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Lot Essay
This portrait of Jane Antoinette Roosevelt Duffie (1801-1889) represents an extraordinary story of immigration, assimilation and success in New York City. A daughter of John and Maria (Roosevelt) Duffie, Jane Antoinette's birth merged one of the most prominent Dutch families to arrive to New Amsterdam, whose descendant produced two presidents, and the Scots-French Huguenot Duffies, whose success in the 19th century placed them on equal footing with the Roosevelts.
John Duffie (1763-1808) was the grandson of a Scottish immigrant lost at sea in the voyage to New York City and his French Huguenot wife. In 1783, Duffie's career began as a clerk in Isaac Clason's flour and grocery store on 14 Albany Pier in lower Manhattan, an area whose waterfront land was largely owned by the Roosevelts. Only one year later, Duffie had arranged financial underwriting for his own flour and wholesale grocery business, John Duffie & Co. on 7 Old Slip, from Cornelius C. Roosevelt (b. 1755). In 1786, Duffie married Roosevelt's sister, Maria (1760-1821). The first of their seven children was born in 1787; Jane Antoinette was born in 1801.
The business of John Duffie & Co., prospered phenomenally, with Duffie's family living at fashionable addresses on Front and Vesey Streets, and his children marrying into the Bleecker, de Peyster and Astor Families. Prior to his death in 1808, John Duffie purchased land in Manhattan in the areas that would become Murray Hill, which he left to his children. These bequeathed investments, sold by his daughters later in the 19th century, provided handsomely for Duffie's children as Manhattan expanded north. Jane Antoinette was married twice, first in 1832 to an English ship captain-turned New York City merchant, Miles Richard Burke (1780-1836), and following his death, to another Manhattan merchant Isaac Gibson, in Nyack, New York in 1842. Burke's death in 1836 left his young widow $70,000, their home on 471 Broadway, its furnishings and silver, carriages, horses, tac, wine, pew #77 at St. Thomas's Protestant Episcopal church where they were married and where Jane's brother, Cornelius, was rector, as well as all movables from a farm Burke owned near Mamaroneck in Westchester County. Neither her marriages to Burke nor Gibson produced any children.
Jane Antoinette Duffie Burke Gibson exhibited a similar business acumen as her father. Retaining ownership of the home she shared with Miles Burke, despite moves with her second husband to 234 Fifth Avenue (near 28th Street) and finally 251 Lexington Avenue (near 35th Street), Jane leased the property to various retail establishments. Ubsdell & Pierson, Oppenheimer & Levy, and Oppenheimer & Alder were all occupants of 471 Broadway, with rents providing up to an additional $9,500 per annum to its owner. Three years after Jane's death, the property was valued at $150,000 alone. Jane Antoinette Duffie Burke Gibson died in 1889 with a personal estate valued at $326,000. The bulk of her estate, including most likely the portrait illustrated here, was left to the children of her brother Cornelius' son, Cornelius Roosevelt Duffie II.
Jane Antoinette sat for several portraits in addition to the pastel illustrated here. An oil on canvas shows a young Jane Antoinette dressed in mourning and was probably painted between 1836 and 1842. After 1839, two Carte de visite photographs of Jane were taken in 1860 and closer to her death in 1889 as well.
All biographical information from Patricia Ellerton Duffie, The Duffie Family of Edinburgh and New York (Madison, WI, 1983), pp. 90-96, 101, 113-116, 119-124, 131-132, 134-136, 147, 186, 322, 324. See also, Bear and Hoff, Roosevelt Family in America (Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal, Part I, Winter 1990), p. 15.
John Duffie (1763-1808) was the grandson of a Scottish immigrant lost at sea in the voyage to New York City and his French Huguenot wife. In 1783, Duffie's career began as a clerk in Isaac Clason's flour and grocery store on 14 Albany Pier in lower Manhattan, an area whose waterfront land was largely owned by the Roosevelts. Only one year later, Duffie had arranged financial underwriting for his own flour and wholesale grocery business, John Duffie & Co. on 7 Old Slip, from Cornelius C. Roosevelt (b. 1755). In 1786, Duffie married Roosevelt's sister, Maria (1760-1821). The first of their seven children was born in 1787; Jane Antoinette was born in 1801.
The business of John Duffie & Co., prospered phenomenally, with Duffie's family living at fashionable addresses on Front and Vesey Streets, and his children marrying into the Bleecker, de Peyster and Astor Families. Prior to his death in 1808, John Duffie purchased land in Manhattan in the areas that would become Murray Hill, which he left to his children. These bequeathed investments, sold by his daughters later in the 19th century, provided handsomely for Duffie's children as Manhattan expanded north. Jane Antoinette was married twice, first in 1832 to an English ship captain-turned New York City merchant, Miles Richard Burke (1780-1836), and following his death, to another Manhattan merchant Isaac Gibson, in Nyack, New York in 1842. Burke's death in 1836 left his young widow $70,000, their home on 471 Broadway, its furnishings and silver, carriages, horses, tac, wine, pew #77 at St. Thomas's Protestant Episcopal church where they were married and where Jane's brother, Cornelius, was rector, as well as all movables from a farm Burke owned near Mamaroneck in Westchester County. Neither her marriages to Burke nor Gibson produced any children.
Jane Antoinette Duffie Burke Gibson exhibited a similar business acumen as her father. Retaining ownership of the home she shared with Miles Burke, despite moves with her second husband to 234 Fifth Avenue (near 28th Street) and finally 251 Lexington Avenue (near 35th Street), Jane leased the property to various retail establishments. Ubsdell & Pierson, Oppenheimer & Levy, and Oppenheimer & Alder were all occupants of 471 Broadway, with rents providing up to an additional $9,500 per annum to its owner. Three years after Jane's death, the property was valued at $150,000 alone. Jane Antoinette Duffie Burke Gibson died in 1889 with a personal estate valued at $326,000. The bulk of her estate, including most likely the portrait illustrated here, was left to the children of her brother Cornelius' son, Cornelius Roosevelt Duffie II.
Jane Antoinette sat for several portraits in addition to the pastel illustrated here. An oil on canvas shows a young Jane Antoinette dressed in mourning and was probably painted between 1836 and 1842. After 1839, two Carte de visite photographs of Jane were taken in 1860 and closer to her death in 1889 as well.
All biographical information from Patricia Ellerton Duffie, The Duffie Family of Edinburgh and New York (Madison, WI, 1983), pp. 90-96, 101, 113-116, 119-124, 131-132, 134-136, 147, 186, 322, 324. See also, Bear and Hoff, Roosevelt Family in America (Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal, Part I, Winter 1990), p. 15.