Goelet was born on September 19, 1809, to "one of the oldest and most respected [families] in the City." He was the youngest of four children born to Almy (née Buchanan) Goelet (1768–1848) and Peter P. Goelet (1764–1828).[1] His siblings were Peter Goelet, who was named after their grandfather Peter Goelet;[2] Jean Buchanan Goelet;[3] and Hannah Green Goelet, who married Thomas Russell Gerry, son of U.S. Vice President Elbridge Gerry and parents to Elbridge Thomas Gerry.[4] His father, a hardware merchant based at 48 Hanover Square (later known as 113 and 115 Pearl Streets), was a large land-owner, including the "Goelet farm" which Robert's elder brother Peter inherited at Broadway and 19th Street.[5][6]
Goelet was a prominent landowner and landlord in New York and generally followed his brothers real estate rule, which was to "never to part with a foot of land the title of which had been once vested in the Goelet family."[2]
Robert, along with his brother, were instrumental in founding the Chemical Bank and Trust Company.[1] While neither of them were directors (Robert's son Robert became a director in 1878), both Robert and Peter were among the largest stockholders of the bank when it was rechartered as a state bank in 1844.[11] Today, through various mergers, the bank is known as JPMorgan Chase.[12]
On October 16, 1839, Goelet was married to Sarah Ogden (1809–1888), a daughter of Jonathan Ogden and Charlotte Eliza (née Walton) Ogden.[13] Together, they lived at 5 State Street in Manhattan, overlooking the Battery and were the parents of:[14]
Goelet died on September 22, 1879, at 857 Broadway, his residence in New York City.[5] After a funeral at St. Mark's Protestant Episcopal Church, he was buried in the Ogden family vault at the New York Marble Cemetery.[22] In his will, he left his wife "all his jewelry, plate, ornaments, horses, carriages, furniture, and paintings, and an annuity of $40,000 in lieu of dower, payable in quarterly installments."[23] The remainder of his estate, which in total was estimated at from $6,000,000 to $10,000,000, was left to his two sons in "equal shares."[23] Two months after Robert's death, his brother Peter, who never married and was known for his many eccentricities, also died.[2][24] Aside from $500,000 left to his nephew Elbridge Gerry, the rest of Peter's estate went to Robert's sons.[25]
Through his eldest son Robert, he was a grandfather of Robert Walton Goelet, a financier and real estate developer,[26] and Beatrice Goelet, who died of pneumonia at age 17 in 1902 and was painted as a child by John Singer Sargent.[27]
^Lyman Horace Weeks, Prominent Families of New York: Being an Account in Biographical Form of Individuals and Families Distinguished as Representatives of the Social, Professional and Civic Life of New York City, New York: The Historical Company, 1897 [1]
^"Chester Mansion Restored to Glory. A Battle over Frogs". Times Herald-Record. February 7, 2010. Retrieved 2010-07-26. Built by real-estate magnate Robert Goelet, whose family helped found Chemical Bank, the building had been reincarnated as an upscale hotel that ran aground in the 1960s and as a wedding banquet hall that was shuttered in 2007, among other efforts.
