Appendix E: Biographies

Stoeckl, Howard, Swift, Ironside

Baron Eduard Andreevich de Stoeckl (Constantinople 1804 – Paris 26 January 1892; see Image 286) was in the Russian diplomatic corps and serving in Washington when the Whistlers were living in Russia.1 According to his service record, he was a foreigner of the Roman Catholic faith.2 His father, Andreas, was an Austrian diplomat in Constantinople.3 His mother, Marie-Anne Pisani, was the daughter of Nicolas Pisani (1743–1819), first dragoman for Russia in Constantinople.4 He graduated from the Richelieu Lyceum in Odessa in 1821 with the right to the civil service rank of county secretary (12th grade).5 He was appointed junior secretary to the Russian Mission in Washington on 13 April (OS) 1839, with promotion to collegiate assessor (8th grade) with seniority.6 On 18 December (OS) 1844, he was appointed senior secretary.7 At the death of the envoy to the Russian Mission in the United States, Baron Alexander Andreevich Bodisco (see Image 283), in 1854, de Stoeckl acted as chargé d’affaires in Washington from 12/24 March 1854 through 1/13 January 1857.8 On that day, he was appointed envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to the United States of America.9 In 1864, he was promoted to privy councilor (3rd grade).10 In his capacity as envoy, he negotiated the sale of Alaska to the United States in 1867.11 On 20 April (OS) 1869, at his request, he was retired.12 He had also held diplomatic posts in Moldavia and Wallachia, Constantinople, and the Sandwich Islands before and between his American appointments.13

After de Stoeckl’s retirement, he and his wife lived in Paris.14 He died there on 26 January 1892 and was buried in the family vault in St. Germain Cemetery in Paris.15 Eliza (Howard) de Stoeckl died in Paris in 1913.16 It has not been possible to ascertain whether she is also buried in the de Stoeckl family vault.17

As a member of the Russian Mission in Washington, DC, in 1842, de Stoeckl would have met Major Whistler during the negotiations to hire the latter as consulting engineer for the building of the St. Petersburg–Moscow Railway.18

In Washington, de Stoeckl was acquainted as well with Major Whistler’s brother-in-law, Captain William Henry Swift (Taunton, MA 6 November 1800 – New York City 7 April 1879), brother of Major Whistler’s first wife.19 Captain Swift married in Springfield, Massachusetts, on 18 April 1844, as his second wife, Hannah Worthington Howard (12 August 1821 – New York City 6 January 1884), daughter of a Springfield, Massachusetts, banker, John Howard (17 April 1791 – 23 October 1849), and Mary Stoddard (Dwight) Howard (26 January 1792 – 20 July 1836).20 At the home of the Swifts in Washington, where Mrs. Swift’s three sisters were often guests, de Stoeckl could have made the acquaintance of Eliza Wetmore Howard (3 May 1826 – 1913), his future wife.21 They were married in Springfield, Massachusetts, on 2 January 1856.22

The de Stoeckls’ only child, Alexander, was born in Washington in 1862.23 He was later educated in Paris by Jesuits at the College in rue des Postes.24 He, too, eventually entered the Russian foreign service25 and “[a]bout 1880 … was appointed Gentilhomme de la Chambre,” to Alexander II.26 In 1887, Alexander de Stoeckl, then attached to the Russian embassy in London, met Agnes Barron (Paris 21 January 1874 – 30 January 1968), daughter of William Joseph (1829–1903) and Frances (Lonergan) Barron (b. 1842).27 Her father had inherited from his grandfather, Eustace Barron, “large estates and many business interests” in Mexico City.28 Agnes had two sisters: Fanita (c. 1862–1895), who married in 1885 Count Charles de Fitzjames (c. 1840–1896); and Constance (1863–1948), who married Thomas Baring (1839–1923) of Baring Brothers.29 Agnes Barron and Alexander de Stoeckl were married on 30 June 1892 at St. Mary’s in Cadogan Place, London.30

In the summer of 1897, Alexander accepted the position of equerry to Grand Duke Mikhail Mikhailovich (Peterhof 4 October [OS] 1861 – London 26 April 1929), second son of Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolaevich and grandson of Nicholas I (see Images 420–423). He served as equerry until 1908.31 In this same year, he was named by Nicholas II (Tsarskoe Selo 6 May (OS) 1868 – Ekaterinburg 17 July (OS) 1918) chamberlain to Grand Duchess Maria Georgievna (20 February 1876 – Athens 24 December 1940), daughter of King George I of Greece and wife of Grand Duke Georgii Mikhailovich (Belye Kliuchi, Tiflis Province 11 August 1863 – Petrograd 29 January 1919).32 Her husband was also the son of Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolaevich.33

Alexander de Stoeckl died in London on 23 July 1926 at the age of sixty-four.34 His funeral was held at the Church of Notre-Dame de France in Leicester Place.35 The body was then taken to Paris and placed in the family vault at St. Germain Cemetery.36 In 1950, Agnes (Barron) de Stoeckl published her memoirs of their life, Not All Vanity.37 In writing the book, she consulted the journals of Eliza (Howard) de Stoeckl, the present whereabouts of which are unknown to me.38 Agnes (Barron) de Stoeckl is purported to have said “that she often saw Whistler the artist while at her mother-in-law’s house” and, not knowing the Swift connection, “somehow felt that there was a relationship between the Whistlers and the Howards.”39 In addition to Not All Vanity, Agnes (Barron) de Stoeckl published five more books between 1952 and 1966, one a further memoir, the other four biographies of French royalty and aristocrats.40 She died at Iver, Buckinghamshire, on 30 January 1968.41

Agnes and Alexander de Stoeckl had one child, Zoia (1893–1974).42 At eighteen, she was named a maid of honor to the empress of Russia.43 Zoia de Stoeckl married on 2 July 1919, at St. James Church in Spanish Place, London, Captain Alfonse Poklewski-Koziell (1891–1962).44 Their son Roman was born on 22 December 1920.45 He died a year and three months later.46 Another son, Alexander, was born in 1924 (d. 1966); a third, Vincent, on 30 June 1929 (d. 1 September 2017).47 For most of the 1930s, the Poklewski-Koziells lived in Katowice, Poland, where Zoia’s husband “had been appointed director of a large mining company.”48 Zoia Poklewski-Koziell and their sons returned to London in August 1939 and Alfonse Poklewski-Koziell in October 1939.49 Alfonse Poklewski-Koziell died on 9 November 1962 in Iver, Buckinghamshire.50 Zoia (de Stoeckl) Poklewski-Koziell died there on 7 July 1974.51

Of the remaining Swift sisters, Frances Ames Howard (20 April 1825 – 1915) did not marry and seems to have lived with or near the de Stoeckls. She died in Paris.52

Margaret Howard (12 May 1823 – 22 April 1893) married on 4 or 5 May 1854 in New York, Charles William Swift (July 1828 – 18 January 1906), son of her brother-in-law, Captain William Henry Swift.53 A business address is listed for Charles W. Swift in New York from 1860–1861 through 1864–1865.54 Charles W. Swift predeceased his wife; Margaret (Howard) Swift died in London.55 They had two daughters, both born in the United States: Mary (b. c. 1860) and Louisa Josephine (b. c. 1864).56 Mary Swift married Alfred St. Johnston (b. 1858), an English journalist, and lived in London.57 It was at her home that her mother died. Alfred St. Johnston died on 19 February 1891.58 Mary (Swift) St. Johnston died on 11 December 1942.59 Louisa J. Swift died on 1 July 1944 in Surrey.60

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Captain William Henry Swift also had a daughter, Mary E. (1825–1911) by his first wife, Mary (Stewart) Swift (24 November 1801 – 18 November 1837), daughter of James and Elizabeth Stewart, whom he married in New London, Connecticut, on 2 February 1825. James Stewart was appointed British consul at New London, Connecticut, at the beginning of 1811. After the death of her mother,61 Mary E. Swift was essentially brought up in the home of George and Mary Bliss in Springfield, Massachusetts.62 She is mentioned in Anna Whistler’s diaries as the bride of George Ironside (1817–1897), son of a British merchant, whom she married on 24 March 1846.63

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George Bromley Ironside was the son of Charles (d. 28 Nov. 1864) and Mary Ironside. He was one of five children, the others being Charlotte Augusta, Caroline Letitia (d. Italy 27 June 1879), Charles Calvert (c. 1816— 2 September 1869), and Edmund William (c. 1819 – 30 October 1876).64 He is listed in New York city directories from 1840 well into the 1870s as part of the firm of Siffken and Ironside, merchants.65 He is listed in London directories for 1861 and 1862 as a commission merchant.66 He was still or again living in London in 1865.67 In 1879, his residence was New London, Connecticut.68 Mary (Swift) and George Ironside are buried in Cedar Grove Cemetery in New London, Connecticut, along with her mother.69

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Anna Whistler, who made no judgmental comments about Mr. Stoeckl in her diaries in 1844, reacted with “melancholy” when she heard in December 1855 of the forthcoming marriage of Eliza Howard and the Count de Stoeckl. She considered the “elegant … pleasing [and] intellectual” Eliza’s consent “unaccountable.” But Eliza was also “always worldly” – a stigma in Anna Whistler’s eyes. It was this worldliness, she felt, that caused Eliza to be “dazzled by the prospect of shining in Court circles as a young Countess” and to allow herself “to be doomed to such a companion for life!”70

Note