Appendix E: Biographies

Bodisco and Williams1

Baron Aleksandr Andreevich Bodisco (Moscow 18 October [OS] 1786 – Georgetown, DC 23 January [NS] 1854; see Image 283) began his government service on 12 April (OS) 1799, when he was registered as a titular cadet (14th and lowest grade in the Table of Ranks) in the State College of Foreign Affairs. On 29 August (OS) 1804, he was made an interpreter. In 1806, his services were made use of to bring foreigners in St. Petersburg to take the oath of allegiance to the emperor. On 31 December (OS) 1808, he was made a collegiate assessor (8th grade). In 1812, he was sent as a courier to Erebro to General of Engineers P.K. Sukhtelen (Suchtelen) and appointed to serve under him. On 29 December (OS) 1812, he was promoted to court councilor (7th grade). In 1813, he was twice sent with despatches from Stralsund to the main headquarters of Emperor Alexander I. On 29 January (NS) 1814, he was sent from Kiel to the emperor in Langres with news of the conclusion of peace between Sweden and Denmark. On receiving the news, the emperor decorated Bodisco with the Order of St. Anne (2nd class). On 21 February (NS) 1814, Bodisco went from Hannover to Berlin with the treaty of peace concluded between Russia and Denmark, after which he again served under General Sukhtelen, who sent him to Stockholm and Paris with news of the conclusion of talks concerning Norway. In 1817, he temporarily carried out the duties of Russian consul general in Stockholm, for which he was awarded the diamond insignia of the Order of St. Anne (2nd class). On 13 August (OS) 1818, he was made a gentleman of the emperor’s bedchamber [kamerger]. On 3/15 January 1820, he was appointed councilor of the embassy in Stockholm. On 20 January / 1 February 1820, he was sent as a courier from Stockholm to St. Petersburg. On 5 February (OS) 1824, he was appointed gentleman-in-waiting [kamerherr] of the Court of His Imperial Majesty. On 22 August (OS) 1826, he was promoted to state councilor (5th grade). On 5 April (OS) 1830, he received the Order of St. Vladimir (3rd class). On 10 April (OS) 1832, he attained the rank of actual state councilor (4th grade). On 18 November (OS) 1832, the country house “Vanenhof,” in Kurland, which had been granted to him for twelve years by the Ukase of 10 September (OS) 1827, was ordered to be returned to the State as of 12 June (OS) 1833. He was instead granted from the State Exchequer for twelve years eight hundred silver rubles per year. On 5 December (OS) 1834, he received the Order of St. Stanislav (2nd class, with star). On 17/29 January 1836, on the death of Count Sukhtelen, he was confirmed temporarily as chargé d’affaires at the mission in Stockholm. On 16/28 March 1837, he was appointed envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to the United States of America. He arrived in Washington, where he presented his credentials to President (1837–1841) Martin Van Buren (1782–1862) on 5 May (NS) 1838. He remained in this post until his death. On 14/26 April 1840, just after his marriage, he was promoted to privy councilor (3rd grade). On 13/25 March 1844 (during the period in which the Bodiscos are mentioned in Anna Whistler’s diaries), Baron Bodisco was awarded, in addition to the eight hundred rubles per year awarded him in 1832, a further twelve hundred rubles, starting 12/24 June 1845; from that date for six years he was to receive two thousand silver rubles per year. On 15/27 April 1844, in consideration of his zealous service and insufficient income, he was further awarded, as an addition to his salary, two thousand silver rubles per year. On 22 August / 3 September 1846, he received a badge of distinction for forty years of flawless service (he had received similar badges of distinction every five years, beginning with his twenty-fifth year of service). On 21 April / 3 May 1847, he was made cavalier of the Order of St. Anne (1st class). On 24 February / 8 March 1850, as a manifestation of Imperial favor for his long and zealous service and useful labors, he was made a cavalier of the Order of St. Vladimir (2nd class, large cross). On 13/25 August 1851, he was awarded two thousand silver rubles per year for six years, beginning 12/24 June 1851 (this is the pension he refers to in his will). On 22 August / 3 September 1852, he was awarded a badge of distinction for forty-five years of flawless service. His service record also indicates that his mother owned 400 serfs in Moscow and Kaluga provinces, and that he was of the Lutheran faith.2

Harriet Beall Williams (c. 1824 – Southsea, Portsea Island, Southampton 20 June 1890; see Images 284–285) was the daughter of Rebecca (Beck) (c. 1804 – buried at Oak Hill Cemetery, Washington, DC 26 April 1880) and Brooke Williams (c. 1790 – Georgetown, DC 1 September 1843), who were married on 4 September 1822.3 She had the following brothers and sisters: Caroline Virginia (c. 1826 – buried Oak Hill Cemetery 17 March 1854), Brooke B. (c. 1828 – buried Oak Hill Cemetery 20 November 1894), Eliza (27 June 1830 – 14 January 1850), Edward (15 November 1834 – buried Oak Hill Cemetery 28 February 1890), William Lewis (19 November 1837 – buried Oak Hill Cemetery 22 August 1887), Bodisco (b. 13 September 1841).4 Their father was chief clerk in the Adjutant General’s office.5

Harriet Beall Williams’s marriage on 7 April 1840,6 at the age of sixteen, to Baron Alexander Andreevich Bodisco, then fifty-three years old, was an exciting social event.7 The story is told that in 1838, when Harriet, some fourteen years old, was a day student at Miss English’s Seminary in Georgetown, Baron Bodisco, who also lived in Georgetown (at 3320 O Street), and who had only recently arrived to take up his diplomatic post, gave a sumptuous Christmas party for his nephews, at which Harriet was a guest. The Baron became interested in her, courted her, and in April 1840 they were married. Although her father was alive8 and the marriage took place in her family’s house (on The Heights in Georgetown), he did not give the bride away. Whether the Baron, who chose statesmen his own age as his ushers while the bride’s attendants were young like herself, made the decision to have Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky replace Harriet’s father in giving her away, or whether her father refused to participate in the wedding, remains a mystery. Her father died on 1 September 1843; his funeral was held at Christ Church on 2 September 1843,9 but the location of his grave has continued to elude researchers.

The splendor of the trappings of the wedding, brilliant reception, and extensive festivities, all planned by the Baron and so exciting to onlookers and participants alike, gain a different perspective when set against the moment of truth experienced by one of the young attendants. Seeing the Baron and her own handsome father together, she became aware of the former’s “curious ugliness,” “his manner at variance with all [her] ideas of dignity,” and “suddenly had an instinct into another aspect of this gay marriage.”10 But the marriage “was a happy one to [Baron Bodisco] and evidently of contentment to [his wife].”11 He dropped “much of the frothiness of his ways,” “made all her family his,” and gained “in every way the respect of many who thought it a risky marriage.”12

They had seven children:13 Nicholas Alexander (b. Georgetown, DC 6/18 April 1841; bap. Christ Church 18 December 1841); Alexander André (b. 10 October 1842; bap. Christ Church 9 April 1843; d. Georgetown, DC 2 September 1843; funeral service Christ Church 3 September 1843); Constantine (b. 8 December 1844; bap. Christ Church 12 June 1845; d. May 1896); Alexander (b. Georgetown, DC 26 November 1846; bap. Christ Church 9 June 1847); Athenais Septimanie (b. 17/29 August 1848; bap. Christ Church May 1849); Olga Georgianna (b. 10/22 February 1851; bap. St. John’s Episcopal Church 1851); and William Corcoran (b. Argayl Farm14 21 July 1852; bap. Christ Church 8 January 1853).

In his will, written in French and dated 1 July 1853, Baron Bodisco did not enter “into the details of the Education that I desire to be given to our Children,” because of the “unlimited confidence” he had “in the principles and in the excellent qualities of my dear Wife.” However, after stressing that they must first of all “become good Christians,” he went on to emphasize that they must “become … good Russians, for the happiness to belong to that great Nation, must be considered by them, as a favor from Heaven, and as a distinction for their future life and their destiny.”15 It has not been possible to obtain much information about the Russian aspect of the Bodisco children’s lives. There is a file in the RGIA in St. Petersburg, dated 3 November 1866 – 28 January 1867, about Alexander Bodisco’s appointment to the Chancery of the Ministry of the Imperial Court that shows he completed the course of studies at the Imperial Alexander Lyceum with the right to the rank of 10th grade (collegiate secretary).16 It is said that Constantine also received his education in Russia and “came to Washington as third secretary of the Legation.”17 He married an American, Charlotte Elizabeth Barton, on 9 July 1867 in the Church of the Epiphany, Washington, DC.18

Harriet Beall (Williams) Bodisco was received at Court in Russia and given the sobriquet “the beautiful American.” An exquisite portrait of her in the luxurious robes of state she wore when presented to the Imperial Russian Court was painted by Johann Conrad Dorner (1809–1866) in 1844 (see Image 285). The Bodiscos were married about fourteen years. Baron Bodisco died on 11/23 January 185419 in Georgetown, DC, and was buried in a plot bought in that same year at Oak Hill Cemetery, as were subsequently many members of both sides of the family.20 In his will, Baron Bodisco stated that his fortune, which was to be divided into seven equal parts for his wife and six children, consisted of “the income of two thousand silver rubles derived from the Pension I obtain from the Kindness of the Emperor since the 24 June 1851 until 24 June 1857, of all the salary due to me on the day of my decease, of all my personal property or furniture, of all my Silver, of a house at St. Petersburg, and of 10 shares of the 1st Insurance Company against fire.”21 He encouraged his wife, who would “likely become a Widow at an age when it would be still convenient for her to marry again,” to “take for a husband only such a man as will be worthy of her and whose social position and well established fortune will be able to assure to my Wife and to the Children issue of the second marriage, a becoming and perfectly independent existence.”22 His fortune and the second marriage were thus very exactingly separated, in the interest of protecting his own children’s inheritance. If his widow remarried, her guardianship of the children of the first marriage would at once cease and, should she die, her portion of the inheritance would revert to the children of the first marriage.23

On 29 May 1860, Harriet Beall (Williams) Bodisco, then about thirty-six years old, was given in marriage by President (1857–1861) James Buchanan (1791–1868) at Christ Church, Georgetown, to Captain Douglas Gordon Scott24 (Aldridge, Staffordshire 20 December 1827 – Walton, Surrey 6 November 1911) of the Madras (Indian) Army. Scott’s career is as follows. He was appointed to the Eighth Regiment Native Infantry (Madras) on 15 June 1846 with the rank of ensign. He was appointed captain on 23 October 1857. For part of the period 1859 to 1862 he was recorded as being “On Furlough.” He was appointed lieutenant colonel at the Madras Staff Corps on 4 February 1872 and retired on 20 November 1878 as major general.25 The Scotts had a daughter, Frances Mary Douglas, who was born on 8 October 1861. She married on 16 May 1886 Henry Philip Picot (d. London 29 August 1937).26 Harriet Beall (Williams) (Bodisco) Scott died intestate on 20 June 1890 at the age of sixty-six at Southsea, Portsea Island, Southampton. Her name on her death certificate is given as Henriette Belle de Bodisco Scott (Beall is pronounced Bell) and on her probate record as Henrietta Belle de Bodisco Scott.27 Her personal estate amounted to about £882.28 Douglas Gordon Scott died on 6 November 1911 at the age of eighty-three at Walton, Surrey.29 His personal estate amounted to about £9,000.30

When Anna Whistler (see Images 1–5) met “the beautiful American” during the St. Petersburg winter season of 1843–44, the latter was between nineteen and twenty years old, had been married some three-and-a-half years, and had borne two children, one of whom had died. Her lack of interest in religion and her love of the social events so much a part of diplomatic life were totally at odds with Anna Whistler’s style of living. Her frank preference for Russian society over American Anna Whistler found shocking. Maxwell considered her “pretty … weak and ignorant.”31 But she took her part in the life she had chosen “amiably and well,”32 and had “one great and happy quality. Whatever she cannot avoid, she makes the most of.”33 Most women, including Anna Whistler, wrote of her beauty and her magnificent clothes and jewelry. Jessie Benton Fremont, in her memoirs, spoke with respect of the late Baron Bodisco, the real focus of her essay, but was restrained in her comments on the still-living and remarried widow, commenting only on her continuing outward beauty and her stoutness.34

Major Whistler (see Images 7–8, 21) was already acquainted with Baron Bodisco, who had negotiated the contract between him and the Russian government in 1842 in Washington, DC. Anna Whistler entertained Baron Bodisco and his wife at the Whistler home in St. Petersburg after meeting them at Colonel Todd’s (see Image 278), but she commented only on Mrs. Bodisco and her child.

Notes