You Go Old Girl! Victorian & Edwardian 'Cougars' Stalk Their Matrimonial Prey!

With the advent of the 21^st century a freer more acceptable stance has been taken with regard to the general conception of the May and December romance.

Over the centuries it has always been an accepted practice amongst the male of the species to contract such marriages at will, as if it were a primal right of the realm of those who inhabited the male world.

Where women were concerned, the ubiquitous double standard reigned supreme, and the societal view was a bit more reserved. Typically women who subscribed to this rather frowned upon type of coupling were typically shunned by society as a whole, especially from their female brethren.  Only those in untouchable positions of the highest placement were accorded this luxury, of begrudged acceptance.  

In this day and age, like so much about our daily existence, the lines are blurred and everyone more or less subscribes to whatever tickles their fancy. Today, the fact that the female or more commonly known ‘cougar’ has come into her own in claiming her rights to younger mates.

What is extremely interesting about this fact, is that a hundred years ago, the female predecessors of today, set the pace and put into action the process of older wives and younger husbands.

You can almost hear them applauding from above. 

ELDERLY LADIES WITH YOUNG HUSBANDS

The Star

October 27, 1900

Lady Randolph Churchill, or, as she now prefers to call herself – Mrs. George Cornwallis-West – is by no means the first lady of prominence to marry a man less than half her own age.

As is well known, this clever, handsome, and enterprising American woman is the mother of a son who is several months older than her present youthful spouse.  It is twenty-six years since she became the wife of the late Lord Randolph Churchill, who died in 1895.  Nobody who witnessed her wedding could have imagined that she would take unto herself as a second husband a young man at the time unborn.  At the present time Lady Randolph is well into the forties, while her husband has not gone far into his twenties.

 Lillie Langtry

The lady so long famous as Mrs. Langtry but whose correct designation has for some little time been Mrs. Hugo de Bathe, is another who has married as a second husband a man young enough to be her son.  Having been born so far back as the year 1852, the ‘Jersey Lily’ has been charming the world for fully a quarter of a century.

It was in her twenty-second year that she was married to her first husband, Major Langtry, who died two or three years ago. Her present husband, Mr. Hugo de Bathe, is now in her twenty-ninth year.  For some time past he has been absent in South Africa fighting with his regiment.

When Madame Patti was married to the Swedish Baron Cederstrom, she not only secured a third husband, but one a great many years younger than herself.  The world famed songtress has so well preserved her youth and beauty that people are apt to forget that she is now in her fifty-eighth year. 

She was born in Madrid in February 1843.  At the age of twenty-five she became the wife of the Marquis de Caux; and eighteen years later, she found a second husband in Signor Nicolini, who died about two and a half years ago.  Several months after the engagement to Baron Cederstrom was announced, and before many weeks had elapsed the marriage took place.  The Baron is a handsome young Swede of engaging manners.  As counted by years, he is little more than half the age of his gifted and every youthful wife.

Frances Hodgson Burnett

Mrs. Frances Hodgson Burnett, the famous authoress of ‘Little Lord Fauntleroy’ and many other notable works, is a recent addition to the list of elderly ladies who have young husbands.  She was born in Manchester in 1849, and is consequently now in her fifty-first year.  When only sixteen she migrated with her parents to the United States, marrying eight years later Dr. Burnett, of Washington.

From him she obtained a divorce a couple of years ago.  Last February she was married to a gentleman who had for some time acted as her private secretary, Mr. Stephen Townsend, F.R.A.S., a handsome young Englishman of some thirty summers.

Baroness Burdett-Coutts

Of ladies who, as spinsters, married men much younger than themselves, there are one or two notable examples.  Perhaps the most remarkable is that of the ‘angel of goodness,’ Baroness Burdett-Coutts.  Her ladyship was born in the year 1814, and is consequently now of the age of eighty-six. She did not marry until she had reached her sixty-seventh year, when she accepted the hand and heart of Mr. William Ashmead-Bartlett, now M.P. for Westminster.

This gentleman was at that time only thirty years of age, and instead of giving his wife his name, as nearly every man does when he marries, he assumed that of his wife.  The Baroness is one of the few women in this country who are peeresses in their own right. This rare honour was bestowed on her in 1871, and never did it have a more worthy recipient.

WHEN IS A WOMAN IN HER PRIME?

The Growing List Of Women Who Marry

Men Many Years Younger Than Themselves

Seems To Show That Charms Are No Longer

Certain To Wane Beyond Forty-Five And Even Fifty

Warsaw Daily Union

June 15, 1907

New York –Is there ever a time in a woman’s life when the possibility of romance is dead? Is her heart ever steeled to Cupid’s shafts? What is a woman’s prime of life, anyway? These are serious questions.  They have been asked since the beginning of time: doubtless they will be asked to its end. But never has an answer been more frequently demanded than right now in this twentieth century.  Practical as it is, these times are far more being shorn of romance.

In youth, in age, woman’s power of loving seems always just the same.  One day we have maidenly May marrying hoary-bearded December.  Next we have mustached May the blushing bridegroom of motherly December.  It is all the same – the only safe answer to the question is that there doesn’t seem to be any woman in the world who can finally put aside romance for the more practical things of life.

Ellen Terry

And who could have given more prominence to this very thing than Miss Ellen Terry, premier Shakespearian actress of two continents.  She has recently taken to herself, a third husband, James Carew.  They were married on March 22, last in Pittsburg, by Justice of the Peace, Campbell.

Terry’s Youthful Husband

The Pennsylvania law requires certain questions. Young Mr. Carew said he was born in Indiana and was an actor by profession.  He owned up to 32 years, but he looked younger. Miss Terry told that she had been married twice before – divorced once and widowed the second time.  She gave her birthday as February 27, 1848.

Romance has always played a part in the life of Mrs. Charles T. Yerkes-Mizner.  When as the beautiful Mary Adelaide Moore of Philadelphia she met Charles T. Yerkes he was not the multi-millionaire that he was when he died.  He had been out of the penitentiary but a little while; still the golden-haired girl loved him and he loved her.  They were married. Wealth came faster and faster.

Mr. Yerkes became one of the foremost traction men of this country and Europe.  He had a beautiful Chicago home, but Mrs. Yerkes wanted another in New York.  So the multi-millionaire built another one – a great brownstone pile in upper Fifth Avenue.

He died on December 29, 1905.  Within a month along came a handsome six-foot Californian, Wilson Mizner by name.  He had a way with the women that was wonderful, and in the Golden West, he had left a reputation as a lady’s man which would be hard to duplicate.

He had known Mrs. Yerkes for about a year.  He called to express his grief in her sorrow. Here again pity was akin to love.  His sympathy was so apparently genuine, his solicitude so tender that the widow was touched very deeply.

Admits Mistake In Marriage

Young Mr. Mizner himself felt the call of Cupid.  From commiseration he turned to courtship; he won an easy victory after a whirlwind attack on the citadel of the widow’s heart. Within a month after Mr. Yerkes’ death they were quietly married.

But here the romance died a-borning. Mr. Mizner soon shook the dust of Fifth Avenue from his feet, and Mrs. Yerkes-Mizner declared that it had all been a mistake.

But now the case of Mizner vs Mizner is even before the court. 

Mrs. Frank Leslie

Death alone robbed Mrs. Frank Leslie of a fourth marriage.  When the Marquis de Campallegre, a Spanish noble died in Paris recently, Mrs. Leslie – that is the name by which she chooses to be known – told to her friends that she had promised to be his bride. Her trousseau had already been made in Paris the wedding set for early this month.

Married Many Times

Mrs. Leslie was the beautiful Miriam Florence Folline of New Orleans.  Her first husband was E. G. Squier, after United States commissioner to Peru, from who she, separated. She then married Frank Leslie, the rich publisher. After his death she became a bride for the third time, marrying ‘Willie’ Wilde, brother of the late Oscar Wilde.  She divorced this husband because he was too much of a spendthrift, among other things.

Romance has always played a foremost role in the life of Patti, the divine.  New York has known her these 50 years and more, but Europe has been the place where she has ever fallen prey to Cupid’s darts.

The great diva was born in 1843, the morning after her mother, Mme. Barilli had sung Norma with great éclat.  In 1851, Patti, at the tender age of eight, was also singing, but her read debut was in this city in 1859. Her singing made a furore; her success was instantaneous.

Severn years later she met the Marquis de Caux, of an honored French family. They were both in love and a marriage was arranged by no less a personage than the Empress Eugenie. 

Won Heart Of Diva

Then in 1871 she met the tenor, Enresto Nicolini. For Patti he changed the whole current of the diva’s life.  Signor Nicolini was a singer of no very remarkable ability.  The great songtress loathed the man, who persisted in following her all over Europe, though there was a Signora Nicolini, and several little Nicolinis.

But Nicolini was persistence itself. He was a friend of the Marquis de Caux, who found one day how matters stood.  He forbade the singer the house.  This made the diva furious.  He also refused to allow his wife to sing.  This was the last straw. They separated; a divorce was finally obtained in 1884.  The Nicolinis was made twain, too.

Then Patti and Nicolini were married.  It was then Nicolini grew in the estimation of the world. He loved his new wife devotedly. He was the lover-like husband always.

And Patti loved him, too.  When Nicolini fell ill of cancer of the tongue no one could nurse him but she.  When he died, she was inconsolable.

Then came the Baron Cederstrom, a young Swedish nobleman, 35 years old. They met at Pau, ten years ago. He fell heels over head in love with the woman with the wonderful voice.  What care he – or she for that matter – about a little difference in age?

They were married, Craig-y-Nos was sold and the happy pair retired to a castle in Norway, where they dwell, yet, happy as larks.

Churchill Won Prize

Another international love match with London for its focus was that of Lady Randolph Churchill and young Lieut. Cornwallis-West. But in this case the bride was the American, the bridegroom the British subject.

Miss Jennie Jerome was one of the belles of New York 40 years ago. She was the daughter of Leonard Jerome, Wall Street man, recanteur and bon vivant.  Lord Randolph Churchill, one of England’s foremost politicians, made a trip to America and fell in love with the clever New York girl.  Their marriage in Grace Church was a notable event.

The pair returned to England. Lady Randolph’s tact and cleverness had much to do with her husband’s success in statecraft, as all England knew.  Lord Randolph Churchill died in 1895, leaving his wife $250,000.

Four years later at Cowes, Lady Randolph met young Lieutenant West, son of a family that had much pride and little money. It was love at first sight between the comely widow of 52 and the young officer of 25, younger than her youngest son.

The marriage of beautiful ‘Kitty’ Dudley to Leslie Carter, millionaire, in 1860 proved unhappy.  They were divorce in 1889, and the young ex-wife with the glorious Titian hair went on the stage, where she achieved not only fame but fortune.

Broadway is still talking about her marriage last summer while in Boston on an auto trip with a party of friends. It was all very sudden. Young Mr. Payne, only a trifle order than Mrs. Carter’s son, Dudley, proposed one day; they were married almost the next.

Take Mrs. Frances Hodgson Burnett, for example, author of ‘Little Lord Fautleroy,’ and other successful works for old and young.  Mrs. Burnett was Miss Hodgson in 1873 when she married Dr. S. M. Burnett at the age of 23. A quarter of a century later they were divorced; two years afterward Mrs. Burnett, then a woman of 50, fell in love with Stephen Townsend, Englishman, physician, author and actor.  They were married in 1900.

Then another literary romance had its culmination when that talented writer, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps married Herbert Ward.  She was the gifted authoress, her genius matured at 44.  He was the Andover theologue of 27, eager to enter the ministry.

Professor Phelps of the seminary, liked the enthusiastic youth, and he invited him to his house. There Mr. Ward met the authoress.  He was fascinated by her brilliancy.

Gradually the young student’s aspirations turned from the ministry to literature.  Miss Phelps was his inspiration. What followed was – love.  Their friends were amazed.  They were married in October, 1888.

Today Mrs. Ward is 62 years old and Mr. Ward is 45.

And in the news of only a day or two ago comes the announcement of two more such marriages.  In Worcester, Mass, Mrs. Antoine Kielbasa, widowed three times, possessed of $1,000,000 and 46 years old, married Martin Moneta, ten years her junior and a poor photographer.  Here in New York, Mrs. Ada Jaffray McVickar announces her engagement to Herman P. Trappe.  Mrs. McVickar has five sons, two of them married.  Mr. Trappe is 30.

Who now shall dare to say what a woman’s prime really is, or when she can forget romance and Cupid’s call?

NR

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