Angelica Schuyler Church - The Letters

The Letters

A series of letters Angelica Church received from Jefferson, Hamilton, George Washington, and the Marquis de Lafayette were kept in her family's possession until they were sold to The University of Virginia for $275,000 in 1996. The letters from Jefferson were of particular interest to the University, as it was he who founded it almost 200 years earlier. In one note Jefferson wrote:

Think of it, my friend, and let us begin a negotiation on the subject. You shall find in me all the spirit of accommodation with which Yoric began his with the fair Piedmontese.

This is an allusion to a sexually charged scene in Laurence Sterne's popular novel A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy in which "Parson Yorick" has to negotiate sleeping arrangements when obliged to share a room with an attractive Italian woman and her maid.

Angelica's correspondence with Hamilton, now preserved in the Library of Congress, demonstrates a strong affection between them. There has long been speculation that she may have had a romantic and possibly sexual relationship with Hamilton. Hamilton biographer Ron Chernow notes that:

The attraction between Hamilton and Angelica was so potent and obvious that many people assumed they were lovers. At the very least, theirs was a friendship of unusual ardor...

One letter sent to Angelica's sister Elizabeth, Hamilton's wife, is suggestive of a relationship, but likely an innocent joke between sisters. Speaking of Elizabeth's husband, Angelica wrote to her:

...if you were as generous as the old Romans, you would lend him to me for a little while.