form of government that vests all authority in Congress. He built and owned the Riggs House, a famous hotel of his time, and was one of the organizers of the Washington and Georgetown Railroad Company. He was a trustee of the Corcoran Gallery of Art and of the Peabody Education Fund. He was for many years the treasurer of the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union. In 1864 he advanced the money to maintain Mount Vernon until the return of peace should make it possible for the society again to raise funds. Personal life On June 23, 1840, he was married to Janet Madeleine Cecilia Shedden, the daughter of Thomas Shedden of Glasgow, Scotland. They had nine children, including: Alice Lawrason Riggs (1841–1927), who died unmarried. Catherine Shedden Riggs (1842–1881), who married Louis de Geofroy, French Ambassador to China and French Minister to Japan. Cecilia Dowdall Riggs (1844–1907), who married the British diplomat Sir Henry Howard in 1867. Janet Madeleine Riggs (1845–1861), who died young. Mary Griffith Riggs (1847–1849), who died young. George Shedden Riggs (1849–1856), who died young. Elisha Francis Riggs (1851–1910), who married Medora Thayer, a daughter of James Smith Thayer, in 1879. Jane Agnes Riggs (1853–1930), who died unmarried. Thomas Lawrason Riggs (1858–1888), who became a Catholic priest. Riggs died at his home, Green Hill, in Prince George's County, Maryland. The Green Hill estate included much of the nearby Maryland suburbs northeast of Washington including Adelphi, Chillum, and Lewisdale. Although a Episcopal Protestant in early life, he received the last rites of the Roman Catholic Church. He is buried at Rock Creek Cemetery, near Riggs Road in Washington, D.C. Relations and descendants His grandniece, Kate Cheeseman Riggs, married Edward Newton Perkins, the grandson of U.S. Secretary of State, U.S. Attorney General and U.S. Senator William M. Evarts and the brother of famed editor Maxwell Perkins; uncles of Watergate Scandal special prosecutor Archibald Cox. In fiction George Riggs is a character in the historical novel Forty-Ninth by Boris Pronsky and Craig Britton. References Further reading A few letters in the Lib. of Cong.; information from his son, the Rev. T. Lawrason Riggs, New Haven, Conn., and from the Riggs National Bank, Washington; Third Record of the Class of 1833 in Yale College (1870); Report of the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association, 1866, 1882; Grace King, Mount Vernon (1929); A Hist. of . . . Washington . . .