William B. Coster

Coster was born in New York and lived at a large home at 103 East 71st Street. He was one of four children born to Charles Robert Coster (1839–1888){{cite news |title=OBITUARY {{!}} CHARLES ROBERT COSTER |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1888/12/25/106202905.pdf |accessdate=January 13, 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=December 25, 1888}}{{cite news |title=FUNERAL OF COL. CHARLES R. COSTER. |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1888/12/27/106203380.pdf |accessdate=January 13, 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=December 27, 1888}} and Marie Bay (née James) Coster (1841–1904),{{cite news |title=MRS. COSTER'S ODD DEATH. Body Found in Foot of Water in Larchmont Reservoir. |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1904/10/01/120288727.pdf |accessdate=January 13, 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=October 1, 1904}} who were married in 1864.{{cite web |title=NYC Marriage & Death Notices 1857-1868 |url=https://www.nysoclib.org/collection/nyc-marriage-death-notices-1857-1868 |website=www.nysoclib.org |publisher=New York Society Library |accessdate=January 13, 2019}} Among his siblings was brother Charles Coster,{{refn|group=lower-alpha|Charles Coster (d. 1908), was married to Helen Louise Anthon, daughter of Rev. Edward Anthon and Helen (née Post) Anthon.{{cite book |last1=Post |first1=Marie Caroline |title=The Post Family |date=1905 |publisher=Sterling Potter |page=[https://archive.org/details/postfamily00postgoog/page/n253 203] |url=https://archive.org/details/postfamily00postgoog |accessdate=January 13, 2019 |language=en}}}}{{cite news |title=BROKER CHAS. COSTER A SUICIDE AT HOME Stock Exchange Member Shoots Himself for No Apparent Cause. CHEERFUL BEFORE HE DIED Had Been Chatting with Family Physician a Few Moments Before — Well Known in Athletics. |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1908/04/29/104723832.pdf |accessdate=January 13, 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=April 29, 1908}} and sister Elizabeth Mary Coster, who married Alfred Egmont Schermerhorn.{{refn|group=lower-alpha|Elizabeth Mary Coster (1877–1946) was married to Alfred Egmont Schermerhorn (1871–1932), a real estate dealer and member of the prominent Schermerhorn family.{{cite book |title=The Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York: history, customs, record of events, constitution, certain genealogies, and other matters of interest. v. 1- |date=1916 |publisher=Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York |page=45 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bskpAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA45 |accessdate=January 13, 2019 |language=en}} Their son, Alfred Coster Schermerhorn, was married to romantic fiction writer, Ursula Parrott.{{cite magazine |title=Milestones, Feb. 27, 1939 |url=https://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,788971,00.html |accessdate=January 13, 2019 |magazine=Time |date=February 27, 1939}}}}{{cite book |last1=James |first1=William |last2=James |first2=Henry |title=William and Henry James: Selected Letters |date=1997 |publisher=University of Virginia Press |isbn=9780813916941 |page=542 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PH6r8rF2FHQC&pg=PA542 |accessdate=January 13, 2019 |language=en}} His father was a soldier and public official, who is best known for commanding a brigade at the Battle of Gettysburg.Conklin, George W. (1999). Under the Crescent and Star: The 134th New York Volunteer Infantry in the Civil War, p. 31. Axworthy Publishing. {{ISBN|0-9674985-0-3}}.

His maternal grandfather was Augustus J. James of Albany, the brother of theologian Henry James Sr., making William's mother Marie a first cousin of author Henry James, psychologist William James, and diarist Alice James.{{cite book |last1=James |first1=Henry |title=Henry James: Autobiographies (LOA #274) Brother / The Middle Years / Other Writings: A Small Boy and Others / Notes of a Son and Brother / The Middle Years / Other Writings |date=2016 |publisher=Library of America |isbn=9781598534726 |page=1311 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bB7wCAAAQBAJ&pg=PT1311 |accessdate=January 13, 2019 |language=en}} His paternal grandparents were John H. Coster and Sarah Adeline (née Boardman) Coster,{{cite book |last1=Goldthwaite |first1=Charlotte |title=Boardman Genealogy, 1525-1895 : the English home and ancestry of Samuel Boreman, Wethersfield, Conn., Thomas Boreman, Ipswich, Mass. |date=1895 |publisher=[S.l.] : W.F.J. Boardman |page=[https://archive.org/details/boardmangenealog00gold/page/332 332] |url=https://archive.org/details/boardmangenealog00gold |accessdate=January 13, 2019}} making his father a first cousin of fellow New York clubman, Harry Coster.{{cite book |last1=Schroeder |first1=John Frederick |title=Memoir of the life and character of Mrs. Mary Anna Boardman: with a historical account of her forefathers, and biographical and genealogical notices of many of her kindred and relatives |date=1849 |publisher=Printed for private distribution |page=[https://archive.org/details/memoirlifeandch01schrgoog/page/n438 431] |url=https://archive.org/details/memoirlifeandch01schrgoog |accessdate=January 13, 2019 |language=en}}{{refn|group=lower-alpha|His grandfather, John H. Coster (better known as a playboy before a businessman), was one of twelve children that married into many prominent families.{{cite news |last1=Miller |first1=Tom |title=The Lost Coster Mansion - Nos. 539-541 Broadway |url=https://daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/2016/11/the-lost-coster-mansion-nos-539-541.html |accessdate=January 13, 2019 |work=Daytonian in Manhattan |date=November 21, 2016}}}} His great-grandfather, John Gerard Coster,{{cite book |last1=Townsend |first1=Annette |title=The Auchmuty family of Scotland and America. |date=1932 |publisher=The Grafton Press |location=New York |pages=[https://archive.org/details/auchmutyfamilyof00town/page/257 257]–260 |url=https://archive.org/details/auchmutyfamilyof00town |accessdate=January 6, 2019}} came from Haarlem in the Netherlands to the United States shortly after the Revolutionary War and founded the family fortune through the mercantile firm, "Henry A. & John G. Coster".{{cite book |last1=Greene |first1=Richard Henry |last2=Stiles |first2=Henry Reed |last3=Dwight |first3=Melatiah Everett |last4=Morrison |first4=George Austin |last5=Mott |first5=Hopper Striker |last6=Totten |first6=John Reynolds |last7=Pitman |first7=Harold Minot |last8=Forest |first8=Louis Effingham De |last9=Ditmas |first9=Charles Andrew |last10=Mann |first10=Conklin |last11=Maynard |first11=Arthur S. |title=The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record |date=1919 |publisher=New York Genealogical and Biographical Society |page=[https://archive.org/details/newyorkgenealogiv50gree/page/n348 305] |url=https://archive.org/details/newyorkgenealogiv50gree |accessdate=January 6, 2019 |language=en}}

Coster became a stockbroker and opened up an office with his brother Charles and John M. Knapp in 1893. He later transferred his seat to Knapp in 1907, and resigned from the firm. He later became a partner in Morgan Drexel. He was known as a speed walker, who could be seen "traversing the sidewalks between the New York Athletic Club and the stock exchange in record time."

In 1908, his brother committed suicide "after he'd been caught bilking his customers out of millions of dollars."{{cite news |title=STOCK BROKERS SUSPEND; C. COSTER A SUICIDE {{!}} Failure of Coster, Knapp & Company Announced on New York Stock Exchange {{!}} IS DUE TO OVERSPECULATION {{!}} Junior Member Who Killed Himself Last Night Had Been Using the Firm's Money |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/53801503 |accessdate=January 13, 2019 |work=The Brooklyn Daily Eagle |date=April 29, 1908 |page=18 |language=en}} Although William was accused of wrongdoing, and, along with his other siblings, worked out of the same office as Charles,{{cite news |title=CHAS. COSTER LOST $1,000,000 IN STOCKS Suicide's Plunge on the Short Side with the Firm's Money Forces Its Suspension. RELATIVES HEAVY LOSERS Coster Said to Have Lost $200,000 of His Mother-in-Law's Money — Was $1,200,000 Ahead Until Recently. |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1908/04/30/104802556.pdf |accessdate=January 13, 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=April 30, 1908}} William himself was eventually declared by the New York Stock Exchange to be completely innocent in the debacle.{{cite news |title=W.B. COSTER'S LOSSES WERE NEVER SETTLED Inquiry Into Brokerage Firm's Failure Shows an Indebtedness of More Than $500,000. TRADED UNDER NUMBERS He and His Brother Had Joint Accounts in Which Some $1,000,000 Was Lost — The Manager's Testimony. |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1908/06/26/104735167.pdf |accessdate=January 13, 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=June 26, 1908}}

Coster also served in the New York National Guard as the aide de camp of the First Brigade, achieving the rank of captain in 1896.{{cite book |last1=Assembly |first1=New York (State) Legislature |title=Documents of the Assembly of the State of New York |date=1897 |publisher=E. Croswell |page=195 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NmHT8WOtgV8C&pg=RA4-PA195 |accessdate=January 13, 2019 |language=en}}{{cite news |title=SWORD FOR MAJOR ANDREWS {{!}} He Receives It from Gen. Fitzgerald and His Old Staff at a Dinner |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1898/04/26/102559757.pdf |accessdate=January 13, 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=April 26, 1898}}

In 1892, Coster, one of the best-known bachelor clubmen,{{cite news |title=WHAT IS DOING IN SOCIETY. |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1900/08/31/101065266.pdf |accessdate=January 13, 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=August 31, 1900}} was included in Ward McAllister's "Four Hundred", purported to be an index of New York's best families, published in The New York Times.{{cite news|last1=McAllister|first1=Ward|title=THE ONLY FOUR HUNDRED {{!}} WARD M'ALLISTER GIVES OUT THE OFFICIAL LIST. HERE ARE THE NAMES, DON'T YOU KNOW, ON THE AUTHORITY OF THEIR GREAT LEADER, YOU UNDER- STAND, AND THEREFORE GENUINE, YOU SEE.|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1892/02/16/108210917.pdf|accessdate=March 26, 2017|work=The New York Times|date=February 16, 1892|language=en}} Conveniently, 400 was the number of people that could fit into Mrs. Astor's ballroom.{{cite book|last1=Keister|first1=Lisa A.|title=Getting Rich: America's New Rich and How They Got That Way|date=2005|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9780521536677|page=36|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5dAtJf1hmAUC&pg=PA36|accessdate=October 20, 2017|language=en}}{{cite book |last1=Patterson |first1=Jerry E. |title=The First Four Hundred: Mrs. Astor's New York in the Gilded Age |date=2000 |publisher=Random House Incorporated |isbn=9780847822089 |page=213 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZLwMAAAAYAAJ |accessdate=January 6, 2019 |language=en}} Coster was a member of the Union Club.

On October 1, 1900,{{cite news |title=A DAY'S WEDDINGS; Coster -- Gray. |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1900/10/02/101067413.pdf |accessdate=January 13, 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=October 2, 1900}} Coster was married to Maria "Minnie" Griswold Gray (1868–1947){{cite news |title=MRS. WILLIAM B. COSTER |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1947/07/24/87550287.pdf |accessdate=January 13, 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=July 24, 1947 |language=en}} at St. Saviour's Episcopal Church in Bar Harbor, Maine.{{cite journal |title=Society |journal=Boston Home Journal |date=1900 |page=6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QftK8SnldFUC&pg=RA39-PA6 |accessdate=January 13, 2019 |publisher=Samuel T. Cobb & Company |language=en}} Minnie, a close friend of etiquette author Emily Post,{{cite book |last1=Claridge |first1=Laura |title=Emily Post: Daughter of the Gilded Age, Mistress of American Manners |date=2009 |publisher=Random House Publishing Group |isbn=9780812967418 |pages=139–140, 180, 189–190, 216, 421 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2CVfUnnbPE4C&pg=PA140 |accessdate=January 13, 2019 |language=en}} was the daughter of Henry Winthrop Gray{{cite news|title=DIED. Gray|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1906/10/15/101803215.pdf |accessdate=January 30, 2018|work=The New York Times|date=October 15, 1906}} and Mary (née Travers) Gray, and the granddaughter of William R. Travers.{{refn|group=lower-alpha|Minnie's mother, Mary Mackall Travers (a granddaughter of U.S. Senator and U.S. Ambassador to the U.K. Reverdy Johnson), remarried to John G. Hecksher.{{cite news|title=WALDO TO MARRY MRS. J.G. HECKSCHER; Fire Commissioner's Marriage to Third Wife of Late J.G. Heckscher to Occur To-morrow.|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1910/04/19/archives/waldo-t0-marry-mrs-jg-heckscher-fire-commissioners-marriage-to.html|accessdate=May 11, 2017|work=The New York Times|date=April 19, 1910}}}} Her parents divorced and her father remarried to Matilda Frelinghuyhsen (daughter of U.S. Secretary of State F. T. Frelinghuysen{{cite news|title=MRS. M.G.F. GRAY OF OLD FAMILY DIES; Daughter of F. T. Frelinghuysen, Once Secretary of State-Funeral Today.|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1926/03/25/98376083.pdf |accessdate=January 30, 2018|work=The New York Times|date=March 25, 1926}}) in May 1889.{{cite news|title=In Bonds of Matrimony; Marriage of Mr. Gray and Miss. Frelinghuysen. a Quiet Ceremony at the Homestead of the Bride's Family|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1889/05/17/archives/in-bonds-of-matrimony-marriage-of-mr-gray-and-miss-frelinghuysen-a.html|accessdate=January 30, 2018|work=The New York Times|date=May 17, 1889}} Together, William and Maria first lived in New York, then Paris,{{cite book |title=Social Register, New York |date=1920 |publisher=Social Register Association |page=154 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ek5IAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA154 |accessdate=January 13, 2019 |language=en}} and became the parents of three children:{{cite book |last1=Gray |first1=Edward |title=William Gray of Lynn, Massachusetts, and some of his descendants |date=1916 |publisher=Essex Institute |location=Salem, Mass. |url=https://archive.org/details/williamgrayoflyn00gray |accessdate=January 13, 2019}}

• Matilda Gray Coster (1901–1962), who married Stanley Yates Mortimer Jr. (1897–1984), a grandson of Valentine Hall Jr., nephew of Richard Mortimer, and first cousin of Eleanor Roosevelt, in 1925.{{cite news |title=MATHILDA COSTER WED IN CITY GHAPEL; She and Stanley Mortimer Jr. Give Their Friends in Society a BigSurprise. BRIDE'S MOTHER UNAWARE Artist, Brother of Countess di Zoppola, and Bride Hurry Their Marrlage to Sail for Europe. |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1925/01/03/104273826.pdf |accessdate=January 13, 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=January 3, 1925 |language=en}} They divorced in 1928,{{cite news |title=TWO GET PARIS DIVORCES.; Mrs. Fleischman and Mrs. Mortimer Charge Desertion. |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1928/08/15/95591948.pdf |accessdate=January 13, 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=August 15, 1928 |language=en}} and she remarried to Luis Martínez de las Rivas, in 1932.{{cite news |title=MRS. M. MORTIMER WED.; New York Woman Married to Luis M. de las Rivas in Monte Carlo. |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1932/03/31/100705904.pdf |accessdate=January 13, 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=March 31, 1932 |language=en}} They later lived in Cuernavaca, Mexico.
• Mary Griswold Coster (1903–1918), who died of pneumonia at age 15.{{cite news |title=DIED |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/20548996 |accessdate=January 13, 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=November 4, 1918 |page=13 |language=en}}
• William Bay Coster Jr. (1908–1945), who rowed on the Pembroke College crew at Oxford and was an air-raid warden in London during World War II.

After living in New York and Paris for many years, Coster died "of a long illness, patiently borne," in Bournemouth, England on December 19, 1918.{{cite news |title=COSTER--William Bay |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/469247887 |accessdate=January 13, 2019 |work=New-York Tribune |date=December 23, 1918 |page=12 |language=en}} His widow, who lived in Paris at 5 Rue Vaneau, died at her home, 39 East 79th Street in New York, at the age of 79 in July 1947.{{cite news |title=DEATHS ELSEWHERE |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/298326498 |accessdate=January 13, 2019 |work=The Miami News |date=July 24, 1947 |page=25 |language=en}}

Through his daughter Matilda, he was the grandfather of Mathilda Coster Mortimer (1925–1997), Duchess of Argyll.{{cite news |title=Mathilda, Dowager Duchess of Argyll, Dies at 70 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/06/08/nyregion/mathilda-dowager-duchess-of-argyll-dies-at-70.html |accessdate=January 13, 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=June 8, 1997}} Mathilda was first married to Clemens Heller, founder of the Salzburg Global Seminar, a school in Salzburg, Austria. They divorced in 1962, and in 1963, she remarried to Ian Campbell, 11th Duke of Argyll (1903–1973), following his rather public divorce from Margaret Campbell, Duchess of Argyll. Mathilda and the Duke of Argyll were the parents of one child, Lady Elspeth Campbell, who lived only five days after her birth in 1967. The Duke and Duchess remained married until the Duke's death on April 7, 1973.{{cite news |last1=Currie |first1=William |title=MOTHER'S SEARCH |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1993-01-17-9303163183-story.html |accessdate=January 13, 2019 |work=Chicago Tribune |date=January 17, 1993}}

;Notes

{{Reflist|group=lower-alpha}}

;Sources

{{Reflist}}

• [https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp92367/mathilda-coster-campbell-nee-mortimer-duchess-of-argyll Photograph of Coster's granddaughter, Mathilda Coster Campbell, Duchess of Argyll], by Madame Yevonde, mid 1960s, at the National Portrait Gallery.

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Category:1867 births

Category:1918 deaths

Category:American bankers

Category:19th-century American businesspeople