrait Gallery, she was featured among the high-profile American heiresses to marry into British aristocracy. Also included in the exhibition were Margaret Leiter, Mary Leiter, Consuelo Yznaga, Consuelo Vanderbilt, Laura Charteris and Cornelia Martin.