Isabella Eugenie Boyer
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Isabella Eugenie Boyer (1841–1904) was born in Paris to French and English parents. Isabella married Isaac Merritt Singer, the founder of the Singer Sewing Machine Co., in New York, in 1863 when Isaac was 52 and Isabella was 22. Singer had also a previous common-law wife, Mary Ann Sponsler, who had had Isaac arrested for domestic abuse.
Isabella and Isaac moved to Oldway Mansion in Paignton, England on the Devon coast because New York society frowned on his many "families." They had six children, two girls and four boys. Their names were Winnaretta, Isabelle, Mortimer, Washington, Paris and Franklin. Including his other companions, Isaac is reported to have had a total of 22 children. Singer died in 1875 and left an estate of about $14,000,000, which at the time was a colossal sum of money. His two wills created family tension and lawsuits. Isabella was declared his legal widow.
After Isaac's death, Isabella remarried in 1879 with Dutch musician Victor Reubsaet and settled in Paris. Victor was an internationally successful singer and violinist. He was born in 1843 in Sittard as Nicolas Reubsaet, son of a simple shoemaker, but he pretended to be of noble decend. He falsely claimed the title Vicomte d’Estenburgh, but supposedly in 1881 did obtain the title of Duke of Camposelice from Italian King Umberto.
Isabella was still a striking lady when she met the sculptor Bartholdi. It is rumored that he asked her to be his model for the Statue of Liberty.
After Victor Reubsaet's death in 1887, Isabella remarried in 1891 with Paul Sohège.
In 1904, Isabella died at 62 years of age.
