Melissa Clementine Wilson

Rick Hutto: The Johnstons’ very rich sister, Melissa, set up house on Fifth Avenue and immediately became famous when her daughter, May, married a quiet young man, Ogden Goelet, whose bachelor uncle soon died leaving him twenty-five million dollars (the Duchess was their daughter). The Goelet family contacts were especially important to the bride’s father who established his own investment house and began buying up southern industries and railroads.

Melissa married Richard T Thorton on Dec 23 1852 in Louden, Tennessee.

Together they had five children, Mary Rita, Leila Belle, Marshall Orme, Richard Thornton Jr. and Grace Graham, who all went on to marry English royalty and American millionaires names that include Goelet, Astor, Mason, Lord Herbert and Vanderbilt.

Her granddaughter Mary Goelet would became the 8th Duchess of Roxburghe.

• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Oct 7 2019, 2:35:17 UTC