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If your knowledge of Alexander Hamilton comes primarily from the Broadway musical, you might mistakenly believe he had just one child. However, despite his involvement in the Revolutionary War, the constitutional debates, and his notorious fatal duel with Aaron Burr, Hamilton still managed to raise eight children with his wife, Eliza. Several of them went on to make significant contributions to the early United States.
Contents Overview
1. Philip Hamilton (1782–1801)
Philip Hamilton, Alexander Hamilton’s eldest son. | Hamilton, Allan McLane, Wikimedia Commons // Public DomainBorn in 1782, Philip was the eldest of the Hamilton children and was named after his grandfather, Philip Schuyler, a renowned general in the American Revolutionary War and a Senator. From an early age, Philip was expected to achieve greatness.
“He is truly a very fine young gentleman, the most agreeable in his conversation and manners of any I ever knew—nor less remarkable for his intelligence and sweetness of temper,” Hamilton wrote of his eldest son, a statement that might have seemed overly optimistic given that the child was only 7 months old at the time.
For a while, Philip appeared destined to fulfill his father’s lofty expectations. He excelled at Columbia, graduating with honors, and pursued a career in law. However, his fiery temperament and strong sense of loyalty eventually led to his downfall.
In 1801, Philip went to a theater with a friend from college. The play was a comedy, but it sparked a chain of events that ended in tragedy. During the performance, Philip crossed paths with George Eacker, a lawyer who had previously accused Alexander Hamilton of wanting to use the military to intimidate political opponents. Philip confronted Eacker and demanded a duel.
On the day of the duel, Philip arrived armed with a pistol and his father’s advice: Do not fire. After taking the required 10 paces and turning to face each other, Philip kept his gun lowered. Eacker initially did the same, but then he changed his mind.
Fourteen hours later, Philip passed away at the young age of 19.
2. Angelica Hamilton (1784–1857)
Philip’s death left a deep impact on the Hamilton family, but Angelica, Alexander’s second-oldest child, was hit the hardest. Just two years younger than Philip, Angelica was a cheerful and musically gifted girl. However, after her brother’s death, her mental health began to decline steadily.
For the remainder of her life, she lived in what
3. Alexander Hamilton (1786–1875)
Following in his father’s footsteps, the younger Alexander attended Columbia and pursued a career in law, graduating just weeks after his father’s fatal duel with Aaron Burr.
While Burr had taken his father’s life, Alexander found a small measure of revenge years later. In an ironic turn of events, Alexander became the divorce lawyer for Burr’s second wife, Eliza Bowen Jumel.
Jumel, who had grown up in a brothel, inherited immense wealth after her first husband, a French wine merchant, passed away. When she married Burr, he was in his late seventies and had already lost his former standing. Just four months after Burr and Jumel’s marriage, they separated, with Jumel accusing Burr of infidelity and reckless spending of her fortune. The divorce proceedings lasted three years and concluded on the very day Burr died.
4. James Alexander Hamilton (1788–1878)
After completing his studies at Columbia and entering the legal profession, James married into the prominent Morris family. His wife, Mary Morris, was related to a Founding Father, a Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and a former mayor of New York City.
James lived up to the legacy of his distinguished family, forging a strong bond with future President Andrew Jackson. (He even contributed to drafting Jackson’s inaugural speech.) When Jackson became president, James temporarily acted as Secretary of State before being named U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.
His successful career enabled him to build a grand mansion designed in the style of a Greek temple, which he named Nevis after his father’s birthplace. Today, the building is used for physics and biology research at Columbia University.
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5. John Church Hamilton (1792–1882)
John Church Hamilton. | Smithsonian American Art Museum, Wikimedia Commons // Public DomainJohn was only 12 when his father passed away, but the memory stayed with him throughout his life. Following the family tradition, he attended Columbia, studied law, and later served as an aide-de-camp to future president William Henry Harrison during the War of 1812.
John spent much of his career focused on historical studies, aside from an unsuccessful attempt at a congressional seat. His primary goal was to preserve his father’s legacy. He edited Alexander Hamilton’s works and eventually released them in a seven-volume set. Additionally, he wrote a seven-volume biography of his father titled Life of Alexander Hamilton: A History of the Republic of the United States of America.
6. William Stephen Hamilton (1797–1851)
While his four older brothers followed the familiar path to Columbia and a legal career, William chose a different direction. He enrolled at Westpoint (though he didn’t graduate) and then set his sights on the West.
He initially moved to Illinois, where he became a member of the state House of Representatives, before heading north to engage in lead mining in the then-territory of Wisconsin. There, he participated in the 1832 Black Hawk War against Native American tribes and later ran unsuccessful campaigns to become a territorial congressional delegate and to join Wisconsin’s constitutional convention after it achieved statehood.
In 1849, he ventured even farther from home to seek fortune in the California Gold Rush. However, his experience there was far from golden; he later remarked that he would “rather have been hung in the 'Lead Mines' than to have lived in this miserable hole."
William never married and likely succumbed to cholera in 1850 in the state he had come to loathe.
7. Eliza Hamilton Holly (1799–1859)
The younger Eliza married a well-known New York City merchant in 1825 but was widowed by 1842. Instead of remarrying, she and her mother relocated to Washington, D.C., in 1848, settling near the White House. Their home soon became a hub for the capital’s social elite.
After her mother’s death at 97, Eliza dedicated herself to fulfilling her mother’s greatest wish: securing her father’s legacy. “I feel the same spark ignite,” she wrote to her brother John Church, “to seek the fulfillment of her words ‘justice shall be done to the memory of my Hamilton.’ Those words so often spoken by our Mother, she cannot have a child who does not proudly honor them.”
She continued, “You and I, dear brother, must sadly acknowledge, as we read the biographies of distinguished statesmen penned by many credible authors, how much of our father’s wisdom is overlooked, while praise is generously heaped upon his less illustrious contemporaries.”
Eliza passed away in 1859, just five years after her mother.
8. Philip Hamilton (1802–1884)
"Little Phil" at age 78. | Hamilton, Allan McLane, Wikimedia Commons // Public DomainThe second Philip was still in Eliza Hamilton’s womb when the first Philip passed away. Less than three years later, his father also died. The family faced financial struggles after Hamilton’s death, leaving Philip (often referred to as “Little Phil”) with fewer opportunities compared to his older siblings.
Unlike his brothers, Philip didn’t go to college but still became a lawyer and eventually served as Assistant U.S. Attorney under his older brother, James. Known more for his compassion than his ambition [PDF], Philip was celebrated as a “lawyer of the poor.” He passed away in New York in 1884.
