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For the background on this post, including the distinction between certain, probable, and possible, see the first post in this series.  This series of posts is available as a video playlist at https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9eyRnt5W114bs8_CJNvlcLfIB4NW_YTB.

Working through the primary sources: there’s not enough evidence to prove that an affair between Alexander Hamilton and Angelica Schuyler Church is either certain or probable. What about possible? If Alexander Hamilton was promiscuous, it might be possible that he slept with Angelica, as well as other women. In the previous three posts, we’ve looked at primary sources that are often cited to prove Hamilton was promiscuous: the Reynolds Affair, the “goddess letter”, and the “tomcat story”. None of these hold up as proof that Hamilton slept around.

But they liked each other!

Angelica and Alexander clearly liked and admired each other. Is it possible the attraction was so strong they couldn’t resist sleeping together?

The admiration in their letters to each other is obvious. Alexander writes to Angelica on December 6, 1787:

I seldom write to a lady without fancying the relation of lover and mistress. It has a very inspiring effect. And in your case the dullest materials could not help feeling that propensity.[1]

Angelica writes to Eliza on July 30, 1794:

I love him very much and if you were as generous as the old Romans, you would lend him to me for a little while …[2]

Let’s put these in context. In Alexander’s letter, “lover and mistress” sounds a bit racy, but the rest of the letter includes routine news of Eliza, the Schuyler parents, Angelica’s husband, and Kitty Livingston. It doesn’t have the feel of a communication between secret lovers.

Angelica’s 1794 letter was written to Eliza. You’d have to believe the Schuyler sisters’ morals to be very loose indeed if you think Angelica was suggesting husband-swapping to her sibling. I can’t make that stretch: nothing in the other letters between Angelica and Eliza supports that.

I’ve looked at all the surviving letters between Angelica and Alexander, reading them from beginning to end rather than searching for a few titillating sentences. My conclusion:  Alexander and Angelica are genuinely fond of each other … and also of their own spouses. They pay compliments to each other, but there’s no secret sexy subtext.

It’s worth noting that Alexander and Eliza named their eldest daughter after Angelica, and their fourth son “John Church,” after Angelica’s husband. Angelica and John named their second daughter after Eliza, and their fourth son after Alexander.

My conclusion: there is too much familial affection in the Schuyler / Church / Hamilton families to use Alexander and Angelica’s fondness for each other as evidence of an affair.

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[1] https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-04-02-0172

[2] Angelica Schuyler Church to Eliza Hamilton, from London, 7/30/1794: “I have a letter my dear Eliza from my worthy friend M. de Talleyrand who expresses to me his gratitude for an introduction to you and my Amiable, by my Amiable you know that I mean your Husband, for I love him very much and if you were as generous as the old Romans, you would lend him to me for a little while, but do not be jealous, my dear Eliza, since I am more solicitous to promote his laudable ambition, than any person in the world, and there is no summit of true glory which I do not desire he may attain; provided always that he pleases to give me a little chit-chat, and sometimes to say, I wish our dear Angelica was here. Talleyrand and Beaumetz write in raptures to all their friends of your kindness, and Colonel Hamilton’s abilities and manners, and I receive innumerable compliments on his and your account.

Ah! Bess! you were a lucky girl to get so clever and so good a companion.

Mr Jay has been perfecctly well received at Court and by the Ministers, as yet no material business is done. The people are anxious for a peace with America, and the allied armies are beat out of Flanders and on the Rhine. These circumstances may determine the Minister to be just and wise. Mr. Jay dined with Mr. Fox at our house a few days after his arrival.

Mr. Morris is building a palace, do you think Monsieur l’Enfant would send me a drawing of it? Merely from curiosity, for one wishes to see the plan of a house which it is said, will cost, when furnished 40,000 pounds Sterling.

 – Quoted in Allan McLane Hamilton, The Intimate Life of Alexander Hamilton, Based Chiefly upon Original Family Letters and Other Documents, Many of Which Have Never Been Published (New York, 1910), p. 259. It’s not clear whether this is the entire letter. https://tinyurl.com/4jf34muk

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• 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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