Maria Reynolds

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Maria Reynolds (born March 30, 1768 as Maria Lewis , † March 25, 1828 ) was the wife of James Reynolds and between 1791 and 1792 the lover of Alexander Hamilton . She was a protagonist in America's first political sex scandal. The Reynolds-Hamilton affair has been the subject of much research since the Reynolds Pamphlet was published in 1797.

Life

Maria Lewis was the daughter of Susanna Van Der Burgh and her second husband Richard Lewis. She had a half-brother, Col. Lewis DuBois, and five other siblings. The two older sisters Susanna and Sara lived into adulthood. The Lewis family does not appear to have been rich: Richard Lewis was a merchant and / or worker and could not write his own signature. Susanna Van Der Burgh Lewis, on the other hand, could write her name, Maria Lewis learned to read and write, but grew up quite illiterate.

On July 28, 1783, at the age of 15, she married James Reynolds, who had served in the Commissarial Department during the American Revolution and was several years older than Maria Lewis. The couple had a daughter, Susan, who was born on August 18, 1785.

Hamilton-Reynolds Affair

At an unspecified time before 1791, James Reynolds moved his family from New York to Philadelphia . In the summer of 1791, 23-year-old Maria Alexander visited Hamilton at his Philadelphia residence and asked for help. She claimed that her husband left her maliciously. Because of his political office, Hamilton could enable her return to New York. Hamilton agreed to meet that evening to give her the money to move. When Hamilton arrived at the guest house, she showed him to her hotel room. According to Hamilton, "a conversation ensued in which it quickly became clear that some other non-financial consolation would be acceptable". This started the so-called "Hamilton-Reynolds Affair".

The affair continued in the summer and autumn of 1791, while Hamilton's wife, Eliza, and her children were visiting their parents in Albany . Shortly after the affair began, Maria Reynolds informed Hamilton that her husband had sought reconciliation with her and that she had agreed to end the affair. Subsequently, she reached an interview for her husband, who applied to Hamilton for a position in the tax office, but was rejected. After Hamilton made it clear that he wanted to end the affair, Maria Reynolds sent him a letter on December 15, 1791 warning him about her husband, who had allegedly uncovered the affair and was now full of anger:

"I have not time to tell you the cause of my present troubles only that Mr. Reynolds has wrote you this morning and I know not whether you have got the letter or not and he has swore that if you do not answer it or if he does not see or hear from you today he will write Mrs. Hamilton he has just gone out and I am alone I think you had better come here one moment that you may know the cause then you will the better know how to act Oh my God I feel more for you than myself and wish I had never been born to give you so much unhappiness do not write to him no not a line but come here soon do not send or leave any thing in his power. "

"I don't have time to tell you the cause of my present problems, only that Mr. Reynolds wrote to you this morning and I don't know whether or not you received the letter, and he swore you should Don't answer, or shouldn't he hear from you or see from you today that he's going to write to Mrs. Hamilton. He's just gone out and I'm alone, I think you'd better come over here for a moment so that they better understand the reasons and thus know better how you should act. Oh my god I feel more for you than for myself and I wish I was never born to make you so unhappy. Don't write him, not a line, but come here soon. Don't send anything or let anything come under his control. "

From December 15-19, 1791, Reynolds sent Hamilton threatening letters and after a face-to-face meeting asked for a one-off compensation of $ 1,000. Hamilton agreed and gave Reynolds the requested amount and broke off the affair as he had wanted for some time. On January 17, 1792, Reynolds wrote to Hamilton inviting him to resume meetings with his wife. Maria Reynolds, who was most likely being manipulated by her husband, also began writing to Hamilton again when her husband was away and continued trying to seduce him. After each of these correspondence, Reynolds wrote to Hamilton with reference to their supposed friendship, whereupon Hamilton sent him $ 30 to $ 40 each. In June 1792, Hamilton sent his final "loan" of $ 50 to James Reynolds. The affair may have ended around the same time.

In November 1792, James Reynolds was jailed along with his partner Jacob Clingman for counterfeiting after illegally buying pension and back payment claims from soldiers of the Revolutionary War. Reynolds wrote to Hamilton who refused to help and also rejected Maria's letters and requests for further payments. Clingman informed Hamilton's Democratic Republican rivals that Reynolds had information against Hamilton. James Monroe , Frederick Muhlenberg, and Abraham Venable visited Reynolds in prison, where Reynolds pointed to unspecified public misconduct by Hamilton, the details of which he promised to disclose after his release from prison, only to admit immediately after his release on December 12, 1792 disappear. Congressmen also interviewed Maria, who upheld the allegations against Hamilton.

On December 15, 1792, Monroe, Venable and Muhlenberg visited Alexander Hamilton with the evidence they had gathered with which to confront him. Fearful that a scandal could destroy his career, Hamilton admitted the affair with Maria Reynolds. Using the letters from Maria Reynolds and her husband, he attempted to prove that his payments had to do with Reynolds' extortion for adultery, not treasury misconduct. In addition, the information is said to be kept private as Hamilton was not guilty of any public misconduct. The Congressmen agreed, although Monroe made copies of the letters and mailed them to Thomas Jefferson . John Beckley also made copies of the correspondence.

Clingman told Monroe on January 1, 1793, that Maria Reynolds had alleged that the affair was fabricated as cover for the speculative business. However, Colonel Jeremiah Wadsworth's letter to Hamilton dated August 2, 1797, reports how Mary petitioned both Wadsworth and Governor General Thomas Mifflin for her husband's release while Reynolds was in custody from November to December 1792. In an attempt to convince the two to help her, Maria spontaneously told of her first meeting with Hamilton and the subsequent "amour". Their description was similar to that of Hamilton in the first draft of the Reynolds Pamphlet from July 1797 (before Wadsworth's letter) and the printed version, also in July 1797, as well as in James Reynolds' first letter to Hamilton.

The historian Tilar J. Mazzeo put forward the thesis that the affair never happened, but was an attempt to cover up a financial scandal. Hamilton only submitted copies of Maria's letters, although the newspapers and Maria suggested that a handwriting sample be submitted for comparison. Hamilton claimed that the letters were with a friend of his, who said he had never seen them. This could indicate that the letters were forged. Journalists also pointed out that in Maria’s letters, long and complex words were spelled correctly, while simple words were misspelled in a way that seems nonsensical; biographer Julian P. Boyd said the letters might show what an educated man believed that an uneducated woman's love letters would look like.

Divorce and Second Marriage

In 1793, Mary enlisted the help of Aaron Burr and successfully filed for divorce from Reynolds. Before her divorce, she lived with Jacob Clingman, whom she later married and who was arrested with her in November 1792. She settled in Alexandria, Virginia.

The Reynolds Pamphlet and Its Consequences

In the summer of 1797, the journalist James T. Callender published a collection of pamphlets entitled "The History of the United States for 1796," in which he announced that he would expose Hamilton's wrongdoing. On August 25, 1797, Hamilton published the so-called "The Reynolds Pamphlet", a nearly 100-page report on his affair with Maria and the blackmail program her husband had initiated. After the pamphlet was published, Maria was publicly ostracized. She moved to the UK with her second husband. When she returned to Philadelphia alone years later, she used the name Maria Clement. No evidence of a divorce from Clingman has yet been found. A short time later she became the housekeeper of a Dr. James.

A merchant named Peter Grotjan reported in 1842 that he had met Maria many years earlier. She may have written her own pamphlet that reflects her view of the affair with Hamilton. If this pamphlet really existed, at least it was never published.

In 1800 their daughter Susan was sent to boarding school in Boston on the initiative of Congressman William Eustis , whom Aaron Burr had asked for help.

Next life

In 1806 Maria married Dr. Mathew, for whom she had previously worked as a housekeeper. In 1808 Susan Reynolds came to live with her mother and spent several years with her in Philadelphia. Susan has been married several times.

Maria Reynolds, now Mathew, was described by her friend Peter Grotjan as "very amiable and handsome" and was highly regarded after her marriage to the doctor. She became religious and joined the Methodist Church . "She enjoyed ... the love and goodwill of everyone she knew". She died on March 25, 1828.

In pop culture

Maria was originally portrayed by actress June Collyer in the 1931 film Alexander Hamilton . Maria Reynold's character also appeared on the 1986 television show George Washington II: The Forging of a Nation , in which she is played by Lise Hilboldt.

Jasmine Cephas Jones plays Maria in Hamilton , a 2015 Broadway musical about the life of Alexander Hamilton. Jones portrayed the roles of Maria Reynolds and Margarita "Peggy" Schuyler Van Rensselaer in Hamilton on Off-Broadway and took hers Also roles in the Broadway performance and in the filming in 2020.

Web links

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  1. ^ A b William I. Powers, Jr .: Lewis and (Double) Vanderburgh Ancestry of President George Bush: A Colonial New York Excursion .
  2. ↑ a b Harold C. (ed) Syrett: The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, Vol 21 . Columbia University Press, 1974, ISBN 0-231-08920-1 , p.  123 .
  3. ↑ James Reynolds: To George Washington from James Reynolds, June 26, 1789 . Retrieved July 17, 2016.
  4. ↑ Alexander Hamilton: Printed Version of the "Reynolds Pamphlet", 1797 . Retrieved July 17, 2016.
  5. ^ A b Alexander Hamilton: Draft of the "Reynolds Pamphlet", July 1797 .
  6. ^ Maria Reynolds: Letter to Alexander Hamilton from Maria Reynolds [December 15, 1791 ] . National Archives. Retrieved June 30, 2016.
  7. ^ Maria Reynolds: Letter to Alexander Hamilton from Maria Reynolds [December 15, 1791 ] . National Archives. Retrieved June 30, 2016.
  8. ↑ a b James Reynolds: To Alexander Hamilton from James Reynolds, December 15, 1791 .
  9. ↑ James Reynolds: To Alexander Hamilton from James Reynolds, December 17, 1791 . National Archives. Retrieved June 30, 2016.
  10. ↑ James Reynolds: To Alexander Hamilton from James Reynolds, December 19, 1791 .
  11. ↑ Alexander Hamilton: Printed Version of the "Reynolds Pamphlet", 1797 . Retrieved July 17, 2016.
  12. ↑ James Reynolds: To Alexander Hamilton from James Reynolds, January 17, 1792 . National Archives. Retrieved January 3, 2020.
  13. ↑ Alexander Hamilton: Printed Version of the "Reynolds Pamphlet", 1797 . Retrieved July 17, 2016.
  14. ↑ James Reynolds: Letter from James Reynolds to Alexander Hamilton, November 13-15, 1792 .
  15. ^ A b Jeremiah Wadsworth: Letter from Jeremiah Wadsworth to Alexander Hamilton, August 2, 1797 .
  16. ^ A b Alexander Hamilton: Printed Version of the "Reynolds Pamphlet", 1797 . Retrieved July 17, 2016.
  17. ↑ a b Ron Chernow: Alexander Hamilton , Penguin Books, New York (2004) ISBN 978-1-59420-009-0
  18. ↑ Alexander Hamilton: Printed Version of the "Reynolds Pamphlet", 1797 . Retrieved July 17, 2016.
  19. ↑ Tilar Mazzeo: Eliza Hamilton . Simon and Schuster, NY 2018, ISBN 978-1-5011-6630-3 , p. 295.
  20. ↑ Tilar Mazzeo: Eliza Hamilton . Simon and Schuster, NY 2018, ISBN 978-1-5011-6630-3 , pp. 296-297.
  21. ^ A b Nancy Isenberg: Fallen Founder: The Life of Aaron Burr . Penguin, New York 2007, ISBN 9781101202364 , p. 121.
  22. ^ Edward Jones: Letter from Edward Jones to Alexander Hamilton, July 30, 1797 .
  23. ^ Park McFarland: Marriage Records of Gloria Dei Church "Old Swedes'," Philadelphia: Compiled from the Original Records . McFarland & Son, Philadelphia 1879, p. 179.
  24. ↑ a b c d Peter A. Grotjan: "Sections from Memoirs of Peter A. Grotjan," published in Scandalmonger, by William Safire 2001, ISBN 0156013231 , p. 487.
  25. ^ Poulson's American Daily Advertiser . March 26, 1828. 
  26. ↑ George Washington II: The Forging of a Nation Full Cast and Credits .
personal data
SURNAME Reynolds, Maria
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lewis, Maria (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Lover of Alexander Hamilton
DATE OF BIRTH March 30, 1768
DATE OF DEATH March 25, 1828