John Ellis Roosevelt


John Ellis Roosevelt was a lawyer with the Wall Street firm of Roosevelt & Kobbe, the president of the Elkhorn Valley Coal Land Company and secretary of the Broadway Improvement Company. He owned the John Ellis Roosevelt Estate.

Early life

John Ellis Roosevelt was born on February 25, 1853 in New York City. He was the second child of Robert Barnhill Roosevelt and Elizabeth Ellis. Roosevelt had an older sister, Margaret Barnhill Roosevelt, and a younger brother, Robert Barnhill Roosevelt Jr. They were the first cousins of President Theodore Roosevelt through their shared paternal grandfather, Cornelius Van Schaack Roosevelt.
He also had three half siblings; Kenyon Fortescue, Granville Roland Fortescue, and Maude Fortescue. They were the children of Robert Barnhill Roosevelt and his second wife, Marion Fortescue, also known as Marion O'Shea Roosevelt.

Career

Roosevelt was a lawyer and the president of the Elkhorn Valley Coal Land Company and secretary of the Broadway Improvement Company.
He was a partner in the Wall Street law firm of Roosevelt & Kobbe, along with George C. Kobbé, at 44 Wall Street. His half brother, Kenyon Fortescue was also a lawyer at the same firm.
The firm represented John Ellis Roosevelt's father, Robert Barnwell Roosevelt, in a lawsuit entitled Robert B. Roosevelt v. Elbert A. Brinckerhoff, 143 F. 478, cert. dend. 200 U.S. 622. Brinckerhoff alleged that Robert Barnwell Roosevelt had committed malpractice by permitting a mortgage on a valuable piece of Manhattan real estate at 33 Nassau Street to be cancelled. Damages were assessed against Robert Barnwell Roosevelt in excess of $100,000. Robert Barnwell Roosevelt died four months after the decision was entered.

Personal life

On February 19, 1879 he married Nannie Mitchell Vance, the daughter of Samuel B. H. Vance, at the recently built St. Nicholas Collegiate Reformed Protestant Dutch Church, Fifth Avenue and 48th Street, in New York City in Manhattan. Before her death of typhoid in 1912, they had three daughters:
His wife died on September 26, 1912 of typhoid.
On January 6, 1914, he married Edith Biscoe, the former wife of Lt. H. E. Biscoe. Edith's sister, Lillie O. Hammersley was married to John's brother, Robert. In 1915, Roosevelt tried to have the marriage annulled, claiming he was the victim of misrepresentation. The case was heavily reported in the News at the time. Edith won the case in 1916 and Roosevelt was ordered to pay her $400 a month in alimony.
Roosevelt died on March 9, 1939 in Delray Beach, Florida.