This series of posts is available as a video playlist at https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9eyRnt5W114bs8_CJNvlcLfIB4NW_YTB.

The rumor

Here’s the background, for those of you who are not up on the sex lives of the Founding Fathers. Alexander Hamilton married Elizabeth Schuyler in 1780. They eventually had 8 children. By the evidence of their letters and of those who knew them, Alexander loved Eliza and the kids.

But there has been a rumor for a long time that Hamilton had an affair with his sister-in-law, the beautiful and brilliant Angelica Schuyler, who was married to John Barker Church.

Betraying your wife with your sister-in-law is a serious charge in any century, and it comes up often enough with Alexander Hamilton that it deserves a hard look.

Levels of knowledge

At the risk of letting the titillation level drop: let’s talk for a moment about levels of knowledge. To be certain there was an affair, we’d have to have conclusive evidence in favor of it, and nothing to contradict it. To say an affair is probable, we’d have to have substantial evidence in favor of it, and nothing contradictory. To say it’s possible, we’d need some evidence in favor, and nothing contradictory. If there is no evidence at all, then we’d have to say the claim that the two had an affair is arbitrary.

How do we figure out where on this spectrum to put the alleged affair between Alexander and Angelica? We find relevant primary sources – letters or other documents from Hamilton’s time. We ask: is this source reliable? What’s its context? Does the evidence it provides agree with other sources?

In this series of posts, we’ll be looking at primary sources from Hamilton’s time regarding an affair.

Is an affair certain?

What evidence would we need to know for certain that Alexander and Angelica had an affair? I said we’d have to have conclusive evidence of it, and no contradictory evidence. Given that an affair is between two people, conclusive evidence would be documents from at least one of them stating that they had an affair.

There is absolutely no evidence of that sort.

Is an affair probable?

To say an affair is probable, we’d have to have substantial evidence in favor of it. What would that look like? Perhaps a couple eyewitnesses (a single one might be short-sighted or biased) who said, “We saw those two go alone into an empty house, and when they came out, Alex was buttoning his shirt and Angelica was fixing her hair.”  A statement from a friend or family member that the two had an affair would be evidence, if it was specific – not just “Those two sure like each other a lot.” Any of these statements would be hearsay, of course, and we’d have to consider whether the witnesses were hostile to Alexander and/or Angelica.

What evidence do we have of this sort? Again: none.

Is an affair possible?

To say an affair was possible, we’d need some evidence in favor.  A pattern of behavior would be suggestive. If Alexander slept with a lot of women, it wouldn’t be such a stretch to say that perhaps he slept with Angelica, too. So what’s the evidence that Alexander slept around? The obvious example that he did so is his involvement with Maria Reynolds in 1791-1792. After all, he admitted to that affair.

I’ve researched the Reynolds Affair extensively, via primary sources. My take is that James and Maria Reynolds targeted Hamilton, because of his position as secretary of the Treasury and his known kindness to strangers. I think Maria instigated the affair and that it lasted very briefly, until James began blackmailing Alexander. Alexander regretted the affair and said so, at first to a few Congressmen (in 1792), and later in print (1797). For details on this, see my book Alexander Hamilton and the Reynolds Affair.

We know of no other affairs of this sort involving Alexander Hamilton. No other women claimed to have affairs with him. He didn’t admit to sleeping with any other women. Maria was the only one.

But perhaps there’s other evidence of a pattern of promiscuous behavior? We’ll discuss that next week.

More

• This series of posts is an elaboration of a six-page appendix on this subject that appears in Alexander Hamilton and the Reynolds Affair.
• For my books on Alexander Hamilton, see this page; for blog posts, see the Hamilton tag.
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