Susan Ridgeway Lawrance

Heiress, Socialite, She was the eldest child of Edward Shippen Willing and Alice Bell (née Barton) Willing. Her siblings included John Rhea Barton Willing, who did not marry, and Ava Lowle Willing, who was married to John Jacob Astor IV (son of William B. Astor, Jr. and Caroline Schermerhorn Astor) until their divorce in 1910, and, thereafter, to Thomas Lister, 4th Baron Ribblesdale. On November 3, 1899, Willing was married to Francis Cooper Lawrance Jr. at Trinity Church in Newport, Rhode Island. At the wedding, Susan was walked down the aisle by her father while the St. Cecilia Quartet sand the bridal chorus from Lohengrin; Winthrop Rutherfurd was the best man. Lawrance, a Yale graduate and lawyer, was the widower of Sarah Eggleston Lanier (a daughter of Charles D. Lanier) and the father of Charles Lanier Lawrance and Kitty Lanier Lawrance. Francis' sister, Frances Margaret Lawrance, was married to George Venables-Vernon, 7th Baron Vernon. Following their marriage, they bought a large home in Newport. Just five years after their marriage, forty-six year old Francis died in Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, France on March 18, 1904. Before his death, they were the parents of: Frances Alice Willing Lawrance, who married Prince Andrzej "Andre" Poniatowski of the House of Poniatowski in 1919. His father was Prince André Poniatowski and his mother was the former Elizabeth Sperry, a Stockton flour mill heiress. After her husband's death, she moved to Paris with her daughter and her step-children were looked after by their paternal grandfather. Susan, who lived at 23 rue Octave-Feuillet in Paris, died on May 2, 1933 in Paris, France. She was cremated at Pere Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. The location of her ashes is not known. In her will, she left her estate to her daughter and grandson. Her daughter received all of her jewelry, personal effects, a life estate in a trust of $250,000, a remainder interest in a $40,000 trust and the residuary estate.