Angelica Schuyler Church
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Angelica Schuyler Church (February, 1757-1815) was the eldest daughter of American Revolution General Philip Schuyler, wife of John Barker Church, sister-in-law of Alexander Hamilton and a prominent member of the United States social elite of the 18th century. The village and the town named "Angelica", both located in New York State were named after her.
A series of correspondence between herself and future U.S. President Thomas Jefferson surfaced in the 1990s that suggests the two were romantically involved, despite her being married.[1]
[edit] The letters
A series of letters received by Church 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.[2][3]
[edit] Notes
- ^ Muse and Confidante: Angelica Schuyler Church The University of Virginia
- ^ Jefferson's Letters to Angelica Schuyler Church Associated Press
- ^ Andrew Burstein, The Inner Jefferson: Portrait of a Grieving Optimist, University of Virginia Press, 1995, p. 109
