Editor’s note: The below contains spoilers for The Gilded Age Season 2.
The Gilded Agetakes its role as a historical drama seriously, working many elements from the Gilded Age period into the story. Fromthe opera warbetween New York’s elite tothe woman behind the Brooklyn Bridge, the show portrays real events constantly. Though it doesn’t rely on perfect accuracy, the show does explore many developments of the time. It even includescharacters based on real people, though some are more direct than others. While characters like the Astors or T. Thomas Fortune (Sullivan Jones) are ripped right out of history, with some creative liberties, others are completely fictional, such as Marian (Louisa Jacobson) and her family. However, there is a third category of characters who are inspired by but not directly based on historical figures, with the Russell family being the leading example. While Bertha (Carrie Coon) has taken Alva Vanderbilt’s role in the opera war, George (Morgan Spector) is a combination of several robber barons, andhis recent strike plotalludes to, but doesn’t follow, the events of the Homestead Strike. With several similarities to people rather than direct connections, the show has the freedom to do what they want with them, and, in Season 2, another character joins this group – Maud Beaton (Nicole Bryndon Bloom).
Maud’s story shares a striking resemblance with a woman known at different times throughout her life asCassie Chadwick, Lydia DeVere, and Elizabeth “Betty” Bigley. Both women arrive in New York claiming to be the illegitimate daughter of a wealthy and well-known man. Using the position that this story and their wealth can get them, they both committed fraud. Yet there are some marked differences between the two women, from the exact year to their methods of deceit. Though history tells us that Cassie Chadwick was caught, Maud Beaton may still get away with taking Oscar’s (Blake Ritson) fortune. Though they are not exactly the same, the considerable similarities andThe Gilded Age’s dedication to history suggest that the connection between Maud Beaton and Cassie Chadwick is more than accidental.
The Gilded Age
A wide-eyed young scion of a conservative family embarks on a mission to infiltrate the wealthy neighboring clan dominated by ruthless railroad tycoon George Russell, his rakish son, Larry, and his ambitious wife, Bertha.
Who is Maud Beaton in ‘The Gilded Age’?
Maud is an heiress who arrives in New York in Season 2, claiming to be the daughter of John Beaton, but rumor has it that her true father is the wealthy Jay Gould, which is why he seems interested in her. With wealth to spare, Maud attracts the eye of Oscar van Rhijn, who recently struck out in his attempts to marry Gladys Russell (Taissa Farmiga) and is searching for another heiress. As a gay man, Oscar is searching for money rather than love in a prospective marriage. And not only is Maud rich, but Oscar enjoys her company, making her an ideal choice for his lavender marriage. With Maud, Oscar’s advances are accepted as she attendsAda’s (Cynthia Nixon) weddingwith him and even allows him to accompany her to meetings with her business manager, Mr. Crowther (Mark Boyett).
In an attempt to increase his wealth and impress Maud, Oscar secretly meets with Mr. Crowther, investing most of his money in the Casterbridge Pacific company despite Mr. Crowther’s attempts to reject him. Crowther claims the company is making an offer on the Chicago and Atlantic railroad line, but has all the investors they need, but Oscar refuses to be denied. He expects a quick return, but his greedy actions result in him losing his investment, as he discovers there is no such thing as the Casterbridge Pacific company. Claiming to be visiting her sick aunt, Maud is out of reach, so Oscar returns to Mr. Crowther’s office, finding it empty. Maud has left town with a considerable portion of Oscar’s fortune, leaving Oscar in a terrible position as he must admit his mistake to his mother, Agnes (Christine Baranski), that he lost the family money. The phony investment will undoubtedly have a long-term impact on the plot, even with Maud gone, making her brief appearance a significant part of the show.
How Did Cassie Chadwick Inspire ‘The Gilded Age’s Maud Beaton?
Maud Beaton’s con is not entirely her own, as the show borrowed some details from Cassie Chadwick’s work. Born in Ontario, Canada, in October 1857, Elizabeth “Betty” Bigley was a farmer’s daughter and one of eight children. But she had bigger plans for herself. She first forged an inheritance notice at 13, claiming a recently deceased uncle left her a small sum of money, which the bank gave her in advance. Though she was caught and arrested a few months later, Betty was undeterred and, as she grew, began to enact more elaborate schemes. At 22, she styled herself as an heiress, forging a paper trail to prove it. With the loans her fake inheritance got her, Betty bought expensive items with checks, paying more and getting change in return. When she married, an announcement in the paper brought the angry merchants to her door. Her husband paid the debts but ended their marriage after twelve days.
Next, she became Marie Rosa, impressing the people of Erie, Pennsylvania, by claiming to be the niece of Civil War General William Tecumseh Sherman. Faking an illness that gained her sympathy, Marie Rosa inspired the locals to loan her money to get home. But when they asked for repayment, they received a very convincing letter that Marie Rosa had died that Betty wrote herself. Betty spent a few years posing as a clairvoyant, marrying a few of her clients, including C.L. Hoover, who died and left her a significant amount of money. Taking the money, she left the city and changed her name to Lydia DeVere. In Cleveland, she posed as a clairvoyant financial advisor. Among the clients who paid well for her services was Joseph Lamb, whom she tricked into cashing a fake check, getting them both arrested. Though proven guilty, she only served three years before a promise to change got her an early release.
She then married a prominent Cleveland Doctor, Leroy S. Chadwick, becoming Cassie Chadwick. With an unknown past, she fascinated her neighbors with her excessive spending. It was then she initiated her biggest trick. Cassie Chadwick started a rumor that she was the illegitimate daughter of Andrew Carnegie and set to inherit part of his fortune by running into her husband’s acquaintance in New York and asking him to accompany her as she visited her father. She went into the Carnegie mansion alone. But rather than seeing her supposed father, Cassie met with the housekeeper on the pretense of checking a maid’s references. Once the rumor spread throughout society, she forges Carnegie’s signature on checks, borrowing loans from banks in large sums and paying them off with other loans. The president of Citizen’s National Bank, Charles Beckwith, and an investment banker, Herbert Newton, each loaned her large sums from their personal funds.
But in 1904, Newton realized she wouldn’t pay him back and filed a federal lawsuit. Cassie Chadwick was found guilty of conspiracy to defraud a national bank and imprisoned. Carnegie attended the trial himself and was most offended by the misspellings she credited to him and said he could have caught her long before. Cassie, Lydia, Betty, or whatever you want to call her, was caught several times, but her lifetime of fraud hurt many of those she encountered, especially Beckwith and Newton. Though they were not exactly in the same situation as Oscar van Rhijn, their fortunes were destroyed by the con artist. Her many exploits earned her a reputation that few can match, making it the perfect bit of history to appear on TV if slightly changed.
How Did ‘The Gilded Age’ Change Cassie Chadwick’s Story?
Though both are skilled at committing financial fraud, Maud Beaton’s story isn’t exactly like Cassie Chadwick’s. Cassie came to New York with this claim in 1902, roughly twenty years afterThe Gilded Age, but her early cons were at the same time as the show. Cassie Chadwick, or Betty Bigley, as she was born, originated Maud’s act of being the illegitimate daughter of a wealthy man, and both women relied on men underestimating them due to their sex. However, Chadwick tricked mostly banks with her fake inheritance checks, rather than setting up false investments, and often stuck around long enough to marry her targets, rather than disappearing as Maud does on Oscar.
Yet these differences have a purpose. They allow Maud to target Oscar specifically, increasing the drama as one of the main families finds themselves without the wealth they depend on. Maud’s quick exit kept her past a mystery leading up to the reveal. If she and Oscar had wed and Maud were around for longer, it would have been difficult to develop the character without making her suspicious. As it is, several fans guessed that she was swindling Oscar. With Maud’s connection to Cassie Chadwick,The Gilded Ageonce again took history into account for this plot but made it their own. Cassie Chadwick’s story is an interesting one that doesn’t get the discussion it deserves, and the show’s use of a similar con maintains the realism even with the unlikely plot.
The Gilded Ageis available to stream on Max in the U.S.
