![]() ![]() In what had by now become a pattern for Hamilton boys, he attended Columbia and studied law before serving in the War of 1812 as an aide-de-camp to future president William Henry Harrison. John was just 12 years old when his father died, but he remembered it vividly for the remainder of his life. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Wikimedia Commons // Public Domain It now houses physics and biology research at Columbia University. His career paid off handsomely, allowing him to construct a mansion built in the style of a Greek temple he named Nevis, after his father’s birthplace. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. (He even helped write Jackson’s inaugural address.) After Jackson ascended to the presidency, James briefly served as acting Secretary of State before he was appointed U.S. James lived up to the potential of his influential family tree, forming a close relationship with the future President Andrew Jackson. His wife, Mary Morris, counted a Founding Father, a Supreme Court chief justice, and a mayor of New York City among her relatives. James Alexander Hamilton (1788–1878)Īfter graduating from Columbia and becoming a lawyer, James married into another powerful American family: the Morrises. The legal battle took three years and was finalized on the day Burr died. Just four months after Burr and Jumel’s wedding, the couple separated and Jumel accused Burr of adultery and (likely more distressing) of spending her money with abandon. By the time she married Burr, Hamilton’s rival was in his late seventies and had fallen from grace. Jumel had been raised in a brothel, but after the death of her first husband, a French wine merchant, she was an extremely wealthy woman. In a bizarre twist of fate, Alexander ended up serving as the divorce attorney for Burr’s second wife, Eliza Bowen Jumel. ![]() Like the original Alexander Hamilton, the younger Alexander studied at Columbia and went on to become a lawyer, graduating college just a few weeks after his father’s dueling death at the hands of Aaron Burr.īurr may have taken his father, but Alexander managed to reap some small vengeance many decades later. She died in 1857 at age 72, after which her younger sister Eliza wrote, “Poor sister, what a happy release will be hers. After her older brother died, her mental health steadily deteriorated.įor the rest of her life, she experienced what Hamilton biographer Ron Chernow describes as an “eternal childhood,” unable to live independently and referring always to her dead brother as if he were still alive. Just two years younger than Philip, Angelica was a happy, musical girl. Philip’s death cast a lasting shadow across the Hamilton family, but no one was more affected than Alexander’s second-oldest child, Angelica. Until he didn’t.įourteen hours later, Philip was dead. After the two men had walked their requisite 10 paces and turned to face one another, Philip let his gun hang by his side. On the fateful day, Philip arrived on the scene armed with both a pistol and the advice his father had given him: Don’t shoot. Philip confronted Eacker and challenged him to a duel. While at the performance, Philip encountered George Eacker, a lawyer who’d claimed a few months prior that Alexander Hamilton wanted to use the country’s military to put pressure on political adversaries. The performance was a comedy, but soon set off a series of events that became tragic. In 1801, Philip attended a play with a college friend. But it wasn’t long before a quick temper and a loyal streak got in the way. He attended Columbia and graduated with honors before going on to study law. “He is truly a very fine young gentleman, the most agreeable in his conversation and manners of any I ever knew-nor less remarkable for his intelligence and sweetness of temper,” Hamilton wrote of his eldest son, which might have seemed like a reasonable assessment if not for the fact that the boy was 7 months old.įor a time, Philip looked poised to live up to his father’s hopes. From the get-go, expectations of young Philip’s potential were sky-high. The oldest of the Hamilton brood, Philip was born in 1782 and named after his maternal grandfather, Philip Schuyler, an American Revolutionary War general and Senator. Hamilton, Allan McLane, Wikimedia Commons // Public Domain ![]() Philip Hamilton, Alexander Hamilton’s eldest son. ![]()
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