Robert Swain Peabody (1845-1917)

He was born at New Bedford, Massachusetts. His mother was a granddaughter of one of America's earliest millionaires, Elias Hasket Derby, and he was a brother-in-law of Charles William Eliot, 21st President of Harvard University. He was educated at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He became the principal designer of Peabody & Stearns, his partner, John Stearns, being more the engineer. Theirs was one of the leading architectural firms in the Eastern states and they were associated with a great many of the Gilded Age mansions, particularly in The Berkshires. He was married twice and had three children by his first wife of whom only one (listed) survived to adulthood. His second wife, Helen, was a daughter of Dr. Charles Carroll Lee, M.D., of New York,  and a descendant of many of the leading families in Virginia, Maryland & Philadelphia.