Richard James Cross

Richard James Cross was an English born railroad official and banker who was a prominent member of New York society during the Gilded Age.

Early life

Cross was born in Liverpool, England, on November 3, 1845. He was the son of William Cross, an English financier with J & A Dennistoun, and Anna Chalmers Cross, his Scottish-born wife. His brother, John Walter Cross, a commission agent, was the husband of the English novelist Mary Anne Cross, known by her pen name George Eliot, having married her a few months before her death in 1880.
He was educated at Marlborough College in Marlborough, Wiltshire, England.

Career

After his move to America following his graduation from college, Cross began working as railroad official, first in New Orleans then in New York. His uncle, William Wood, worked in New York at Dennistoun, Wood & Co.
Cross later became a member of the New York banking firm of Morton, Bliss & Co., led by former New York Governor Levi P. Morton, from 1878 until his retirement in 1899. He also served as a director of the Manhattan Trust Co., U.S. Lloyds, Commercial Union Assurance Co., Palatine Insurance Co., Atlas Insurance Co., and the Caledonian Insurance Co.

Society life

In 1892, Cross were included in Ward McAllister's "Four Hundred", purported to be an index of New York's best families, published in The New York Times. Conveniently, 400 was the number of people that could fit into Mrs. Astor's ballroom. Cross, who was known as "the wittiest man in N.Y." was a member of the Century Association and helped organize the Racquet and Tennis Club in 1890.

Personal life

On June 3, 1872, Cross was married to the American Matilda Redmond. She was the daughter of wealthy merchant William Redmond and Sabina Elizabeth Redmond. Among her many siblings was Goold H. Redmond, Sabina Redmond Wood, Henry Redmond, Mary Redmond, Emily Redmond, Frances Redmond. Her grandfather, Goold Hoyt, was a merchant with Hoyt & Tom who was involved with the East India and China trade and was one of the founders of the Merchants' Exchange National Bank. Together, Matilda and Richard were the parents of six children, all born at Hillside, namely:

Eleanor Cross, an authority on "the representation and symbolism of flowers and trees in art" who married Allan Marquand, the curator of the Princeton University Art Museum who was the son of financier Henry Gurdon Marquand.
William Redmond Cross, a Yale graduate of 1896 who became a partner in the banking firm of Redmond & Co. He married Julia Newbold, the daughter of New York State Senator Thomas Newbold, in 1913.
Mary Redmond Cross, a director of the Association for the Aid of Crippled Children who did not marry.
John Walter Cross, an architect.
Emily Redmond Cross, who served in French hospitals as a nurse during World War I and who did not marry.
Eliot Buchanan Cross, also an architect.

His wife Matilda died in 1883, just months after the birth of their youngest child Eliot, and the entire Cross family moved into 6 Washington Square in New York, the home of his late wife's family. Matilda's sister Emily, who was called Demi, cared for the children, and two years later on May 16, 1885, Richard married another Redmond sister, Annie Redmond,
The Crosses also maintained a massive stone Tudor summer home in Newfoundland in northern New Jersey, known as "Cross Castle", and built in 1907. The estate, built at an estimated cost of $1,500,000, consisted of "365 acres of wooded glens, fields, and farm lands, along with a 77-acre pristine water body known as Hank’s Pond."
Cross died in Miami, Florida, on March 30, 1917.

Descendants

Through his eldest son, he was the grandfather of Emily Redmond Cross, who married John Kenyon Vaughan-Morgan, a Member of Parliament for Reigate who was the son of the Sir Kenyon Vaughan-Morgan and the Lady Vaughan-Morgan of London, in March 1940.