Biography
He was born in New York City to John Winthrop Chanler and Margaret Astor Ward, in a sea of wealthy and interconnected Hudson River families that included the Astors, Delanos, Winthrops and Stuyvesants. He was the great-grandson of William Backhouse Astor, Sr. and a descendent of General John Armstrong, Sr. His mother was a niece of Julia Ward Howe. Chanler had nine brothers and sisters, including politician Lewis Stuyvesant Chanler and the soldier and explorer William Astor Chanler. His sister Margaret Livingston Chanler served as a nurse with the American Red Cross during the Spanish-American War. Chanler's older brother John Armstrong Chanler married novelist Amélie Rives Troubetzkoy. Chanler and his siblings became orphans after the death of their mother in 1875 and their father in 1877, both to pneumonia. The children were raised at their parents' estate in Rokeby (Barrytown, New York).
Read more about this topic: Robert Winthrop Chanler
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