Angelica Schuyler Church Biography, Family, Husband, Letters, Death, Grave, Quotes

ANGELICA SCHUYLER CHURCH BIOGRAPHY

Angelica Schuyler Church was an American socialite who became aa prominent member of the social elite wherever she lived, including Albany, New York, as well as Paris and London. The surrounding town of Angelica, New York is named after her.

ANGELICA SCHUYLER CHURCH DATE OF BIRTH

Angelica was born on February 20, 1756 in Albany, Province of New York.

ANGELICA SCHUYLER CHURCH PARENTS | FAMILY

She was the eldest daughter of Philip Schuyler, who was the General of the Continental Army, and Catherine Van Rensselaer, a housewife. She had seven siblings, including Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton, Margarita and Philip an. His sister-in-law was Alexander Hamilton.

ANGELICA SCHUYLER, CHURCH HUSBAND

She was married to British-born merchant John Barker Church. The couple met in 1776 and eloped in 1777. Together they had eight children.

ANGELICA SCHUYLER CHURCH DEATH | ANGELICA SCHUYLER CHURCH DEATH CAUSE

Although the cause of her death is not known at this time, she died at the age of 58 on March 13, 1814 in New York. She was buried in Trinity Church Cemetery.

ANGELICA SCHUYLER CHURCH GRAVE

She was buried in Trinity Church Cemetery in New York City next to her sister-in-law Alexander Hamilton, sister of Eliza Schuyler Hamilton.

Photo of Angelica Schuyler Church

ANGELICA SCHUYLER CHURCH LETTERS

His letters and other forms of correspondence with eminent persons are held at the Library of Congress. Some of them were purchased by the University of Virginia in 1996.

ANGELICA SCHUYLER CHURCH QUOTES

A letter from Church Angelica Schuyler on the morning of the Hamilton-Burr duel, July 11, 1804

Updated: July 11, 2018

You didn’t really think I was going to miss the 214th anniversary of the duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, did you? Especially since July 11, 2018 also falls on a Wednesday, just like in 1804. I have already written an article here on the duel itself. This one tells how, hours after the duel, the first ripples of shock and grief are already beginning to ripple through a united family that would never be the same again.

There’s no such thing as an original letter from the past. The majority of surviving letters related to Alexander Hamilton, his wife Eliza Schuyler Hamilton and his family have been transcribed and are available online at various sites. There is no doubt that this is practical. It is much easier to read a modern transcription than to decipher the often faded handwriting of yesteryear, with its dips and swirls and often idiosyncratic spelling and punctuation. It also helps protect originals from wear and tear due to removal from preservation storage for repeated study.

There is so much more to learn from a handwritten letter than the words alone. Handwriting can reveal the emotions, fears and wishes of the writer, the urgency with which they wrote, or the care they took in choosing the right word or phrase. I can’t think of a better example than the letter above. (Please click to enlarge, and my apologies for the inevitable reflections.)

The author of this letter was Angelica Schuyler Church, older sister of Eliza Schuyler Hamilton, wife of John Barker Church and sister-in-law of Alexander Hamilton. Angelica was a well-read, well-travelled, and well-educated 18th century woman, and many of her surviving letters are full of ideas and thoughts, descriptions of the place she visited and the people she met, and, according to his correspondent, often a dollop of flirtation too. But not here.

Angelica wrote this letter on the morning of July 11, 1804, shortly after Alexander was brought back across the Hudson River from New Jersey, where the duel took place, to New York. The duel with Aaron Burr had gone badly and left Alexander seriously injured. But when Angelica wrote this letter to her younger brother Philip Schuyler in Albany, she had clearly just arrived at Alexander’s friend William Bayard, where the wounded Alexander had been brought. Given the severity of his injury and the amount of blood he had already lost, it’s hard to understand his optimism for his recovery, but perhaps the attending physician was putting the best face on the situation for Angelica and his sister Eliza, who is also already at the bedside of her dying husband.

Or maybe Angelica knew. The letter was clearly written in haste and anxiety, the words flowing across the page. The two passages she underlined – miserable Burr and an expression of grief – are probably the most telling in the whole letter. And because we know what happened after the letter was written, they are also among the saddest.

Here is a transcript:

at Mr. Bayards Greenwich Wednesday, July 11, 1804

My dear brother, I have the painful task of informing you that General Hamilton was wounded this morning by that wretched Burr, and we have every reason to hope that he will recover. May I advise you to go immediately to my father, because he may want to come down. My dear sister bears this affliction with holy courage. The City is dismayed and there is only the expression of Mourning & Indignation. Farewell my dear brother. Remember me at Sally. Always yours, A church

This letter is owned by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, and is currently on loan and on display in the Hamilton: The Constitutional Clashes That Shaped a Nation exhibit at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, PA. The exhibition is presented until December 31, 2018; See here for more information. Many thanks to Jessie Serfilippi of Schuyler Mansion for her help with this post.