Rufus King Delafield

Rufus King Delafield (November 18, 1802 – February 6, 1874) was an American banker and manufacturer.

Early life

Delafield was born at his father's residence, 16 Wall Street in New York City, on November 18, 1802, He was the youngest of nine sons and four daughters born to Anne (née Hallett) Delafield (1766–1839) and John Delafield (1748–1824), a merchant who emigrated to New York from England in 1788 and was a founder and director of the Mutual Insurance Company, becoming one of the wealthiest men in the country. His father's summer residence, built in 1791 on the East River opposite Blackwell's Island, was known as" Sunswick" and was one of the largest and best appointed private houses near New York City. Among his siblings were older brothers John Delafield, Joseph Delafield, Henry Delafield, William Delafield, Maj. Gen. Richard Delafield, and Dr. Edward Delafield. His younger sister, Susan Maria Delafield, was married to Henry Parish. Rufus, his father, and his four brothers were painted by Morton H. Bly. The painting is currently owned by the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society.

His maternal grandparents were Joseph Hallett and Elizabeth (née Hazard) Hallett and his aunt, Mary Hallett, was the second wife of U.S. Representative Benjamin Tallmadge. His paternal grandparents were John Delafield and Martha (née Dell) Delafield, a daughter of John Dell of Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, England. and was the father of Connecticut representative Edward Henry Delafield.

Career After an education in New York, Delafield engaged in "mercantile business" and served as an officer of the Phenix Bank from 1823 to 1835, and actuary and secretary of the Farmers' Loan and Trust Company (which later became Citibank) from 1835 to 1852. He also served as a trustee of the State Agricultural College of New York.

After his banking career, he was the founder and president of the Delafield & Baxter Hydraulic Cement Company, located at the High Falls at Rondout Creek, which was previously Ogden & Delafield. Delafield & Baxter, which was headquartered at 54 Pine Street, Susan Bard (wife of Ferdinand Sands), and John Bard (founder of Bard College with his wife, Margaret Taylor Johnston, sister of John Taylor Johnston, founder of the Metropolitan Museum of Art). Together, they were the parents of seven children:

Edward Delafield (1837–1884), a member of the New York Stock Exchange who married Elizabeth Remsen Schuchardt, daughter of Frederick Schuchardt (nephew of Frederick Gebhard), in 1861. William Bard Delafield (1838–1863), who died unmarried in Staten Island. who married Elizabeth Blake Moran, daughter of Daniel E. Moran, in 1883. He married Marguerite Marie Dewey in 1896. who died unmarried of an "accidental gunshot wound while hunting" in Freeborn, Minnesota. who married John Tonnelé Hall (1831–1895) in 1871. Hall's brother, Valentine Hall Jr., was the maternal grandfather of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. He founded the firm of Delafield & Company, of New York, Chicago, and San Francisco. (Delafield & Company was founded in 1880 as the Delafield, Morgan, Kissel & Co.) and primarily traded California and Pacific slope products.

Like his father and brothers, Delafield established a country seat for himself, Rufus' being in New Brighton, Staten Island, where he brought the residence "to the highest state of cultivation."

Delafield died on February 6, 1874, at 253 Park Avenue in New York City, the residence of his son-in-law, John T. Hall. After a funeral at Trinity Church, he was buried at the family mausoleum at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.

Descendants Through his eldest son Edward, he was the grandfather of Rufus Delafield (1863–), who married Elizabeth Breeze Morse (daughter of Sidney Morse) in 1886; who married Anne Oakley Brooks (1872–1941) (daughter of Frederick W. Brooks) in 1894. Suzette Tonnelé Hall (1875–1929), who married Bryce Metcalf in 1905; and Katharine Cruger Delafield Hall (1879–1920), who married W. S. Groesbeck Fowler (grandson of William S. Groesbeck) in 1910.