Letters of James McNeill Whistler 1863. UPTON & BRITTON, SOLICITORS. 51, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, LONDON, W. C.

5th July 1889.

Sir,

As you have taken no notice of our last letter to you of the 31st May last we beg to inform you that unless we hear from you by Wednesday next that you are prepared to come to some amicable arrangement with our Client Sir [her husband] Henry Meux (age 33) regarding the unfinished Portrait of Lady Meux (age 37) [Probably Portrait of Lady Meux in Furs] for which you have been paid our instructions are to commence legal proceedings against you without further Notice.

Yours faithfully.

Upton & Britton

Mr. J. Mc. Whistler (age 54)

13. Tite Street, Chelsea.

New York Times 29 Jul 1922. 29 Jul 1922. Obituary. New York Times.

Former Adele Grant of New York Stricken With Heart Attack After Dinner Party.

TRIED TO SUMMON HELP

Dowager, Once Famous Beauty, Was Model for Herkomer's "A Lady in White." [Note. This appears to be a mistake - A Lady in White]

1922 by The New York Times Company. By Wireless to The New York Times.

London, July 28. Dowager Countess Essex (deceased), who was the daughter of the late Beach Grant of New York and the second wife of the Seventh Earl of Essex, was found dead in her bath today at her home, 72 Brook Street, by one of her maids.

Lady Essex attended last night a dinner party given by the Hon. Mrs. Rupert Beckett and appeared in the best of spirits. She was driven home by Mrs. Asquith, with whom she was to have lunched today.

Apparently she took her bath before going to bed and had the seizure. She seemed to have endeavored to get help as the hanging electric bell push had been pulled into the bath. The tragedy was not discovered until this morning when Lady Essex's maid found her bed had not been slept in.

The bath room door was locked and the electric lights were full on. When the door was forced Lady Essex was found dead. She had suffered for years from a weak heart and it is presumed that she had the seizure when she could not help herself.

In her prime Lady Essex was famed for her beauty, being tall and graceful, with soft eyes and dark hair. Indeed she belonged to the group that was playfully christened "Lovely Five" and included Lady Warwick (age 60), Lady Lytton (age 80), Lady Westmoreland and the Duchess of Sutherland (age 54). She was the model for Herkomer's famous picture "A Lady in White."

A coroner's inquest into Lady Essex's death will be held on Monday.

Adele Grant. daughter of the late Beach Grant of this city, was married to the seventh Earl of Essex in St. Margaret's Church, Westminster [Map], Dec. 14 1893. Archdeacon Farrar performed the ceremony, the occasion being one of the brilliant social events of that Winter in London. There have been two children, Lady Iris Mary (age 27) and Lady Joan Rachel (age 23), respectively 26 and 22 years old. Presumably they will share their mother's fortune, which is not inconsiderable since her inheritance in 1915 of some $600,000 from her uncle, R. Suydam Grant, of the New York Stock Exchange.

Her husband was a widower when she married him. The present Earl (age 38), son of his father's first marriage, did not have sufficient income to keep up the magnificent ancestral estate of Cassiobury Park, and last Fall it was offered for sale. On previous occasions it had been rented to Americans, among others to Otto H. Kahn.

An anecdote of the family that reveais the firmness of the Countess is that of her refusal of the tempting offers repeatedly made to her by Lady Meux, widow of Sir Henry Meux, the wealthy brewer. The story has it that Lady Meux, originally a "queen of burlesque" and aunt by marriage of the Earl of Essex, offered to make the Earl her heir if only the Countess would introduce her to society. But the Countess did not allow her thorough disapproval of the brewer's widow to be overcome by the bribe.

Before her marriage Adele Grant had been engaged to the late Earl Cairns, the unfortunate man who acquired the nickname of "Gumboil," thanks to his courtesy title of Lord Garmoyle. She broke off the match on the eve of the wedding owing to the prospective bridegrooms extortionate demands for a settlement. And, in 1920, after the death of her husband, she was reported, not on the highest authority, however, to be engaged to the Duke of Connaught (age 72), brother of Edward Vll. The affair progressed no further than the circulation of the report.

During the World War the Countess did much relief work, serving with Queen Mary's Needlework Guild, on the Urban Executive Committee of the Urban Council for War Relief, and also as President of the Soldiers and Sailors Families' Association.