Read Online America's Secret Aristocracy by Stephen; Birmingham - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Stephen; Birmingham
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secure Carlos IIIâs continued help in the Revolutionary cause. The man chosen for this high diplomatic mission was John Jay.
Sarah Jay, who had never crossed the Atlantic or set foot outside the American continent, was ecstatic. She would be curtsying before the Spanish monarch, and he would be kissingher hand. Was there any wealth more ancient than that of the Bourbon kings? There was never any doubt about whether Sarah Jay wanted to accompany her husband on his mission to Madrid. The only question was whether anyone could stop her.
5
A Gentlemanâs War
William W. Reese is a New York banker in his middle forties who is a member of the firm of J. P. Morgan & Company. He and his beautiful artist wife live in an attractive apartment on Park Avenue and keep a winter condominium in Palm Beach; all very ordinary upper-crust New York stuff, you might say. And yet William Reese is one of a number of quietly successful young Americans who take their descendancy from the early aristocratic families very seriously and who consider themselves aristocratically superior to what passes for New York âsocietyâ todayâthough they would never say so except in the company of close friends and others whom they recognize as their own sort. An aristocrat, by definition, never boasts of being one.
Bill Reese confesses to gaining a quiet pleasure walking about New York and feeling a sense of belonging to a place his ancestors helped build. âI can pass a building and think, Thatâs the corner where my great-grandfatherâs house stood. That old building was where my great-uncles went to school. That little park used to be part of one of my ancestorsâ apple orchard, and that statue is of a relative of mine. My ancestors helped build that hospital, that museum. This was where the reservoir used to be until some of my ancestors, the Astors, gave the money to build the public library.â¦â
On his fatherâs side, Bill Reese is descended from Livingstons, who, of course, are by now connected to everybody else, including the Astors, and on his motherâs side the connections are to the Otises of Boston, about whom there aremany family legends, many of which may be apocryphal. According to one, Mrs. Harrison Gray Otis, whenever she introduced herself, always quickly added, âAnd we are not in elevators. We were elevated when there were just stairs.â
To maintain a sense of connection with his familyâs long American past, William Reese belongs to at least twenty patriotic, genealogical, and social organizations, including the Union Club, the Knickerbocker Club, the Rockaway Hunting Club, the Racquet & Tennis Club, the Down Town Club, the Church Club, the Badminton Club, the University Club, the Metropolitan Opera Club, the Society of Colonial Wars, the Military Order of Foreign Wars, the New England Society, the Order of Colonial Lords of Manors in America, the Society of the War of 1812, the St. Nicholas Society, the Sons of the Revolution, the Huguenot Society, the Sons of the American Revolution, the Mayflower Descendants, and the American Society of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem. As can be deduced, many of Mr. Reeseâs ancestors have fought in wars. âOne has a special affection,â he says, âfor ancestors who have died fighting in wars for their country.â
William Reese often lunches at the University Club, that marvel of McKim, Mead & White architecture at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Fifty-fourth Street in Manhattan, and the University Club also honors its war dead. On one wall of the clubâs entrance lobby, a bronze plaque commemorates club members who fell in World War I. On the opposite wall, a similar plaque memorializes those members who died in World War II. Mr. Reese, who is too young to have fought in either of these wars, often studies these two plaques. âI want you to notice something,â he says.
Sarah Jay, who had never crossed the Atlantic or set foot outside the American continent, was ecstatic. She would be curtsying before the Spanish monarch, and he would be kissingher hand. Was there any wealth more ancient than that of the Bourbon kings? There was never any doubt about whether Sarah Jay wanted to accompany her husband on his mission to Madrid. The only question was whether anyone could stop her.
5
A Gentlemanâs War
William W. Reese is a New York banker in his middle forties who is a member of the firm of J. P. Morgan & Company. He and his beautiful artist wife live in an attractive apartment on Park Avenue and keep a winter condominium in Palm Beach; all very ordinary upper-crust New York stuff, you might say. And yet William Reese is one of a number of quietly successful young Americans who take their descendancy from the early aristocratic families very seriously and who consider themselves aristocratically superior to what passes for New York âsocietyâ todayâthough they would never say so except in the company of close friends and others whom they recognize as their own sort. An aristocrat, by definition, never boasts of being one.
Bill Reese confesses to gaining a quiet pleasure walking about New York and feeling a sense of belonging to a place his ancestors helped build. âI can pass a building and think, Thatâs the corner where my great-grandfatherâs house stood. That old building was where my great-uncles went to school. That little park used to be part of one of my ancestorsâ apple orchard, and that statue is of a relative of mine. My ancestors helped build that hospital, that museum. This was where the reservoir used to be until some of my ancestors, the Astors, gave the money to build the public library.â¦â
On his fatherâs side, Bill Reese is descended from Livingstons, who, of course, are by now connected to everybody else, including the Astors, and on his motherâs side the connections are to the Otises of Boston, about whom there aremany family legends, many of which may be apocryphal. According to one, Mrs. Harrison Gray Otis, whenever she introduced herself, always quickly added, âAnd we are not in elevators. We were elevated when there were just stairs.â
To maintain a sense of connection with his familyâs long American past, William Reese belongs to at least twenty patriotic, genealogical, and social organizations, including the Union Club, the Knickerbocker Club, the Rockaway Hunting Club, the Racquet & Tennis Club, the Down Town Club, the Church Club, the Badminton Club, the University Club, the Metropolitan Opera Club, the Society of Colonial Wars, the Military Order of Foreign Wars, the New England Society, the Order of Colonial Lords of Manors in America, the Society of the War of 1812, the St. Nicholas Society, the Sons of the Revolution, the Huguenot Society, the Sons of the American Revolution, the Mayflower Descendants, and the American Society of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem. As can be deduced, many of Mr. Reeseâs ancestors have fought in wars. âOne has a special affection,â he says, âfor ancestors who have died fighting in wars for their country.â
William Reese often lunches at the University Club, that marvel of McKim, Mead & White architecture at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Fifty-fourth Street in Manhattan, and the University Club also honors its war dead. On one wall of the clubâs entrance lobby, a bronze plaque commemorates club members who fell in World War I. On the opposite wall, a similar plaque memorializes those members who died in World War II. Mr. Reese, who is too young to have fought in either of these wars, often studies these two plaques. âI want you to notice something,â he says.
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