Charlotte (Astor) Haig (1858-1920)
Mrs. Charlotte Augusta (Astor) Drayton, Haig
She lost her only brother, John Jacob Astor IV, on the Titanic in 1912. 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 immediately gave her $1-million.
The Draytons were eventually divorced in 1896 and her husband took custody of their children. She didn't ask for custody, but because she was the one who had the affair the court's decision would have been a foregone conclusion. In the same year, she was married again in London to George Ogilvy Haig, a whisky heir and 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 at the American Hospital in Paris (where she had lived since Haig's death) with her sister, Mrs. Wilson, at her bedside.
The Draytons were eventually divorced in 1896 and her husband took custody of their children. She didn't ask for custody, but because she was the one who had the affair the court's decision would have been a foregone conclusion. In the same year, she was married again in London to George Ogilvy Haig, a whisky heir and 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 at the American Hospital in Paris (where she had lived since Haig's death) with her sister, Mrs. Wilson, at her bedside.
