![]() ![]() Hamilton followed the Continental Army when they decamped from Morristown in June 1780. ![]() In early April 1780, they were officially engaged with her father's blessing, which was something of an anomaly for the Schuyler girls with Elizabeth's two sisters, Angelica and Catherine, both eloping. In some of the correspondence between Hamilton and Elizabeth, there had been some talk in at least one letter of a "secret wedding". While on the prisoner exchange, Hamilton wrote to Eliza, continuing their relationship through letters.Īfter completing the prisoner exchange negotiations, Hamilton returned to Morristown, where Elizabeth's father had arrived in his capacity as representative of the Continental Congress. The relationship between Eliza and Hamilton quickly grew even after he left Morristown a month later on a short mission to negotiate a prisoners exchange. Eliza later said of Martha Washington, "She was always my ideal of a true woman." Īfter meeting Elizabeth in Morristown, Hamilton was so excited that he reportedly returned to the Continental Army's Morristown headquarters and had forgotten the password to gain admission to it. Also while in Morristown, Eliza met and became friends with Martha Washington, a friendship they maintained for the rest of their husbands' respective political careers. Elizabeth and Hamilton had met once before, but only briefly, when Hamilton dined with the Schuylers on his way back from a negotiation on Washington's behalf. In early 1780, Elizabeth went to stay with her aunt, Gertrude Schuyler Cochran, in Morristown, New Jersey, where she met Alexander Hamilton, one of Continental Army commander George Washington's aides-de-camp, who was stationed with Washington and his men in Morristown for the winter of 1780. Hamilton the more impulsive." Marriage to Alexander Hamilton Elizabeth Hamilton depicted in a c. James McHenry, one of Washington's aides who worked alongside her future husband, said, "Hers was a strong character with its depth and warmth, whether of feeling or temper controlled, but glowing underneath, bursting through at times in some emphatic expression." Much later, the son of Joanna Bethune, one of the women she worked alongside to found an orphanage later in her life, remembered that "Both were of determined disposition. She was said to have been something of a tomboy when she was young throughout her life, she displayed both strong will and impulsiveness, both of which were noted by her acquaintances. When she was a girl, Elizabeth accompanied her father to a meeting of the Six Nations, where she met Benjamin Franklin who stayed briefly with the Schuyler family during his travels. Her upbringing instilled in her a strong and unwavering faith she would retain throughout her life. Like most Dutch families of the area, her family belonged to the Reformed Dutch Church of Albany, which still stands however, the original 1715 building, where Elizabeth was baptized and attended services, was demolished in 1806. From her mother, she learned how to read and sew. Despite the unrest of the French and Indian War, which her father served in and which was fought in part near her childhood home, Eliza's childhood was spent comfortably. Like many landowners of the time, Philip Schuyler was a slave owner, and Eliza would have grown up around slavery. Both her mother and father came from wealthy and well-regarded families. Her family was among the wealthy Dutch landowners who settled around present-day Albany, New York in the mid-1600s. She had seven siblings who lived to adulthood, including Angelica Schuyler Church and Peggy Schuyler, and 14 siblings in total. The Van Rensselaers of the Manor of Rensselaerswyck were one of the wealthiest and most politically influential families in what was then the colonial-era Province of New York. She is recognized as an early American philanthropist for her work with the Orphan Asylum Society.Įlizabeth was born in Albany, New York, the second daughter of Continental Army General Philip Schuyler, a Revolutionary War general, and his wife, Catherine Van Rensselaer. She was the co-founder and deputy director of Graham Windham, the first private orphanage in New York City. She was the wife of American Founding Father Alexander Hamilton and was a passionate champion and defender of Hamilton's work and efforts in the American Revolution and the founding of the United States. Elizabeth Hamilton (née Schuyler / ˈ s k aɪ l ər/ Aug– Novem), also called Eliza or Betsey, was an American socialite and philanthropist. ![]()
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