Samuel Laurence Gouverneur (1799 – September 29, 1865) was a lawyer and civil servant who was both nephew and son-in-law to
James Monroe, the fifth
President of the United States.
Early life
Gouverneur was born in 1799 in
New York City. His father was Nicholas Gouverneur (1753–1802), a merchant with the firm Gouverneur & Kemble,[1] and mother was Hester (
née Kortright) Gouverneur (1770–1842), sister of the
First LadyElizabeth Kortright Monroe.[2] His younger sister, Maria Charlotte Gouverneur (1801–1867), was married to
Thomas McCall Cadwalader (1795–1873).[3]
His maternal grandparents were Lawrence Kortright, a wealthy merchant, and Hannah (née Aspinwall) Kortright.[4] His paternal grandparents were Samuel Gouverneur (1720–1798) and Experience (née Johnson) Gouverneur (1720–1788).[1] He was a first cousin of
U.S. RepresentativeGouverneur Kemble (1786–1875) through his aunt Gertrude Gouverneur, wife of merchant
Peter Kemble.[1]
Gouverneur served as
private secretary to his uncle, the fifth
U.S. PresidentJames Monroe who served two consecutive terms as President from March 4, 1817 until March 4, 1825.[b] Gouverneur helped former president Monroe to press his claims to Congress to repay mounting debts. After Elizabeth Monroe's death in 1830, Monroe came to live at the Gouverneurs' home, and died there in 1831.[9] Gouverneur was executor of Monroe's estate, which had to be sold off to pay the debts.[10]
Monroe's personal papers were left to Gouverneur, who also was asked to support his wife's sister
Eliza Monroe Hay (also his cousin, then a widow).[12] Gouverneur started work on publishing the papers or a book on Monroe, but it was never finished. After Mrs. Hay died in 1840, the Gouverneurs moved to
Washington, DC where he worked in the consular bureau of the
U.S. Department of State from 1844 to 1849. After congress agreed to buy the papers of
President Madison, Gouverneur proposed a similar arrangement, which was concluded in 1850. Some personal papers would be retained for a few generations.[10]
Personal life
On March 9, 1820, Gouverneur was married to
Maria Hester Monroe, his first cousin and the daughter of President Monroe. The wedding was officiated by the Rev.
William Dickinson Hawley[13] and was the first wedding held in the
White House for a child of a president.[c][d] The wedding was small, with only 42 guests and no cabinet members invited, and General
Thomas Jesup served as groomsman for Gouverneur.[8] The couple went on a brief one-week honeymoon, and upon their return, Commodore and Mrs.
Stephen Decatur gave them a reception at the
Decatur House on May 20, 1820. Another ball was planned, but was cancelled due to Decatur's death two days later in a duel.[13] After moving to New York, the Gouverneur's bought and lived at 63 and 65
Prince Street at
Lafayette Street in
Manhattan. Together, Samuel and Maria were the parents of four children:
a daughter, who died in infancy (d. September 4, 1821)[16]
Elizabeth Kortright Gouverneur (1824–1868), who married Dr. Henry Lee Heishell, James M. Bibby, and Colonel G. D. Sparrier.[5]
Samuel Laurence Gouverneur, Jr. (1826–1880), who married Marian Campbell (1821–1914), and became the first U.S.
consul in
Fuzhou,
China (then spelled Foo Chow).[5]
In 1832, the Gouverneurs' sold their Prince Street residence to Miles R. Burke.[e] On June 20, 1850, his wife Maria died at the
Oak Hill estate, which was sold two years later in 1852.
In September 1851, the widower Gouverneur married Mary Digges Lee (1810–1898), a granddaughter of
Thomas Sim Lee (1745–1819). They retired to the Lee estate called "Needwood", near
Frederick, Maryland and
Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.[22] This stressed family relations during the
American Civil War, with Gouverneur associated with the Union government, while his in-laws had deep roots in the Confederate states.[8]
Death
Gouverneur died at his Needwood estate on September 29, 1865.[23][f] His estate was left to his second wife.[10]
^The first documented wedding ceremony held in the White House was when
Dolley Madison, wife of President
James Madison, arranged the wedding of her youngest sister, Lucy Payne Washington, to Supreme Court Justice
Thomas Todd in 1812.[14]
^There might have also been a private wedding of
Abigail Adams' maid Betsy Howard in 1801.[15]
^After three years it was owned by John Ferguson and then was sold to Charles H. Contoit in 1873, and then Daniel Mahoney in 1900.[18] On April 28, 1905, a historical plaque was placed on the building in a ceremony with several Monroe descendants in attendance. A crowd of "thousands" included General
Frederick Dent Grant and an army attachment.[19] However, by the 1920s the once-elegant pair of houses had fallen into disrepair and were covered in advertisements.[18][20] A group tried to save one of the houses in the 1920s, but it suffered damage when a move was attempted.[21]
Nicholas Jenkins.
"Samuel Laurence Gouverneur". W. H. Auden Family Ghosts. Stanford University. Archived from
the original on July 20, 2011. Retrieved March 13, 2011.