![]() The reaction was a look of absolute horror, she later recounted. One made the faux pas of asking a butler to light a fire, a job well beneath him. The American women also found themselves resented by the servants of the house. Prequel: Fans of the ITV period drama will get an insight into the back story of its charactersīy then American homes had central heating and showers, so it must have been a culture shock to bathe in a tin bath filled with hot water carried upstairs by a maid. These lively, well-educated women were whisked off to spend their days in isolated, draughty stately homes which were thousands of miles from their families. In Downton, Robert marries Cora for her money before he eventually falls in love with her, but the reality was often very different for the Dollar Princesses. ![]() ![]() He is 32 years of age, and a captain of the Coldstream Guards. The entailed estates amount to 4,700 acres, yielding an income of $22,000. 'He is also the Hereditary Bearer of the Cap of Maintenance. In 1890, it carried this blatant appeal for a wealthy bride: 'The Marquess of Winchester is the fifteenth Marquess and Premier Marquess in the Peerage of Great Britain. 'They were marriages of convenience, but you have to remember that there was much less emphasis on marrying for love in those days.'Ī quarterly publication called The Titled American listed the successfully married ladies, as well as the names of eligible titled bachelors. It was all very hasty and this was like the speed-dating of its time, involving impoverished members of the English aristocracy and wealthy American heiresses. Stafford adds: 'Soirees and musical evenings were held, where the women would be introduced to members of the aristocracy. When the women disembarked, often with their mothers in tow to arrange introductions, they’d ingratiate their way into London society by letting it be known they had money. At today’s values, it’s estimated that they brought with them the equivalent of £1 billion of new world wealth During the period, lasting from the 1870s to the outbreak of World War 1, some 350 US heiresses married into the British aristocracy.
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