Alexander Hamilton

 

 

I suppose that all of you know that my mother's maiden name was Hamilton. As is usual in such instance there was a family legend that the Hamiltons of my family had descended from the most illustrious Hamilton that we knew, who was our founding father Alexander Hamilton. Well, it appears that is not true. Certainly we are not direct descendants of Alexander Hamilton, and it is unlikely that we even have a common ancestor.

I have been able to trace my Hamilton lineage back to Thomas Hamilton born 1725 in Scotland. I am currently reading a biography of Alexander Hamilton titled "Alexander Hamilton, American" by Richard Brookhiser, which tells me that Alexander Hamilton was born on the Caribbean island of St. Croix in 1757, so we definitely could not be lineal descendents. Alexander's mother was born on the Island of Nevis of French Huguenot parents but went to St Croix when in her teens. Her name was originally Rachel Faucett. She spoke French and was not proficient in English. During her lifetime, Rachel Fawcett married three men. The second of these was James Hamilton, the fourth son of a Scottish Laird.

Alexander and his brother James Jr. were born in quick succession to this union, which had not been solemnized by a wedding because Rachel was not divorced from her marriage with John Lavien until two years after Alexander was born. Alexander was therefore illegitimate. To add to that handicap was the fact that his father, James Hamilton, deserted Rachell and her two boys and went to another of the Windward Islands where he lived until 1799 uneventfully.

Danish law forbad the guilty party in a divorce the right to remarry and Rachel was so proclaimed "because of her wanton and sinful life". So Rachel could not even legitimize her two sons after the divorce nor could she legally marry another man.

Despite his cavalier attitude toward his responsibilities as a father, Alexander never seemed to blame his father, and after coming to the United States carried on a steady correspondence with him and frequently referred to him in letters to his brother as "our dear father". Alexander attempted to persuade his father to come to the United States but was never able to do so.

French had been the language of his family as he grew up because it was the only language his mother spoke well. Partly because of his fluency in this language and partly because of his extreme intensity in all he did, Alexander was a principal aide de camp to General George Washington during the American Revolution, even though he was only twenty years old. As a result of his service to Washington, he had an inside track in political circles after the revolution.

So don't go around claiming you are kin to Alexander Hamilton because probably you are not.