Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Co. Issued to and Signed by Winifred Countess of Dundonald - Stock Certificate
Inv# AG2312 StockStock issued to and signed on back by Winifred, Countess of Dundonald.
Winifred Cochrane, Countess of Dundonald (Welsh; Winifred, Iarlles Dundonald); Born 16 April 1859, known within Wales by her bardic name: Rhiannon, she was the Welsh wife of Douglas Mackinnon Baillie Hamilton Cochrane (1852 – 1935). Winifred was the second daughter and sole heir of Robert Bamford Hesketh and Ellen Jones-Bateman, She was born into the royal house of Marchudd ap Cynan, the founder of the VIII Noble Tribe of North Wales. Cynan’s descendants, the Lloyds of Plas yn y Gwrych were based in the Parish of Abergele, where Winifred, through her ancestors shared co-sanguinity with Llywelyn the Great.
Growing up, Winifred Bamford Hesketh lived at her family’s residences in London, Torquay and Gwyrch Castle. She married Lieutenant General Douglas Mackinnon Baillie Hamilton Cochrane, 12th Earl of Dundonald in 1878, when she was 19 years old.
When Winifred turned 21, the money in her Trust Fund became available and a house was purchased in London. She had five children between 1880 and 1893.
The arranged marriage is thought to have been an unhappy one. The Earl spent most of his time in Scotland and fighting wars while the Countess remained in Wales.
She had many friends within royal circles, who visited her at her Gwrych Castle estate. There is an account of Princess Marie Louise of Schleswig-Holstein staying at Gwrych on September 1901, where they then went on a day trip to Caernarfon.
It is believed that the Earl was landless and even through the marriage, the castle belonged solely to Winifred, according to 'The Omaha Sunday Bee'; "In fact, until his marriage, the earl of Dundonald was a very poor man, glad to receive his salary as an officer in the British army."
Winifred died on Wednesday, the 16th of January, 1924 of heart failure whilst staying at her London residency, her funeral was held at Llanddulas the following Saturday the 19th, it was documented as being a simple and modest service, attended by those closest to her, her coffin was delivered by train from London to Llanddulas where it was then carried by a pony carriage. Feeling distraught, her daughter; Lousia Hamilton on the way to the service at Llanddulas fainted on the platform at Chester Station whilst waiting for her connection to Abergele, Louisa's brother (most likely Thomas Cochrane), took her by taxi to her hotel, where she fainted again, Thomas then left Louisa in the care of the manageress so that he could attend the funeral, by the afternoon, Louisa was well enough to make her journey back to her home in London. Winifred's chief mourners were; Robert Cochrane (her son) and her estranged husband; Douglas Cochrane. Winifred was Abergele's ruling councillor; an officer for the Primrose League in 1904, an organisation which was founded in Abergele in 1886 and followed Conservative principles, Although by 1913, she was no longer a member.
A stock certificate is issued by businesses, usually companies. A stock is part of the permanent finance of a business. Normally, they are never repaid, and the investor can recover his/her money only by selling to another investor. Most stocks, or also called shares, earn dividends, at the business's discretion, depending on how well it has traded. A stockholder or shareholder is a part-owner of the business that issued the stock certificates.
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