Angelica Schuyler Church

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Angelica Church, etching after a painting by Richard Cosway (c. 1790)

Angelica Church , born Schuyler , (born on 20th February 1756 in Albany , died on 6. March 1814 in New York City , was a prominent representative of the upper classes in the state of New York during the time of the Wars of Independence and first years of the USA you. is famous for her correspondence with important politicians of this era. The town of "Angelica" and the city of "Angelica" in the state of New York are named after her.

Origin and youth

Angelica Schuyler was born in Albany, New York, in 1756, the eldest child of Philip Schuyler and Catherine Van Rensselaer Schuyler. Her parents come from both wealthy, originally Dutch families, her father was a general in the American Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War and later a Senator for New York State. Her brother Philip J. Schuyler was a member of the House of Representatives , and her sister Eliza was married to the first US Treasury Secretary, Alexander Hamilton .

Angelica grew up during the turmoil of the American Revolution and was acquainted with many of the political leaders. Due to the social and political position of her father, her parents' house Schuyler Mansion was the scene of many consultations and meetings.

One of the visitors in 1776 was John Barker Church, a British merchant who had made a fortune supplying the American and French armies. At the time of their first meeting and the relationship that developed from it, Church was on behalf of the Continental Congress to determine the supply needs of the army. Knowing that her father was reluctant to marry, Angelica ran away with John Church in 1777. They married in the same year and subsequently had eight children together.

Europe

Angelica Church with her son Philip and a servant, painting by John Trumbull (c. 1785)

In 1783 the Church family moved to Europe, where they stayed for 16 years apart from brief visits to America.

Angelica lived with her family in Paris until 1785 , where John was the United States envoy to the French government. Angelica met the celebrities of her time here and her winning nature led to long-lasting friendships and the like. a. with Benjamin Franklin , the head of the US delegation at the time, with Franklin's successor Thomas Jefferson and with the Marquis de Lafayette .

After a brief visit to New York in 1785, the family sailed to England and settled in London. The wife of a very wealthy man, Angelica became a member of a high-ranking society that also included the Prince of Wales and later King George IV , Whig Party leader Charles James Fox and playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan . She was also friends with the emigrated American painter John Trumbull , whose works include some of the most famous portraits of representatives of the young United States. Artists like Richard and Maria Cosway were also close friends in Europe.

With the intention of running for a seat in the UK Parliament , John Church bought a country house in Wendover, Buckinghamshire . From 1790 to 1796 he was a member of Parliament in Westminster . In 1789, Angelica visited her home country to attend the inauguration ceremony of George Washington as the first President of the United States.

Return to America and found Angelica, NY

Philip Church, the eldest son of Angelica and John Barker Church

John and Angelica Church visited the United States again in May 1797 and finally moved back to New York in 1799.

In May 1796, John Barker Church had granted his friend Robert Morris a mortgage on 40,000 hectares in what is now Allegany Counties and Genesee Counties, New York . After Morris went bankrupt, the eldest Church son Philip acquired the land in May 1800 by foreclosure. In 1801 Philip toured the area near the Pennsylvania border with a group of surveyors led by Moses Van Campen. Philip Church selected a suitable site to found a village on the banks of the Genesee River , which should be reminiscent of Paris in its design . A ring road was built, which enclosed a city park in the city center, from which star-shaped streets led off and around which five churches were built. Philip named the village "Angelica" after his mother. Log huts were built on the site until 1803, and Philip also built a sawmill and a grist mill.

Philip Church married Anna Matilda Stewart on February 4, 1805, in Philadelphia. Soon after their marriage, the young couple moved to "Angelica" into a small house on the banks of the Genesee River, which was soon called the White House in the village .

Villa Belvidere in "Angelica"

In 1806, Angelica and John Barker Church began building a 30-room country house nearby, which was baptized Villa Belvidere . It was originally planned as the family's summer residence, but in 1810 it became the residence of Philip and Anna Church.

Correspondence and private life

The Library of Congress and other archives hold many letters from Angelica Church's personal correspondence with eminent figures such as Jefferson, Hamilton, Washington, and Lafayette. In 1996 the University of Virginia acquired a series of 77 letters, including 13 written by Jefferson, that the family had retained until then.

Thomas Jefferson

In a letter to Angelica, Jefferson wrote passionately: “My friend, let's share our thoughts on this matter. You will find an attitude in me, as she brought Yorick for Piedmont fair. "Jefferson plays a sexually charged scene in the then-popular story A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy from Laurence Sterne to where a person named Yorick sleeping organize because he has to share the room with an attractive Italian woman and her servant.

Alexander Hamilton

The intimate contact between Angelica and her brother-in-law Hamilton sparked rumors that speculated about a romantic relationship between the two. Their correspondence, kept in the Library of Congress, shows their strong friendship and deep mutual feelings. Hamilton biographer Ron Chernow wrote that the attraction between Hamilton and Angelica was so strong and obvious that many suspected a love affair between them. At least it was a friendship with an unusual passion.

A letter Angelica wrote to her sister Elizabeth, Hamilton's wife, can be read as evidence of sexual interest or as a boisterous joke among sisters. Regarding Hamilton, Angelica wrote: "If you were as generous as the ancient Romans, you would lend it to me for a while!" Angelica's long absence from America, the never-clouded relationship between the sisters, and the lifelong devotion to Hamilton The entire Schuyler family, according to Chernov, indicates that there was never an affair between the two.

reception

In Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda , which received a Tony Award for best musical in 2015 , the role of Angelica with Renée Elise Goldsberry was prominently cast on the Broadway theater , Goldsberry also played Angelica in the film adaptation of the 2020 musical.

The piece shows Angelica as an exceptionally witty and humorous woman. The familiarity of the relationship with Hamilton is also shown. Your part in the song Helpless refers to the “Lend him to me” letter above. The musical follows the interpretation that she is in love with Hamilton, but resigns for the love of her sister Eliza.

Web links

Commons : Angelica Schuyler Church  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ https://www.newspapers.com/clip/21520468/the_evening_post/Newspapers in the Evening Post , New York, March 7, 1814, accessed July 26, 2020
  2. ↑ Florence A. Christoph: Schuyler Genealogy: A Compendium of Sources Pertaining to the Schuyler Families in America Prior to 1800 , Friends of Schuyler Mansion / Ed.), 1992
  3. ↑ a b c Ron Chernow: Alexander Hamilton , Penguin Books, 2005, ISBN 978-1-101-20085-8
  4. ↑ a b https://www.newspapers.com/clip/15751680/the_new_york_times/ Philip Church's Career - One of the Most Prominent of Allegany's Early Settlers , The New York Times June 23, 1895, accessed July 26, 2020
  5. ^ Henry W. Clune: `` The Genesee '', Syracuse University Press, Syracuse, New York, 1963
  6. ^ A b c d John S. Minard: Allegany County and Its People , WA Ferguson & Co., Alfred, NY, 1896
  7. ^ John B. Linn / William H. Egle: Record of Pennsylvania Marriages Prior to 1810 , Genealogical Publishing Co., 1968, ISBN 978-0-8063-0214-0
  8. ↑ a b c https://web.archive.org/web/20080704135754/http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ny/county/allegany/InterestingStoriesFiles/AllegPioneerLife.htm Angelica Church Hart: Allegany Pioneer Life: In 1805 Mr. and Mrs. Philip Church Journeyed from Bath to Belvidere on Horseback , Allegany County, NY - Local History & Genealogy Site, accessed July 26, 2020
  9. ↑ http://ead.lib.virginia.edu:80/vivaxtf/view?docId=uva-sc/viu00003.xml;query= ; A Guide to the Papers of Angelica Schuyler Church , University of Virginia Library, accessed July 26, 2020
  10. ^ A b c Bill Baskervill: Newly Discovered Jefferson Letters Hint of Loneliness and Love , Los Angeles Times, July 21, 1996
  11. ↑ Andrew Burstein: The Inner Jefferson: Portrait of a Grieving Optimist , University of Virginia Press, 1995
  12. ↑ https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/hamilton/peopleevents/p_e_hamilton.html Elizabeth Hamilton (1757-1854) , PBS (Ed.), American Experience, accessed July 26, 2020
  13. ↑ Michael Schulman: The Women of "Hamilton" , The New Yorker , March 10, 2016
personal data
SURNAME Church, Angelica Schuyler
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Church, Angelica; Schuyler, Angelica (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American Revolutionary Wars personality
DATE OF BIRTH February 20, 1756
PLACE OF BIRTH Albany (New York)
DATE OF DEATH March 6, 1814
Place of death New York City