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Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton

So far working on adding to the later life section and marriage section of Eliza Hamilton article. 250 words with 2 citation. Need to cross wiki link about grange house and cite.


Marriage

[edit]

In early 1780, Elizabeth went to stay with her aunt, Gertrude Schuyler Cochran, in Morristown, New Jersey. There she met Alexander Hamilton, one of General George Washington's aides-de-camp, who was stationed along with the General and his men in Morristown for the winter.[1] (In fact, they had met previously, if briefly, two years before, when Hamilton dined with the Schuylers on his way back from a negotiation on Washington's behalf.[2]) Also while in Morristown, Eliza met and became friends with Martha Washington, a friendship they would maintain throughout their husbands' political careers. Eliza later said of Mrs. Washington, "She was always my ideal of a true woman."[3][4]

The relationship between Eliza and Hamilton quickly grew, even after he left Morristown for a short mission to negotiate a prisoners exchange, only a month after Eliza had arrived. While gone on the prisoner exchange Hamilton wrote to Eliza continuing their relationship through letters.[5] He then returned to Morristown where Elizabeth's father had also arrived in his capacity as representative of the Continental Congress and by early April they were officially engaged, with her father's blessing (something of an anomaly for the Schuyler girls—both Angelica and Catherine would end up eloping).[6] Hamilton followed the Army when they decamped in June 1780. In September that year, Eliza learned that Major John André, head of the British Secret Service, had been captured in a foiled plot concocted by General Benedict Arnold to surrender the fort of West Point to the British. André had once been a houseguest in the Schuyler Mansion in Albany as a prisoner of war en route to Pennsylvania in 1775; Eliza, then seventeen, might have had a juvenile crush on the young British officer who had once sketched for her. Hamilton, while jealous of André for his "accomplishments," promised Eliza he would do what he could to treat the British intelligence chief accordingly; he even begged Washington to grant André's last wish of execution by firing squad, but to no avail.[7] After two more months of separation punctuated by their correspondence, on December 14, 1780, Alexander Hamilton and Elizabeth Schuyler were married at the Schuyler Mansion.[8]

Eliza was at the time pregnant with their sixth child. Despite her advanced pregnancy and her previous miscarriage of November 1794, her initial reaction to her husband's disclosure of his past affair was to leave Hamilton in New York and join her parents in Albany where William Stephen was born on August 4, 1797. She only came back to her marital house in New York in early September 1797 because the local doctor had been unable to cure their eldest son Philip, who had accompanied her to Albany and contracted typhus.[9] Over time Eliza and Alexander reconciled and remained married, and had two more children together. The first, Elizabeth, named for Eliza, was born on November 20, 1799. Before their eighth child was born, however, they lost their oldest son, Philip, who died in a duel on November 24, 1801. After being shot on the dueling field, Philip was brought to Angelica and John Church's house, where he died, both of his parents next to him.[10] Their last child, born the next June in 1802, was named Philip in his honor.[citation needed] During this time Alexander commissioned [John McComb Jr.] to construct the Hamilton family home. In 1802 the same year that Phillip was born the house was build and named [Hamilton Grange National Memorial|The Grange] after his Alexander's fathers home in Scotland.

Eliza and her husband would not get to enjoy their newly built home together long for only two years later, in July 1804, Alexander Hamilton became involved in a similar "affair of honor," which led to his infamous duel with Aaron Burr and untimely death. Before the duel, he wrote Eliza two letters, telling her:

The consolations of Religion, my beloved, can alone support you; and these you have a right to enjoy. Fly to the bosom of your God and be comforted. With my last idea; I shall cherish the sweet hope of meeting you in a better world. Adieu best of wives and best of Women. Embrace all my darling Children for me.[11]

Alexander Hamilton died on July 12, 1804, with Eliza and all seven of his surviving children by his side.[12]

Later life

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Elizabeth Hamilton, 1825 portrait by Henry Inman
Elizabeth Hamilton at 94

In the year before the duel, Eliza's mother Catherine had died suddenly,[13]and only a few months after Hamilton's death Eliza's father died as well. By this time, two of her siblings, Peggy and John, had also died.[14]

After her husband's death in 1804, Eliza was left to pay Hamilton's debts. The Grange, their house on a 35-acre estate in upper Manhattan, was sold at public auction;[8]however, she was later able to repurchase it from Hamilton's executors, who had decided that Eliza could not be publicly dispossessed of her home, and purchased it themselves to sell back to her at half the price.[15][16]In November 1833, at the age of 76, Eliza resold The Grange for $25,000, funding the purchase of a New York townhouse (now called the Hamilton-Holly House) where she lived for nine years with two of her grown children, Alexander Hamilton Jr.and Eliza Hamilton Holly, and their spouses.[16] Eliza was also able to collect Alexander's pension from his service in the army from congress in 1836 for money and land.[17]In 1848, she left New York for Washington, D.C., where she lived with her widowed daughter Eliza until 1854.

In 1798, Eliza had accepted her friend Isabella Graham's invitation to join the descriptively named Society for the Relief of Poor Widows with Small Children that had been established the previous year.[18]In 1806, two years after her husband's death, she, along with several other women including Joanna Bethune, founded the Orphan Asylum Society. Eliza was appointed second directress, or vice-president.[19]In 1821, she was named first directress, and served for twenty-seven years in this role, until she left New York in 1848.[20]By the time she left she had been with the organization continuously since its founding, a total of forty-two years. The New York Orphan Asylum Society continues to exist as a social service agency for children, today called Graham Windham.[21]

Eliza defended Alexander against his critics in a variety of ways following his death, including by supporting his claim of authorship of George Washington's Farewell Address and by requesting an apology from James Monroeover his accusations of financial improprieties.Eliza wanted a full official apology from Monroe which he would not give until they met in person to talk about Alexander shortly before her passing. [22]

Elizabeth Hamilton petitions Congress to publish her husband Alexander Hamilton's writings (1846)

Eliza remained dedicated to preserving her husband's legacy. She re-organized all of Alexander's letters, papers, and writings with the help of her son, John Church Hamilton,[8]and persevered through many setbacks in getting his biography published. With Eliza's help John C. Hamilton would go on to publish History of the Republic of the United States America, as Traced in the Writings of Alexander Hamilton and his Contemporaries. History of the Republic would set the bar for future biographies of Alexander Hamilton that would grow as time went on.[23] She was so devoted to Alexander's writings that she wore a small package around her neck containing the pieces of a sonnet that Alexander wrote for her during the early days of their courtship.[15]The writings that historians have today by Alexander Hamilton can be attributed to efforts from Eliza. In June of 1848 When Eliza was in her nineties she made an effort for Congress to buy and publish her late husband's works. In August her request was granted and Congress bought and published Alexander's works, adding them to the library of Congress and helping future historians of Hamilton view his works today.[24] Along with getting Alexander's works stored while Eliza was in her nineties she remained dedicated to charity work, and after moving to Washington, D.C., she helped Dolley Madisonand Louisa Adamsraise money to build the Washington Monument.[25]

Tomb at Trinity Church

By 1846, Eliza was suffering from short-term memory loss but was still vividly recalling her husband.[26]Eliza died in Washington, D.C. on November 9, 1854, at age ninety-seven. She had outlived her husband by fifty years, and had outlived all but one of her siblings (her youngest sister, Catherine, twenty-four years her junior).[14]Eliza was buried near her husband in the graveyard of Trinity Churchin New York City. Angelica was also laid to rest at Trinity, in the Livingstons' private vault, while Eliza's eldest son Philip had an unmarked grave near the churchyard.[27]

  1. ^ Chernow, pp. 128–29
  2. ^ Chernow, pp. 102–103
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Chernow131 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Katharine Schuyler Baxter (1897). A Godchild of Washington. F.T. Neely. p. 223.
  5. ^ Syrett, Harold (1973). Introduction: Alexander Hamilton, A Biography in His Own Words. New York: NEWSWEEK. pp. 77–78. ISBN 0060124172.
  6. ^ Chernow, p. 136; Chernow, p. 129
  7. ^ Randall, Willard Sterne (2003). Alexander Hamilton: A Life. New York: HarpersCollins. pp. 191–92, 211–14, 215–16, 219.
  8. ^ a b c "Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton". New York State Museum. January 1, 2004. Archived from the original on September 14, 2015. Retrieved September 30, 2015. Cite error: The named reference "ny-museum" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  9. ^ Chernow, Ron (2004). Alexander Hamilton. Penguin Books. ISBN 978-1-59420-009-0., chapter "Too near the sun"
  10. ^ Chernow, pp. 651–54
  11. ^ "From Alexander Hamilton to Elizabeth Hamilton, 4 July 1804". Founders Online. Archived from the original on January 12, 2016. Retrieved January 11, 2016.
  12. ^ Chernow, p. 708
  13. ^ Humphreys, p. 240
  14. ^ a b Reynolds, Cuyler (1914). Genealogical and Family History of Southern New York and the Hudson River Valley: A Record of the Achievements of Her People in the Making of a Commonwealth and the Building of a Nation, Volume 3. New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company. p. 1149.
  15. ^ a b "American Experience | Alexander Hamilton | People & Events | Elizabeth Hamilton (1757–1854) | PBS". www.pbs.org. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016. Retrieved March 16, 2016.
  16. ^ a b "Hamilton-Holly House Designation Report" (PDF). New York, NY: Landmarks Preservation Commission. October 19, 2004. LP-2157. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2016-03-04.
  17. ^ Presnell, Jenny. "Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton". New York State Museums Exhibitions. Retrieved 11/06/2019. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  18. ^ Boylan, Anne M. (2002). The Origins of Women's Activism: New York and Boston, 1797–1840. The University of North Carolina Press. p. 104.
  19. ^ Boylan, p. 111
  20. ^ Chernow, pp. 728–730
  21. ^ "History". Graham-Windham. May 8, 2012. Archived from the original on September 26, 2015. Retrieved September 25, 2015.
  22. ^ "Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton". New York State Museum. Archived from the original on November 6, 2019. Retrieved September 30, 2015. {{cite web}}: |archive-date= / |archive-url= timestamp mismatch; October 6, 2015 suggested (help)
  23. ^ Syrett, Harold (1973). Introduction: Alexander Hamilton, A Biography in His Own Words. New York: NEWSWEEK. p. 8. ISBN 0060124172.
  24. ^ Syrett, Harold (1973). Introduction: Alexander Hamilton, A Biography in His Own Words. New York: NEWSWEEK. p. 8. ISBN 0060124172.
  25. ^ Roberts, Cokie (2015). Capital Dames. HarperCollins Publishers. p. 8. ISBN 978-0-06-200276-1.
  26. ^ Klein, Philip S. (1995) [1962]. President James Buchanan: A Biography. Newtown, Connecticut: American Political Biography Press. p. 171. ISBN 0-945707-11-8.
  27. ^ Sullivan, J. Courtney (March 5, 2016). "After the Broadway Show, a Trip to Hamilton's Grave". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on March 10, 2016. Retrieved March 10, 2016.
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