![]() Soon, however, Washington and Hamilton had a falling-out, and the newlywed couple relocated first back to Eliza's father's house in Albany, then to a new home across the river from the New Windsor headquarters. Eliza soon joined him at New Windsor, where Washington's army was now stationed, and she rekindled her friendship with Martha Washington as they entertained their husbands' fellow officers. Then, on December 14, 1780, Alexander Hamilton and Elizabeth Schuyler were married at the Schuyler Mansion.Īfter a short honeymoon at the Pastures, Eliza's childhood home, Hamilton returned to military service in early January 1781. Eliza did not respond to Hamilton's letters for weeks after André's hanging. 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. André had once been a houseguest in the Schuyler Mansion in Albany as a prisoner of war on route to Pennsylvania in 1775 Eliza had been smitten with the young British officer who had once sketched for her. Later that year, Eliza had 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. By early April they were officially engaged, with her father's blessing (something of an anomaly for the Schuyler girls-both Angelica and Peggy would end up eloping). The relationship between Eliza and Alexander quickly grew, even after he left Morristown, only a month after Eliza had arrived. Washington, "She was always my ideal of a true woman." (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.) Also while in Morristown, Eliza met and became friends with Martha Washington, a friendship they would maintain throughout their husbands' political careers. 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. In early 1780, Elizabeth went to stay with her aunt, Gertrude Schuyler Cochran, in Morristown, New Jersey. James McHenry, one of Washington's aides alongside her future husband, would say that "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.Mrs. She was said to have been something of a tomboy when she was young throughout her life she retained a strong will and even an impulsiveness that her acquaintances noted. When she was a girl, Elizabeth accompanied her father to a meeting of the Six Nations and met Benjamin Franklin when he stayed briefly with the Schuyler family while traveling. This instilled in her a strong and unwavering faith she would retain throughout her life. Like most Dutch families of the area, she would have attended the Reformed Dutch Church of Albany, which still survives today, though the actual church Elizabeth would have attended was torn down in 1806. Despite the unrest of the French and Indian War, which her father served in and which was fought in part very near her childhood home, Eliza's childhood was spent comfortably, learning to read and sew from her mother. ![]() ![]() Like many landowners of the time, Philip Schuyler owned slaves, and Eliza would have grown up around slavery. Her family was among the wealthy Dutch landowners who had settled around Albany in the mid-1600s, and both her mother and father came from wealthy and well-regarded families. ![]() She had seven siblings who lived to adulthood, including Angelica Schuyler Church and Margarita "Peggy" Schuyler Van Rensselaer, and 14 siblings in total. The Van Rensselaers of the Manor of Rensselaerswyck were one of the richest and most politically influential families in the state of New York. ![]() Elizabeth was born in Albany, New York, the second daughter of Philip Schuyler, a Revolutionary War general, and Catherine Van Rensselaer Schuyler. ![]()
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