John Tyler - Family and Personal Life

Family and Personal Life

Tyler fathered more children than any other President in history. His first wife was Letitia Christian Tyler (November 12, 1790 – September 10, 1842), with whom he had eight children:

  1. Mary Tyler (1815–1847)
  2. Robert Tyler (1816–1877)
  3. John Tyler, Jr. (1819–1896)
  4. Letitia Tyler Semple (1821–1907)
  5. Elizabeth Tyler (1823–1850)
  6. Anne Contesse Tyler (1825-1825)
  7. Alice Tyler (1827–1854)
  8. Tazewell Tyler (1830–1874)

Tyler's wife Letitia died of a stroke in the White House in September 1842. His second wife was Julia Gardiner Tyler (July 23, 1820 – July 10, 1889), with whom he had seven children:

  1. David Gardiner Tyler (1846–1927)
  2. John Alexander Tyler (1848–1883)
  3. Julia Gardiner Tyler Spencer (1849–1871)
  4. Lachlan Tyler (1851–1902)
  5. Lyon Gardiner Tyler (1853–1935)
  6. Robert Fitzwalter Tyler (1856–1927)
  7. Pearl Tyler (1860–1947)

Early in his presidency, Tyler was attacked by abolitionist publisher Joshua Leavitt, who alleged that Tyler had fathered (and sold) several sons with his slaves, prompting a response from the Tyler administration–linked newspaper The Madisonian. A number of African American families today have an oral tradition of descent from Tyler, but no evidence of such a link has ever surfaced.

As of January 2012, Tyler has two living grandsons through his son Lyon Gardiner Tyler. Lyon Gardiner Tyler, Jr., was born in 1924, and Harrison Ruffin Tyler was born in 1928. Harrison Tyler maintains the family home, "Sherwood Forest." Tyler is the oldest former President with living grandchildren, and none of the succeeding Presidents have living grandchildren until James A. Garfield, who served forty years after Tyler, with Abraham Lincoln and lifelong bachelor James Buchanan each having no living descendants of any kind.

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