Charlotte (Astor) Haig (1858-1920)

In 1912, she lost her only brother, John Jacob Astor IV, on the Titanic. She had three sisters: (1) Emily, Mrs James Van Alen (2) Helen, Mrs James Roosevelt (3) Caroline, Mrs Marshall Orme Wilson. Charlotte married her first husband in 1879. He was J. Coleman Drayton, a cousin of the Draytons of Drayton Hall in South Carolina. Her dowry was the annual income from $500,000 and a mansion in Manhattan, 374 (and afterwards 197) Fifth Avenue. Their marriage fell very publicly apart in 1892 when she was seen spending more time than was appropriate in London with another wealthy New Yorker, Hallett Alsop Borrowe. Her husband challenged Borrowe to a duel in Paris and though nothing came of it Borrowe did engage in a duel with the man (Edward Fox) who broke the story of his affair with Charlotte. Charlotte's father died in the same year at which point she discovered that he had disinherited her, although he did leave $850,000 to her children. In recompense, her brother (John Jacob Astor IV) immediately gave her $1 million. The Draytons were eventually divorced in 1896 and her husband took custody of their children, she having not asked for them. That same year Charlotte was married again in London to George Ogilvy Haig, the brother of Field Marshal Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig, who famously commanded the British Army on the Western Front in the First World War. They lived at 65 Brook Street off Grosvenor Square until Haig's death nine years later. In 1920, Charlotte died in Paris with her sister, Mrs Wilson, at her bedside.