ANGELICA SCHUYLER CHURCH
Angelica Church (née Schuyler; February 20, 1756 – March 13, 1814) was an American socialite. She was the eldest daughter of Continental Army General Philip Schuyler. She was a sister of Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton and sister-in-law of Alexander Hamilton. For sixteen years, she lived in Europe with her British-born husband, John Barker Church, who became a Member of Parliament. She was a prominent member of the social elite everywhere she lived, which included Albany and New York City, as well as Paris and London. Some of her correspondence with eminent friends has been preserved, including notable exchanges with Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, and the Marquis de Lafayette. The village and surrounding town of Angelica, New York, were named after her. (More from Wikipedia)
At least as bold as this move was the decision by Lin-Manuel Miranda to tell the stories in Hamilton of the Founding Mothers who are usually relegated to set pieces on the gowns that they were wearing. Four of the 14 principal roles listed in the Wikipedia article are women, all tied closely to Alexander Hamilton: Hamilton’s wife, Eliza Schuyler Hamilton; her sisters Angelica Schuyler Church and Peggy Schuyler Van Rensselaer; and Maria Reynolds, with whom Hamilton had a two-year affair in the 1790’s in one of the nation’s first sex scandals.
Those unusual names Schuyler and Van Rensselaer are Dutch, by the way; the Dutch heritage of our nation in general and of New York in particular – New York City was originally named New Amsterdam – is, shall we say, under-appreciated today. It was hard for me to miss when we moved to New York in 1990, however, because Gansevoort Street was right around the corner from where we lived in Greenwich Village.
(September 2016)
