Angelica Schuyler Church - Life in Europe

Life in Europe

From 1783-85, Angelica and her family lived in Paris while John performed his duties as a U.S. envoy to the French government. Angelica never failed to enchant the famous, intelligent men she met, and in Paris she soon befriended the venerable Benjamin Franklin, U.S. Ambassador to France. She also developed lasting friendships with Franklin's successor, Thomas Jefferson, and with the Marquis de Lafayette.

After a brief visit to New York in 1785, the family sailed for England, taking up residence in London. Now the wife of a very wealthy man, Angelica entered a fashionable social circle that included the Prince of Wales, Whig party leader Charles James Fox and playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan. She also befriended and sponsored emigre American painter John Trumbull, who went on to create some of the most famous paintings of the Revolutionary War era. Always an American at heart, Angelica made a visit in 1789 to attend the inauguration of George Washington as the nation's first president.

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