Page 407 - CAPTAIN EDWARD H. SCHENLEY, of the English army, was then about forty-five years old and had been twice married. His first wife was a daughter of Lady Pool and after half a dozen meetings she eloped with him from a ball given by the Queen’s Guards, of which he was then an ensign. After her death he met Miss Inglis, a cousin of the late Earl of Fife and a cousin once removed of Lord Erskine. While traveling in Europe with friends, she, too, consented to an elopement. She had a sister who was married into a noble family of Spain, while another sister was the accomplished Mrs. Macleod who conducted the Staten Island school. On the death of his second wife CAPTAIN SCHENLEY came to America and when taken ill was invited to the Staten Island school home by his sister-in-law that she might care for him and bring him back to health. He was closely related to nobility and his family name figures in Burke’s Peerage. Mrs. Macleod thought that his being twice a widower and his years insured a sufficient safe-guard, and her first suspicion was the elopement of MISS CROGHAN with the handsome captain. The girl was barely sixteen years old, and this with her wealth added to the notoriety of the affair, and, it is said, actually broke up the school, for timid parents feared that other English guardsmen might be lurking around to snap a handsome fortune. They were married in 1842.
The SCHENLEYS took up their residence in England and the union proved to be a very happy one. Queen Victoria, however, waited many years before she would allow MRS. SCHENLEY to be presented at court, because she had been a “disobedient daughter.” The greater number of her years after her marriage (pg. 408) were spent in London, where she became a leader in the most exclusive society of England. Until her father’s death on Sept. 24, 1850, a part of the time was spent in Pittsburgh in the quaint old mansion, “Picnic,” on Stanton Avenue. MRS. SCHENLEY proved to be a most loyal friend of Pittsburgh, and well indeed has the city perpetuated her name. Her many donations have been mentioned in their proper places elsewhere. Chief among her gifts were the SCHENLEY Park and the Old Block House. CAPTAIN SCHENLEY died many years ago, and MRS. SCHENLEY died on Nov. 4, 1903.
