Goelet was born on September 19, 1809 to "one of the oldest and most respected in the City." He was the youngest of four children born to Almy Goelet and Peter P. Goelet. His siblings were Peter Goelet, who was named after their grandfather Peter Goelet; Jean Buchanan Goelet; and Hannah Green Goelet, who married Thomas Russell Gerry, son of U.S. Vice PresidentElbridge Gerry and parents to Elbridge Thomas Gerry. His father, a hardware merchant based at 48 Hanover Square, was a large land-owner, including the "Goelet farm" which Robert's elder brother Peter inherited at Broadway and 19th Street. His maternal grandparents were Almy Buchanan and Thomas Buchanan, a merchant with Thomas Buchanan & Son at 44 Wall Street. Goelet's maternal aunt, Margaret Buchanan, was married to his paternal uncle, Robert Ratsey Goelet. His paternal grandparents were Elizabeth Goelet and Peter Goelet, a prominent merchant and landowner who was a descendant of Huguenots from La Rochelle in France, who escaped to Amsterdam. During the Revolutionary War, his grandfather was a member of the Sons of Liberty, the Committee of Correspondence, and the Committee of One Hundred. He graduated from Columbia College in 1828.
Career
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." Robert, along with his brother, were instrumental in founding the Chemical Bank and Trust Company. While neither of them were directors, both Robert and Peter were among the largest stockholders of the bank when it was rechartered as a state bank in 1844. Today, through various mergers, the bank is known as JPMorgan Chase.
Personal life
On October 16, 1839, Goelet was married to Sarah Ogden, a daughter of Jonathan Ogden and Charlotte Eliza Ogden. Together, they lived at 5 State Street in Manhattan, overlooking the Battery and were the parents of:
Robert Goelet who married Harriette Louise Warren, sister of George H., Whitney and Lloyd Warren, in April 1879.
Goelet died on September 22, 1879 at 857 Broadway, his residence in New York City. After a funeral at St. Mark's Protestant Episcopal Church, he was buried in the Ogden family vault at the New York Marble Cemetery. 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." 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." Two months after Robert's death, his brother Peter, who never married and was known for his many eccentricities, also died. Aside from $500,000 left to his nephew Elbridge Gerry, the rest of Peter's estate went to Robert's sons.
