Edward Coleman Delafield
Edward Coleman Delafield (1878-1976) was a Colonel in the New York National Guard and later a banker.
Biography
He was born in 1878 to Maturin L. Delafield, a son of Maj. Joseph Delafield and Mary Coleman. Edward C. Delafield went into banking and was vice president and president of the Franklin Trust Company in 1914. In 1920, the institution merged with the Bank of America. The Bank of America sold the charter for its California affiliate and name to the Bank of Italy (USA) under founder Amadeo P. Giannini. In 1931 Delafield's remaining trust company merged with the City Bank Farmers Trust Company. In 1937, he became a founding senior partner in the investment counselling and New York Stock Exchange member stock brokerage firm of Delafield & Delafield. He turned management over to other family members but he was recalled in 1968 resuming management and he retired for good in 1970.[1]
His first wife was Margaretta Stockton Beasley, whose uncle was Moses Taylor Pyne, of a family long associated with National City Bank. Pyne was the grandson of Moses Taylor. His brother, Joseph L. Delafield, was the best man, and ushers were his brother, J. Ross Delafield, his wife's cousin Percy R. Pyne, Alexander M. Hadden, Princeton tennis star Mercer Beasley, III and Robert Southard.
His second wife was Clelia C. Benjamin, a college mate of his daughter Margaretta. Clelia was the daughter of Walter Romeyn Benjamin, publisher of The Collector, a journal of autographs and history. Clelia's grandfather was Park Benjamin, Sr. and her uncle was Park Benjamin, Jr.. Clelia's mother Mrs. Benjamin was Baroness Rachele Maria Carolina "Carina" de Saint Seigne, of Florence.[2]
From 1946 to 1968 Delafield was the Treasurer and/or a member of the board of trustees of Memorial Hospital for the Treatment of Cancer and Allied Diseases later known as the Sloan-Kettering Institute.
He died in 1976.
