Anna Gould

Anna Gould
Born	(1875-06-05)June 5, 1875
Died
Spouse(s)	Paul Ernest Boniface de Castellane Hélie de Talleyrand-Périgord, Duc de Sagan (1859-1937)
Parent(s)	Jay Gould
Relatives	George Jay Gould I, brother Edwin Gould I, brother Helen Miller Gould, sister Frank Jay Gould, brother

Anna Gould (June 5, 1875 – November 30, 1961) was an American heiress and socialite, the daughter of financier Jay Gould.

First marriage

She married Paul Ernest Boniface de Castellane (1867–1932), elder son and heir apparent of the Marquis of Castellane, on March 14, 1895 in Manhattan, New York. He was commonly referred to as Boniface de Castellane with the nickname "Boni" and used the courtesy title of Count of Castellane (Comte de Castellane).

They divorced in 1906, after Boniface had spent about $10 million of her family's money. Boniface then sought an annulment from the Vatican in 1924. After several appeals the validity of the marriage was upheld.

Children of first marriage

With Boniface, Anna had the following five children:

• Marie Louise de Castellane (1896-?)
• Boniface, Marquis de Castellane (1896–1946), who married Yvonne Patenôtre (daughter of Jules Patenôtre and wife Eleanor Elverson, who was the sister of James Elverson, Jr. (– 1929), and daughter of publisher James Elverson, Sr. (1838 – 1911) by wife Sallie Duvall, the three of them owners of The Philadelphia Inquirer), and had issue:
  • Elisabeth de Castellane (Paris, July 9, 1928 – Paris, November 13, 1991), wife (married in Paris, December 7, 1948) of Jean Bertrand Jacques Adrien Nompar Comte de Caumont La Force (Paris, February 4, 1920 – Fontaine Française, June 8, 1986), and had issue.
• Georges Paul Ernest de Castellane (1897 or 1899–1944) who married Florinda Fernández y Anchorena (1901-?), and had issue:
  • Diane Rose Anne Marie de Castellane (born in Paris, February 19, 1927), first wife (married in Paris (civil ceremony) April 14, 1948 (religious ceremony) April 20, 1948, and divorced March 13, 1974) of Philippe François Armand Marie Duc de Mouchy Prince-Duc de Poix (born in Paris, April 17, 1922), and had issue.
• Georges Gustave de Castellane (circa 1898-1946)
• Jay (Jason) de Castellane (1902-?)

Divorce

File:Samuel D. Ehrhart - An International High Noon Divorce (1906).jpg

A parody of the circus-like atmosphere of the divorce proceedings of Anna Gould, shown holding a bouquet made of indictments against her husband, Boni de Castellane.

Time magazine wrote on April 13, 1925:

Probably not since Henry VIII tried in vain to get an annulment of his marriage with Catherine of Aragon has a matrimonial case been so long in the courts of the Roman Catholic Church as that on which nine Cardinals have just handed down a final decision.

Second marriage

Anna Gould (1875-1961)

After the civil divorce in 1906 she married Boni's cousin in 1908: Hélie de Talleyrand-Périgord, Duc de Sagan (1859–1937) son of the dandy Boson de Talleyrand-Périgord. As eldest son and heir to the Duke of Talleyrand, he was styled Marquis of Talleyrand-Périgord and Duke of Sagan.

Children of second marriage

With Talleyrand, Anna had the following two children:

• Howard de Talleyrand-Périgord, Duc de Sagan (1909-1929), who took his own life when his parents refused him permission to marry until he was 21.
• Helene Violette de Talleyrand-Périgord (1915-2003), who married James Robert de Pourtalès on March 29, 1937 in Le Val-Saint-Germain (their son Hélie married, as her second husband, the eldest daughter of Marie Clotilde Bonaparte). She divorced him in 1969 and married Gaston Palewski (1901–1984), who had been the Minister of Scientific Research and Atomic and Space Questions from 1962 to 1966. They married on March 20, 1969, in Paris.

Death

She returned to the US four months before her death. She died on December 8, 1961, in Paris. She is entombed in Passy Cemetery in Paris.

Timeline

• 1875 Birth of Anna Gould
• 1895 Marriage to Paul Ernest Boniface comte de Castellane (1867–1932), on March 14
• 1908 Marriage to Hélie de Talleyrand-Périgord
• 1929 Suicide of Howard de Talleyrand-Périgord, her son
• 1932 Death of Boniface de Castellane, her first husband
• 1932 Awarded the Cross of the French Legion of Honor
• 1937 Death of Hélie de Talleyrand-Périgord, her second husband
• 1939 Returns to the US and lives in Lyndhurst at her father's estate
• 1961 Death of Anna Gould

See also

• Jenny Jerome, an American who married the Lord Randolph Churchill

External links

• Anna Gould bibliography

Further reading

• New York Times; February 9, 1895; pg. 5; Count Castellane's lineage. His ancestors date from the Crusades and his father is wealthy.
• New York Times; February 10, 1895; pg. 11; World of society: Engagement of Miss Anna Gould and Count Castellane. It is probable that the public, if not society, breathed a sigh of relief last week when it was finally, definitely, and conclusively announced that Miss Anna Gould, daughter of the late Jay Gould, was actually engaged to be married.
• New York Times; March 5, 1895; pg. 1; Now a French Countess.
• New York Times; January 19, 1897; pg. 7; Count Castellane's heir. A son born to the Countess early yesterday morning.
• Covington Sun; April 16, 1908; Gould to Wed
• New York Times; July 12, 1908; pg. SM1; The family in which Ann Gould married; Three French Dukedoms and a Prussian Principality belong to the Talleyrand-Périgords, Historic house which has already formed three American alliances. Jay Gould's youngest daughter, Anna, is the fourth American woman to marry into the historic house of Talleyrand-Périgord, one of the most ancient and illustrious families of the Old World, yet relatively little is known about it on this side of the Atlantic.
• Time; April 13, 1925; Divorce
• Time; December 12, 1932; Cross of the French Legion of Honor.
• New York Times; October 27, 1937; pg. 31; Talleyrand dead; wed Anna Gould; Duke Was known as Prince of Sagan at time of courtship in first of century. Marie Pierre Camille Louis Hélie de Talleyrand-Périgord, Prince of Sagan and fifth Duke of Talleyrand, was a principal in one of the international marriage of the first decade of this century. He married Anna Gould, heir to more than $80,000,000 of the fortune of her father, the late Jay Gould, after she had divorced his cousin, Count Boni de Castellane.
• Time; March 26, 1945; The Duchess de Talleyrand, 70, chic, spry daughter of the late financier Jay Gould, and a longtime (40 years) resident of prewar France, announced that she would auction off her famed collection of orchid plants—more than 5,000, valued at about $75,000—for the benefit of the Red Cross. In giving up the collection, which blooms in a two-block-long greenhouse on the Gould estate in Tarrytown, N.Y., the Duchess will save some 75 tons of coal for spring heating, can free nine gardeners for other work.
• New York Times; November 30, 1961; pg. 37; Duchesse de Talleyrand Is Dead; youngest daughter of Jay Gould