From Alexander Hamilton to Elizabeth Hamilton, 20 March [1803]
To Elizabeth Hamilton1
Sunday Evening March 20 [1803]
Grange [New York]
I am here my beloved Betsy with my two little boys John2 & William3 who will be my bed fellows to night. The day I have passed was as agreeable as it could be in your absence; but you need not be told how much difference your presence would have made. Things are now going on here pretty and pretty briskly. I am making some innovations which I am sure you will approve.
The remainder of the Children were well yesterday. Eliza4 pouts and plays, and displays more and more her ample stock of Caprice.
I am anxious to hear of your arrival at Albany & shall be glad to be informed that Your Father and all of you are composed. I pray you to exert yourself & I repeat my exhortation that you will bear in mind it is your business to comfort and not to distress.
Remember me particularly to your Aunt Cochran5 & to my good old friend the Doctor6 if with you.
Adieu my precious Betsy
A H
Mrs. H
ALS, Hamilton Papers, Library of Congress.
1. For background to this letter, see H to Elizabeth Hamilton, March 13, 16–17, 1803.
2. John Church Hamilton, H’s fifth child, was born on August 22, 1792.
3. William Stephen Hamilton, H’s sixth child, was born on August 4, 1797.
4. H’s other children were Angelica, who was born on September 25, 1784; Alexander, who was born on May 16, 1786; James Alexander, who was born on April 14, 1788; Eliza, who was born on November 20, 1799; Philip, who was born on June 2, 1802.
5. Gertrude Schuyler Cochran was Philip Schuyler’s older sister. Her first husband was her cousin, Peter Schuyler, Jr., the son of Peter Schuyler, Jr., and Catherine Groesbeck Schuyler. After her first husband’s death, she married Dr. John Cochran in 1760 and settled in New Jersey. After the American Revolution, the Cochrans moved to New York City, where they remained until 1795, when they moved to Palatine, New York.
6. John Cochran, a New Jersey physician and the husband of Gertrude Schuyler Cochran, collaborated with Dr. William Shippen during the American Revolution in preparing a plan of organization for all the military hospitals in the United Colonies. He served as physician and surgeon general in the middle department and later as chief physician and surgeon. In 1781 he became director general of all army hospitals in the United States. After the war, he moved to New York City, where he served as commissioner of loans from 1790 to 1795, when he retired.