Frederick Gebhard

Frederick Gebhard (c1860-1910) was a wealthy New Yorker who at the age of 22 became infatuated with Lillie Langtry, a renowned beauty, who had been elevated to celebrity status following her affair with Edward, Prince of Wales. A relationship developed between Gebhard and Langtry that lasted nine years. There was speculation that they would one day marry but this never materialised.

Gebhard’s grandfather came from Holland to New York in 1800. He worked as an agent for a Dutch company, eventually starting a business importing gin. Later his nephew, Frederick Schuchardt and son-in-law Frederick Favre became partners. Between 1830 and 1832 he adopted three children (siblings), whose surnames were changed by legal enactment from Bruce to Gebhard. Frederick Charles, the eldest of these children, joined the family firm in 1845, by which time they had expanded their mercantile business and developed interests in banking and rail-road stocks. In 1850 he married Kate Davis, daughter of a wealthy New York property developer. They had three children, Frederick, Isabelle and Henry Jr. who were orphaned at an early age when their father died in 1865 and their mother in 1870, leaving the children to be raised by their uncle. The youngest child, Henry Jr. died in 1871 aged 10.

Frederick Gebhard and his sister inherited wealth from the estates of their parents and their grandfather. They also inherited and lived in the New York family mansion - 100 Fifth Avenue. By the time he met Langtry, at the age of 22, Gebhard was described as a young clubman, sportsman, horse owner, and admirer of feminine beauty, both on and off the stage. His interests included breeding race horses, dog breeding, and yachting. He was also a collector of books, ephemera, prints, engravings and autographs. His collection included signed letters of Abraham Lincoln, Washington and musical scores signed by Verdi and Mendelssohn.

He was well connected in New York society, being related to many of the old and wealthy American families including Vanderbilt, Stuyvesant, Livingston, Remsen, Neilson, Hunter, Delafleld, Lawrence, Wells and Leverich. Other uncles and cousins included bankers such as Frederich Schuchardt and Thomas A. Vyse Jr. His granduncle was Father John Power, Vicar General of New York; he was also related to several European aristocrats, a British admiral and an Irish Member of the British Parliament. Another uncle was John F. A. Sanford, the frontiersman, who via his first marriage had family links to the Pierre Chouteau family of St Louis.

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