Father and son, two aristocrats with the name Zborowski: both made their mark in motorsport, but are almost forgotten today. Yet their biographies make for compulsive reading.
William Eliot Morris Zborowski was born in the USA in 1858. He was heir to a fortune that dated back to Albert Zborowski, born in 1633 in Żółkiew, Poland, who was sent by his family to Holland to complete his education as a priest but sailed to New Amsterdam (now New York) and made his money trading with North America’s indigenous people.
Albert’s great-great-great-great-grandson, Martin, left his family a fortune so great that one newspaper stated ‘No estimation can at present be made of the wealth of the deceased.’ For several generations the family name had been used in its anglicised Zabriskie form, but it was returned to its original spelling of Zborowski by Martin, who styled himself as the Count of Mountsaulvain.
As Martin’s son, William Eliot Morris (known as Eliot) inherited a third of that estate in 1878, styled himself Count Zborowski and led a playboy’s life as part of New York’s high society. He played polo at a high level and was often mentioned in the pages of New York newspapers, but also traded ruthlessly on Wall Street. He tired of the criticism he received in America
