Clarence Cary

Clarence Cary (March 18, 1845 – August 27, 1911) was an American lawyer who was prominent in New York society during the Gilded Age. Early life Clarence Cary was born in Fairfax County, Virginia on March 18, 1845, into a planter class family. His parents were Archibald Cary and Monimia (née Fairfax) Cary. His sister, the author Constance Cary, was married to Burton Harrison, the former private secretary for Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Through his sister, he was the uncle of Fairfax Harrison, who was a President of the Southern Railway Company, and Francis Burton Harrison, who served as a Governor-General of the Philippines. The family lived at Cumberland, Maryland, where his father was editor of its leading newspaper, The Cumberland Civilian. His paternal grandparents were Wilson Jefferson Cary and Virginia (née Randolph) Cary. His maternal grandparents were Thomas Fairfax, 9th Lord Fairfax of Cameron (who never assumed the English title) and Margaret (née Herbert) Fairfax, herself the granddaughter of John Carlyle and Sarah Fairfax. Cary was also the great-grandnephew of Thomas Jefferson. Among his large and prominent family members was uncle Gouverneur Morris of Morrisania, who married Anne Cary Randolph. When Archibald died in 1854, his mother moved the family to his grandmother's plantation, known as Vaucluse in Fairfax County, Virginia. Following the outbreak of the Civil War, Vaucluse was seized and torn down to construct Fort Worth as a part of the defenses of Washington, D.C. The family moved again to Richmond, Virginia, staying there during the War.