Eliot Zborowski

William Eliot Morris Zborowski, Count de Montsaulvain (1858 – April 1, 1903) was a racing driver. Born in Elizabethtown, New Jersey, USA, he was the son of Martin Zborowski (or Zabriskie) and Emma Morris.

In 1892 he married a wealthy American heiress, born Margaret Laura Astor Carey (1853–1911), a granddaughter of William Backhouse Astor, Sr. of the prominent Astor family. She had been Madame de Stuers before her divorce from Alphonse Lambert Eugène, Chevalier de Stuers (1841–1919). They were the parents of the racing driver Louis Zborowski.

Martin Zabriskie, Eliot’s father, left the country for the first time in his life in 1873, when he crossed the Atlantic to Paris with his family to be at the wedding of his daughter Anna to Count Charles de Montalbon, Baron de Fontenoy. The aristocratic world he saw in France made a deep impression and he thought back to stories passed down in the family; the first result of which was, he changed the spelling of his name to Zborowski. Martin’s brother, Christopher, did not follow suit. Martin’s son William Eliot, now had a countess for a sister.

Following his father’s death in 1878, William Eliot returned from Europe to take possession of his inherited fortune. He also adopted his second name, and discarded William. Part of his inheritance was extensive estates near Central Park and along the banks of the Hudson River. He was indescribably rich. Around this time, when Eliot recrossed to Europe, he called himself Count Eliot Zborowski. An unattributed back-story also began of being descended from the marriage of an American girl to a Polish count. Eliot was reported to have said that he adopted the title Count on his father's death in deference to the wishes of his grandfather (Andrew Christian Zabriskie). All that can be said now about the origin of the title is that in the contents of Martin Zborowski’s will in The New York Times there was no mention of it.

Horses were a passion for Eliot, and since his childhood he had a fine stable. He was an excellent rider and enjoyed the challenge of lengthy rides across rough country. Occasionally his daring left him injured, but it was all part of living life to the fullest. In 1885, having heard about hunting in England, he visited, was welcomed with enthusiasm, and was soon riding with the Quorn. His title seems to have been accepted from the first. Eliot quickly learnt the rules as he hunted and soon became known as someone well to the fore when a tall fence or broad ditch needed clearing. It also became accepted that his riding employed superb hand control. Something attributed to the Count was the tradition of tying a red ribbon at the base of a horse's tail, to distinguish it as a kicker.

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