Alice Cornelia Thaw

Alice Cornelia Thaw (January 2, 1880 – May 8, 1955) was an American philanthropist and, upon her marriage to George Seymour, Earl of Yarmouth (who later succeeded as 7th Marquess of Hertford), the Countess of Yarmouth. Early life Thaw was born on January 2, 1880, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She was the daughter of William Thaw, Sr., who is considered one of the 100 wealthiest Americans of all time arising from his ownership of the Pennsylvania Company, and her father's second wife, Mary Sibbet Copley. From her father's first marriage to the former Eliza Blair, she was a younger half-sister to five (that survived childhood), including Benjamin Thaw Sr., a banker and philanthropist. From her parents marriage, she was one of five additional children (that survived childhood), including Harry Kendall Thaw, who married the actress Evelyn Nesbit (and later murdered Stanford White over her affair with the architect), and Margaret Copley Thaw, who married George Lauder Carnegie, a nephew of Andrew Carnegie, and after his death, Roger, Comte de Périgny. Her paternal grandparents were John Thaw, an owner of the United States Bank of Philadelphia, and Elizabeth (née Thomas) Thaw and her maternal grandparents were Margaret and Josiah Copley, a pioneer editor who was well known in the community. Her father died in 1889, after having given an estimated $5,000,000 to charity during his lifetime. From her father's estate, which was divided equally into one-sixteenth shares, nine year old Alice inherited coal lands (held until all of his children became of age and expected to be worth approximately $13,000,000 in the William Thaw Coke Trust), and a one-sixteenth interest in the remainder. Alice, as a daughter of her father's second wife, stood to inherit even more due to her mother's own wealth, totaling $10,000,000 in 1903.