Fortune's Many Houses
A Victorian Visionary, a Noble Scottish Family, and a Lost Inheritance
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
A unique and fascinating look at Victorian society through the remarkable lives of an enlightened and philanthropic aristocratic couple, the Marquess and Marchioness of Aberdeen, who tried to change the world for the better but paid a heavy price. This is a true tale of love and loss, fortune and misfortune.
In the late 19th century, John and Ishbel Gordon, the Marquess and Marchioness of Aberdeen, were the couple who seemed to have it all: a fortune that ran into the tens of millions, a magnificent stately home in Scotland surrounded by one of Europe’s largest estates, a townhouse in London’s most fashionable square, cattle ranches in Texas and British Columbia, and the governorships of Ireland and Canada where they lived like royalty.
Together they won praise for their work as social reformers and pioneers of women’s rights, and enjoyed friendships with many of the most prominent figures of the age, from Britain’s Prime Ministers to Oliver Wendell-Holmes and P.T. Barnum and Queen Victoria herself. Yet by the time they died in the 1930s, this gilded couple’s luck had long since run out: they had faced family tragedies, scandal through their unwitting involvement in one of the “crimes of the century” and, most catastrophically of all, they had lost both their fortune and their lands.
This fascinating family quest for the reason for their dramatic downfall is also a moving and colorful exploration of society in Victorian Britain and North America and an inspirational feast for history lovers.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Television producer Welfare explores in this colorful debut biography the glamorous, philanthropic lives of Scottish aristocrats John and Ishbel Gordon, who bankrolled numerous social causes in Britain and North America even as they bankrupted themselves through bad investments and extravagant building projects. Married in 1877, the Gordons' honeymoon was a portent of things to come. Before the couple set out for Egypt, burglars stole Ishbel's extensive jewelry collection; weeks later, she and John were setting up impromptu health clinics during a trip down the Nile River (they also took on the living and educational expenses of four former slave boys). During John's tenure as the governor general of Canada from 1893 to 1898, Ishbel formed the Victorian Order of Nurses in Ottawa and initiated book drives to benefit rural areas. Both abroad and in Scotland, where they were the Marquess and Marchioness of Aberdeen, John and Ishbel designed, renovated, and built numerous stately homes; meanwhile, dodgy investments, including a series of North American ranches poorly managed by Ishbel's brothers, further drained the couple's resources. Welfare, who is married to the Gordons' great-granddaughter, draws on an extensive collection of family papers to provide intriguing details about the couple's social life and political causes. These imperfect do-gooders make for entertaining company.