James Alexander Hamilton - Marriage and Family

Marriage and Family

On October 17, 1810, Hamilton married Mary Morris, the daughter of Robert Morris and Frances Ludlum. Mary was the great-granddaughter of Lewis Morris, an early colonial governor of New Jersey, and the grandniece of Lewis Morris (1726-1798), a signer of the Declaration of Independence.

Hamilton later recalled their first years of marriage:

Both I and my wife were without means - our parents not being in a situation to do much for us. This I have always considered the most fortunate event of my life. I realized the embarrassments of my situation, and met them with the determination to overcome them. Nor did my resolution fail of its reward. Our self-denials were great, indeed, but our faith in the future was greater...Our poverty was so extreme that during our first year we boarded at four dollars per week for each. I now look back upon this event as not only the happiest, but the most fortunate occurrence of my long and eventful life. My poverty, with its burdens and responsibilities, nerved me to exertion, and necessity taught me the value of economy and self-denial.

Hamilton had five children:

1. Eliza (Hamilton) Schuyler (1811-1863)
2. Frances "Fanny" (Hamilton) Bowdoin (1813-1887)
3. Alexander Hamilton (1816-1889)
4. Mary Morris (Hamilton) Schuyler (1818-1877)
5. Angelica (Hamilton) Blatchford (1819-1868).

Hamilton built a large home in the Ardsley-on-Hudson section of Irvington, New York, which he named "Nevis" in honor of his father's birthplace in the British West Indies. It was originally "a simple Greek revival building with Doric columns", but in 1889 it was "extensively remodeled" by famed architect Stanford White. In 1934, Mrs. T. Coleman DuPont gave Nevis to Columbia University for the "establishment of a horticultural and landscape architecture center." Today the estate is a physics and biological research facility operated by Columbia University.

Mary (Morris) Hamilton died on May 24, 1869, in New York City, New York. James Alexander Hamilton died nine years later on September 24, 1878, in Irvington, New York.