So much has been written  about wealthy American women marrying English Aristocrats. Decies Deal is the opposite, it’s a story from a  man’s perspective. 

Captain John Graham Hope de la Poer Horsley Beresford, an accomplished international horseman, and recently retired army officer  became entangled in the social aspirations of the Gould family when he inherited his title, Lord Decies the fifth.

Author, Adam Pym (Dr Paul Adam Pym Szuster) discovered that his grand mother, Molly Pym (nee Anderson) wrote a diary called My American Experiences when she was just 18 years of age. She had travelled to New York with her father, Frank Anderson, a solicitor who was commissioned to negotiate a marriage settlement  between his client, Lord Decies, and the railroad mogul, George Jay Gould. Decies, aged 45  was engaged to Gould’s daughter, 17 year  old Vivien.

The saga begins with George Jay Gould and his wife Edith celebrating his polo team’s gold medal win at the 1900 Paris Olympiad. Un-be-known to him and his socially ambitious wife  was that one of his players, and guest, Captain John Graham Hope de la Poer Horsley Beresford  was destined to become their son in law.

The Anderson’s lived in York, England  where Frank’s legal firm specialized in the legal affairs of aristocratic families. Their social life very much centered around polo, the sport of kings. The second chapter paints this picture, and includes detail of their cousin, Lewis  who was shipped out to America  for his recalcitrant behaviours with the daughter of a vicar.

Edith Gould, nee Kingdon had been sent as a child  to an exclusive school for girls in England. There she developed her life long passion to live like the  wealthy and the aristocracy. Returning to Brooklyn in her teens she began a career as an actress, and as fate would have it, she became engaged to the wealthiest young bachelor in America, George Jay Gould.

Captain John Beresford spent 25 years of his adult life as a cavalry officer in the Seventh Hussars regiment. In the service of his country in the Boar War, and skirmishes in the Sudan and Somalia he was highly decorated. An accomplished international sportsman, his passion was polo, and it was through this sport that he developed a close friendship with George Jay Gould.

George Jay Gould had ambitions for developing more wealth and financial status than had his late father, Jay Gould, a “robber baron”. Edith bore six children for him, while at the same time scheming to gain membership to the exclusive society in New York known as the 400. Their lifestyle was opulent, and at time decadent with residences on Park Avenue New York, at Lakewood, New Jersey, and in the Catskills. Unwelcome in social circles on Rhode Island, their summers were often spent cruising in their private yacht, or attempting to fraternize with royalty during Cowes Week on the Isle of White.

At 45 years of age, john Beresford survived a near death riding accident near his ancestral home in Ireland. Forced to resign his army commission, he decided to head for America to seek a new life, just as his younger brother and uncle  had done. And like them, seek a wife, settle down  and have a family.

Once in America Beresford  sought out the Gould family, his only close connections there. George Jay Gould encouraged him to assist with the management of his polo playing interests, after all he had three polo fields, and an entertainment complex where he wanted to develop a training academy for budding young riders. It was adjacent to Georgean Court, his Lakewood mansion build specifically to cater for Edith’s social and theatrical passions.

Mysteriously, Gould was rarely in residence, preferring at the time to tend to other personal interests elsewhere and in New York where he secretly kept a mistress and their children.

While staying  at Georgean Court and tending to his master’s equestrian interests, John Beresford received news that his elder brother William  had died. William was the holder of the family title, Lord Decies, and this was now Beresford’s. Edith Gould was secretly envious. If she divorced her husband and married the new Lord Decies,  this could have been her titled entre into English society. She knew however that he was not flush with funds, and therefore would  be unable to furnish the lifestyle that she gleaned from Gould.

And so it was, that while resident at Lakewood, Lord Decies developed a relationship with the 17 year old Vivien, a child who he first encountered, though only briefly  ten years previous at the Olympic celebrations in Paris.

Eventually the Goulds were invited into the 400 by the doyen of New York society, Mrs Astor. And the need for Vivien to be wed to Lord Decies created an opportunity for Edith Gould to shine amongst her new peers.

It was during this time that 18 year old Molly Anderson accompanied her Father, solicitor Frank Anderson, to New York for the marriage settlement negotiations. Perhaps he was was cognizant that young Vivien might like some company from an educated young lady from England.

The Goulds, and supported by their close associates kept Vivien away from the prying eyes of the public and the ever-present press. Perhaps they had good reason for this. And though kept secret, rumors of her engagement to Lord Decies were growing.  On the return journey to England on the Mauritania, and accompanied by Lord Decies,  the inquisitive Molly Anderson noted in her diary that Lord Decies constantly avoided any discussion about his destiny. And when she secured a comment from him, he abruptly said,

“Oh well.  It is a pity to marry for money and titles”.

A friendship between Vivien and Molly must have evolved as Molly was invited to the wedding. Because this was to be only two months after the trip to New York, Molly felt that she could not trouble her father for the expenses required, and so declined. The wedding invitation was the final entry in the original diary.

 It was on a wintery Tuesday afternoon in early February, 1911, that New Yorkers witnessed the society event of the year, stage managed by Edith Gould. On this day, her daughter had become a titled American at the alter in St Bartholomew’s Episcopalian church and in front of over a thousand invited guests. Forever the businessman, George Jay Gould was the witness to the signing of the marriage register.  Outside  the police struggled to control a crowd in excess of ten thousand inquisitive onlookers.

Appendix  - My American Experiences. Molly Anderson’s diary.

Molly Anderson’s diary was discovered by the author after her death in 1966. Titled, My American Experiences by Molly Isabel Anderson, it was bound  in an embroidered cover. Accompanying the 20,000 words were   numerous photographs that she took with her Box Brownie camera, newspaper articles about the likely engagement between Vivien Gould and Lord Decies, dinner menus from her first class return voyage on the Mauritania, and post cards collected during her four week experience.

The author was fortunate to have shown the diary to an historian, who, noting its historic merit had it transcribed.

Sadly, the original tome was lost in a wild bush fire in 1983