From Alexander Hamilton to Elizabeth Hamilton, [18 October 1802]
To Elizabeth Hamilton
Monday Morning [October 18, 1802]
Rhinebeck Flatts [New York]
Dear Eliza
I am thus far on my journey in good health. Tomorrow by eleven oClock I hope to reach Albany. This is the third letter I have written to you since we parted.1
I passed last night at Doctor Bards.2 The young couple3 seemed as usual in the like circumstances happy, and the rest of the company were in good spirits. Betsey Church4 talked of paying a visit to day to her uncle Philip.5
My former letters were full of advice about our little farm. This is merely to inform you of my progress in safety and health, and that I shall be very glad to get back to you.
My love to all my children. Adieu beloved
A H
Mrs. H
ALS, Hamilton Papers, Library of Congress.
1. Only one letter written by H to his wife at this time has been found. See H to Elizabeth Hamilton, October 16, 1802.
H arrived in Albany on October 19 (Philip Schuyler to Elizabeth Hamilton, October 20, 1802 [ALS, Schuyler Papers, MS Division, New York Public Library]).
H addressed this letter to his wife: “To the care of Mr. T L Ogden No. 69 Stone Street New York.” H and Thomas L. Ogden, a New York City lawyer, had their law offices at this address in 1801 and 1802.
2. Samuel Bard, a native of Philadelphia, received his medical degree from the University of Edinburgh in 1765 and subsequently practiced medicine in New York. He was professor of the theory and practice of physic and dean of the faculty of Columbia College until he retired to Hyde Park in 1798. He and Dr. David Hosack, who became Bard’s partner in 1796, were physicians to H and his family. See H’s Cash Book, 1795–1804, for entries under the dates of February 1, 1797, June 7, 1798, November 16, 1802, July 3, 1804 (AD, Hamilton Papers, Library of Congress).
3. On October 7, 1802, William Bard, Samuel Bard’s son, married Catherine Cruger, daughter of Nicholas Cruger, a New York City merchant. In the seventeen-sixties and seventeen-seventies Cruger was a partner in the mercantile firm of Beekman and Cruger in Christiansted, St. Croix. H had worked as a clerk for this firm in his youth (Walton and Cruger to H, October 19, 1771).
4. Elizabeth Church, who was born in 1786, was the second daughter of John B. Church and Angelica Schuyler Church, Elizabeth Hamilton’s older sister.
5. Philip Jeremiah Schuyler was Elizabeth Hamilton’s younger brother. He married Sarah Rutsen in 1788, and in 1802 he was living in Rhinebeck, New York.