An American Heiress Snags An Earl-to-Be

by Kimberly Keagan
August 10, 2023

In November 1, 1905, The Tatler, a weekly publication that covered high society events and gossip, broke news of an engagement between an American heiress from New York and an English nobleman.

“Another American Countess. Though the engagement between Lord Willoughby de Eresby and Miss Eloise Breese has only recently been announced, it has practically existed for some time, and everybody who knew the two families was aware that the official announcement was only a question of time period would will be was constantly in attendance at missus Harry Higgins's and was not to be tempted elsewhere."

In its cutting fashion, The Tatler does not hesitate to bring up the notion that American heiresses have money, but the British have titles that transcend wealth:

"It is an open secret that there are two or three of the best families of Britain who would have welcomed an alliance with Lord Ancaster’s heir, and it is equally certain that the ladies concerned were willing. The engagement is indeed a real American triumph, for Lord Willoughby as one of the greatest parties in the marriage market. Miss Breese may have money in her own right, but Lord Willoughby has both long descend and the prospect of broad acres when in the course of nature, he succeeds to one of our oldest and best endowed titles."

The Tatler, in all fairness, takes jibes at the British nobility, pointing out the snobbery of the Earl of Ancaster, Willoughby de Eresby’s father:

"The future father-in-law of miss Eloise Breese is known in certain quarters as the inaccessible Earl. As becomes a hereditary Lord great Chamberlain he has hedged round with dignity, and there is no member of the period with whom it is more difficult for an outsider to obtain an interview. Lord Ancaster keeps a man specially employed, they say, and fending off intruders. Yet seriously, he is very exclusive and disdains to mix with the common crowd. His intimates are indeed very few and very highly placed."

 
The Tatler goes on to explain that the Earl’s wife is also quite snobby:

“Lady Ancaster is also very exclusive, and her parties hitherto have never been overrun with the “nouveaux riches”. The sister of a Marquis of Huntley, she, too has a pedigree which goes back some seven centuries, and when she meets a pushing social climber can easily convey the impression that the family tree really had its roots in the glacial period.”

I can imagine the arguments the Earl and Countess had with their son because he chose not only a member of the nouveau riches, but an American to boot!