Isabella Eugenie Boyer
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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, she married a Belgian musician, Victor Reubsaet, Vicomte d’Estemburgh, and the Duke of Camposelice. They lived in Paris. Isabella was still a striking lady when she met the sculptor Bartholdi. He asked her to be his model for the Statue of Liberty.
In 1904, Isabella died at 62 years of age.
