A chronicle of Rensselaerswijck, c. 16481656, For over three decades, NNI has helped cast light on America's Dutch roots. The marriage took place at the Schuyler mansion in Albany, New York. [21], Soon, however, Eliza moved again, this time back to her parents' house in Albany. A 1781 painting of Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton by Ralph Earl. Eliza died in Washington, D.C. on November 9, 1854, at age 97. They were so close, in . In 1818, she opened the first school in the neighborhood of Washington Heights (where, decades later, Lin-Manuel Miranda would grow up). Every item on this page was chosen by an ELLE editor. Hamilton attended Kings College, now Columbia University, and dived headfirst into the political debate and heady atmosphere that was pre-war New York City. 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. Monopoly is Americas favorite board game, a love letter to unbridled capitalism and our free market society. FACT CHECK: We strive for accuracy and fairness. Only two years later Hamilton became involved in an affair with honor which led to his duel with Aaron Burr and his untimely death. Fly to the bosom of your God and be comforted. She met Alexander Hamilton in 1780, when both were in their early 20s. Known as Eliza by friends and family, she was a tomboy at heart, with a potent mix of intelligence, warmth and determination. The scandal cost Hamilton any chance at the presidency, and the humiliating news became public when Eliza was pregnant with their sixth child. [32] In addition, she managed their household,[9] and James McHenry once noted to Alexander that Eliza had "as much merit as your treasurer as you have as treasurer of the United States. The affair was supposedly encouraged by Marias husband James Reynolds who then asked Hamilton for hush money to keep the affair out of public knowledge, which he paid. The Orphan Asylum Society, meanwhile, evolved into Graham Windham, a private nonprofit social services agency that provides parenting support and mental and behavioral health treatment for 5,000 children and families each year. She continued to help Hamilton throughout his political career, serving as an intermediary between him and his publisher when he was writing The Federalist Papers, copying out portions of his defense of theBank of the United States,and staying up late with him so he could readWashingtons Farewell Addressout loud to her as he wrote it. The entire Schuyler family seemed as taken with Hamilton as she was. Elizabeth gave birth to their first child, Philip,in 1782, and seven more would follow over the next two decades; the Hamiltons also raised the orphaned daughter of a friend for 10 years. But a series of events would soon rip that family apart. "[41] After returning home to Eliza on July 22[42] and assembling a first draft dated July 1797,[43] on August 25, 1797, Hamilton published a pamphlet, later known as the Reynolds Pamphlet, admitting to his one-year adulterous affair in order to refute the charges that he had been involved in speculation and public misconduct with Maria's husband James Reynolds.[44]. Elizabeth spent her final years in New York and Washington D.C., where she socialized with leaders including Presidents Tyler, Polk, Pierce, and Fillmore. [49][50][51] Eliza was appointed second directress, or vice-president. The character grows quite fond of her friend Alexander Hamilton (Lin-Manuel Miranda), but ultimately backs off when he begins a romance with her sister Eliza (Phillipa Soo). They became officially engaged in early April with her fathers blessing. She was the spouse of Alexander Hamilton, famous in the early American government following the Declaration of Independence and considered one of the founders of our American republic. The affair put a big strain on their relationship, but they eventually reconciled. 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. In 1806, two years after her husbands death, she, along with several other women, founded the Orphan Asylum Society. As biographer Ron Chernow has written, the deeply religious widow also believed passionately that all children should be literate in order to study the Bible.. In early 1780, Elizabeth went to stay with her aunt in New Jersey where she met Hamilton, who was one of General George Washingtons aides-de-camp at the time. Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. Site contains certain content that is owned A&E Television Networks, LLC. Elizabeth Hamilton petitioned Congress to publish her husband Alexander Hamilton's writings (1846). His mother, Rachel Faucette, had been born there to British and French Huguenot parents. She died aged 97, in 1854. Get the latest on new films and digital content, learn about events in your area, and get your weekly fix of American history. [52] By the time she left she had been with the organization continuously since its founding, a total of 42 years. a daughter, Eliza, on November 20, 1799. Her eldest son Philip died that November in a reckless duel, and Hamilton himself followedfewer than three years later. [20] There Eliza busied herself in creating a home for them and in aiding Alexander with his political writingsparts of his 31-page letter to Robert Morris, laying out much of the financial knowledge that was to aid him later in his career, are in her handwriting. Reynolds spilled the beans about the affair, but also said that Hamilton had been involved in his pension scheme. Eliza descended from some of America's most prominent early families Born in August 1757, she was one of eight surviving children of Philip Schuyler and Catherine Van Rensselaer. (As the musical shows, Hamilton also got pretty flirty with Eliza's vivacious older sister, Angelica. She kept in touch with Hamilton through letters, and married him in 1780. Eliza did not leave the orphanage until 1848, twenty-seven years later, when she left to live with her daughter, Elizabeth . Gabrielle Bruney is a writer and editor for Esquire, where she focuses on politics and culture. She had outlived all of her siblings except one who was 24 years her junior. No, Eliza as she was known, was not. [citation needed] 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. But when George Washington asked him to become his aide-de-camp, Hamilton embarked on what was, arguably, the second most important relationship of his life. A: At the time that I published my biography of Hamilton in 2004, Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton was a complete blank in the American imagination. "She has good nature, affability and vivacity unembellished with that charming frivolousness which is justly deemed one of the principal accomplishments of a belle. Dutch people, places, miscellany, Timeline of the Netherlands & Scandinavia in North America Chernow, Ron, Alexander Hamilton, Penguin Press, 2004, Randall, William Sterne, Alexander Hamilton: A Life, Harpers-Collins, 2003, Roberts, Warren, A Place in History: Albany in the Age of Revolution, 1775-1825, Albany: NY State University Press, 2010, Wikipedia, especially for main picture (portrait by Ralph Earl), Peter Douglas's Totidem Verbis [54] 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. By now everyone knows that Eliza Hamilton, the wife of Alexander Hamilton, burned her husband's love letters before she diedand November 9th will be the 162nd anniversary of her death on that day in 1854 at the age of 97. On Saturday, My Dear Eliza, your sister took leave of her sufferings and friends, I trust, to find repose and happiness in a better country. She is respected as an early philanthropist for her work with the Orphan Asylum Society. The story provides a snapshot of her own life following the loss of her husband, such as her work founding an orphanage in New York, and she also sings of being with Alexander again at some point in the future (with Miranda briefly re-joining her on stage). Biography and associated logos are trademarks of A+E Networksprotected in the US and other countries around the globe. [citation needed], By 1846, Eliza was suffering from short-term memory loss but was still vividly recalling her husband. Lin-Manuel Miranda and Phillipa Soo as Alexander and Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton. Contributions are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law. But by the final act of the play, one of the most compelling characters to emerge is Elizabeth (Eliza) Schuyler Hamilton. "I had little of private life in those days," she would remember. "I Meet You in Every Dream" Maria's husband, James Reynolds, caught wind of the affair, and began shaking Hamilton down for money. Within less than a year of the beginning of their courtship Elizabeth and Hamilton became a married couple, on December 14, 1780. Just a teenager, he made a name for himself writing pamphlets and articles supporting the Revolutionary cause. Alexander Hamilton died on July 12, 1804, with Eliza and all seven of his surviving children by his side. But Monroe had made copies of Hamilton's letters to Maria, and sent them to his arch-rival, Thomas Jefferson. . In the year before the duel, Eliza's mother Catherine had died suddenly,[47] and only a few months after Hamilton's death Eliza's father died as well. Peggy Schuyler was born in Albany, New York on September 19, 1758, the third daughter of Catherine Van Rensselaer Schuyler (1734-1803) and Philip Schuyler (1733-1804), a wealthy patroon and major general in the Continental Army during the American Revolution. According to the Smithsonian Magazine, Eliza was a beloved figure and entertained often: "Some visitors sought her imprimatur for new legislation, while others went simply to bask in the glow of history." When he paid her a visit decades after the Reynolds scandal, she refused to speak with him. 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. WATCH: Hamilton: Building America on HISTORY Vault. HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate. A dutiful daughter, she eschewed the elopements chosen by three of her sisters and instead conducted a traditional, if whirlwind, courtship with the dashing young aide she found at George Washington's headquarters in February 1780. We may earn commission on some of the items you choose to buy. [24] Earlier that year, Angelica and her husband John Barker Church, for business reasons, had moved to Europe. In 1821 Elizabeth was appointed first directress of the Society and served for 27 years in that position until she left New York in 1848. All Rights Reserved. The real Eliza Schuyler died at the old age of 97, and outlived the musical's other characters. Hamilton followed three years later. 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. Eliza evidently did not believe the charges when they were first leveled against her husband: John Church, her brother-in-law, on July 13, 1797, wrote to Hamilton that "it makes not the least Impression on her, only that she considers the whole Knot of those opposed to you to be [Scoundrels]. After the war he was active in both local and national politics, even serving as a U.S. senator from New York from 1789 to 1791 losing his seat to none other than Aaron Burr (who would eventually kill his future son-in-law Alexander in a duel). We may earn a commission from these links. But behind the myth of the games creation is an untold tale of theft, obsession and corporate double-dealing. Never remarrying, Eliza raised a brood of seven children as a single mother, while grieving the losses of her husband and eldest son, Philip who both died in duels. [52] In 1821, she was named first directress, and served for 27 years in this role, until she left New York in 1848. ", At 22, Eliza met Alexander Hamilton, who was at the time serving under General George Washington, and fell in love "at first sight," per historical accounts. Or part of her story, at leastafter her husband's death in 1804, Eliza lived another 50 years. Hamilton does this because he's been accused of financial wrongdoing, and wants to make it clear that the suspicious payments he made were to pay off the husband of his lover, Maria Reynolds, rather than "improper speculation." Her oldest son Philip died in a duel, just as his father would three years later. They had met briefly a few years before, but now Alexander Hamilton was smitten, "a gone man," in the words of another aide. Theirs would be a loving marriage, though not without heartbreak and pain. Philanthropy and "Hamilton: An American Musical", "American Experience | Alexander Hamilton | People & Events | Elizabeth Hamilton (17571854) | PBS", "James Alexander Hamilton - People - Department History - Office of the Historian", "George Washington II: The Forging of a Nation", "Why I'm Convinced Hamilton Is Actually Named After Eliza", "We got comfortable with Hamilton. In 1780, Hamilton wrote Angelica a letter describing his infatuation with Eliza: Hamilton and Eliza married that year. Elizabeths depiction in the musical emphasizes both her importance in Hamiltons life and her work in propagating his legacy. Americans knew a lot about Martha Washington (George Washington's wife), a lot about Dolly Madison (James Madison's widow), and a lot about Abigail Adams (John Adams' wife). The Van Rensselaers of theManor of Rensselaerswyckwere one of the richest and most politically influential families in the state ofNew York, so she came from a very different background to Hamilton, who arrived in the States as an orphan. [citation needed] The New York Orphan Asylum Society continues to exist as a social service agency for children, today called Graham Windham. Elizabeth "Eliza" Schuyler Hamilton was born in Albany, New York, on August 9, 1757. She would live another 50 years. History, Archaeology & Art illuminate a Life on the Hudson, New Amsterdam Kitchen She is most unmercifully handsome and so perverse that she has none of those pretty affectations which are the prerogatives of beauty," he wrote in a letter to Eliza's sister Angelica, per Smithsonian Magazine. Not even wealth could lower that very high death rate. Sign up for the American Experience newsletter! While she was in her nineties she helped Dolly Madison to raise money for the Washington Monument. Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton, portrayed by Phillipa Soo in the original Broadway run of Hamilton, was not just the wife of one of America's founding fathers. Emma Dibdin is a freelance writer based in Los Angeles who writes about culture, mental health, and true crime. Her father, Philip J. Schuyler, was a general in the Continental Army, politician, and businessman. She had to sell her 35 acre estate in upper Manhattan. He published the pamphlet in order to refute the charges that he had been involved in public misconduct with Marias husband James Reynolds, and to avoid accusations of embezzlement. Hamilton: Building America on HISTORY Vault. Introduced at the very start of the musical, in the song Alexander Hamilton, Elizais central to the plot, and adds an important female voice to a show about politics and Americas Founding Fathers. In those days, the still-isolated area didnt have any free public schools, and paying tuition at a private academy was too much for parents to afford, according to Don Rice, president of the Dyckman Farmhouse Museum Alliance, a community institution that has helped to preserve the history of the area. Eliza later said of Mrs. Washington, "She was always my ideal of a true woman."[12][18].