Caroline LeRoy Webster (September 28, 1797 – February 26, 1882) was the second wife of 19th century statesman

Daniel Webster Daniel Webster (January 18, 1782 – October 24, 1852) was an American lawyer and statesman who represented New Hampshire and Massachusetts in the U.S. Congress and served as the 14th and 19th United States Secretary of State, U.S. secretary o ...

Early life

She was a daughter of Hannah (

née The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...

Cornell) LeRoy and Herman LeRoy. Her father was once head of the commercial house of Leroy, Bayard, McKiven & Co., a large trading company that operated in different parts of the world. Herman also served as the first Dutch Consul to the United States. A descendant of Thomas Cornell, Caroline's maternal grandfather, the

Loyalist Loyalism, in the United Kingdom, its overseas territories and its former colonies, refers to the allegiance to the British crown or the United Kingdom. In North America, the most common usage of the term refers to loyalty to the British Cr ...

Samuel Cornell, was the last Royal

Attorney General of North Carolina The attorney general of North Carolina is a statewide elected office in the United States, U.S. state of North Carolina. The attorney general is a state constitutional officer, constitutional officer responsible for representing state agencies i ...

. Her aunt, Elizabeth Cornell, was married to banker William Bayard Jr., a close friend to

Alexander Hamilton Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755 or 1757July 12, 1804) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the first U.S. secretary of the treasury from 1789 to 1795 dur ...

, and her first cousin, Harriet Elizabeth Bayard, was married to Stephen Van Rensselaer IV, the last

patroon In the United States, a patroon (; from Dutch '' patroon'' ) was a landholder with manorial rights to large tracts of land in the 17th-century Dutch colony of New Netherland on the east coast of North America. Through the Charter of Free ...

of the

Manor of Rensselaerswyck Rensselaerswyck was a Dutch colonial patroonship and later an England, English Proprietary colony, manor owned by the Van Rensselaer (family), van Rensselaer family located in the present-day Capital District, New York, Capital District of New Yor ...

Personal life

She was the second wife to Daniel Webster, after

Grace Fletcher Webster Grace (Fletcher) Webster (1781–1828) was the first wife of Daniel Webster. She was with him as he started his law career in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and then sought to improve their lives by settling in Boston on Beacon Hill, Boston, Beacon H ...

's death. She met Webster at her father's house while Webster was a guest there. After only a few months of courtship they got married. Their wedding was an upscale one with a large and fashionable assemblage. In 1839, she traveled to Europe with Webster, during this time she was a guest of

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in January 1901. Her reign of 63 year ...

and the

Duke of Wellington Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and above sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they ar ...

as well as other members of the British government and the British aristocracy. When Daniel Webster died in 1852, Caroline received $100,000 (about $3.7 million in 2023) which was invested for her benefit. Thirty years later after Daniel Webster's death, Caroline LeRoy Webster died in her home in New York City after increasing illness and

pneumonia Pneumonia is an Inflammation, inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as Pulmonary alveolus, alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of Cough#Classification, productive or dry cough, ches ...

. She died on February 26, 1882, in her bed. She was then buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in New York.

References

External links

*
Daniel Webster and Caroline Webster papers
at

Harvard Library Harvard Library is the network of libraries and services at Harvard University, a private Ivy League university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Harvard Library is the oldest library system in the United States and both the largest academic librar ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Leroy, Caroline 1797 births 1882 deaths American people of Dutch descent Burials at Woodlawn Cemetery (Bronx, New York) Cornell family People from New York City Spouses of Massachusetts politicians