White House Weddings: John Tyler and Julia Gardiner
President John Tyler and his second wife, the former Julia Gardiner, were not married at the White House, but their courtship and nuptials took place during Tyler's brief term as the first "accidental president". Tyler became President in April of 1841 following the death of President William Henry Harrison, just one month into his presidency. Tyler set precedent for what happened when a president died in office, and as Vice-President, he made it clear that in such circumstances he was not a mere placeholder, but acquired all the powers of the Presidency. He did so much to the chagrin of the Whig Party, especially when he failed to tow the party line and was kicked out of the Whigs, making him a President without a party.
When Tyler became President, his wife was the former Letitia Christian. She met John Tyler, then a law student, in 1808. Their five-year courtship was very restrained. It was said that the first time Tyler kissed her was three weeks before the wedding, and that was a kiss on the hand. In his only surviving love letter to her, written a few months before their wedding, Tyler promised, "Whether I float or sink in the stream of fortune, you may be assured of this, that I shall never cease to love you." They married on Tyler's 23rd birthday at Cedar Grove, her family's home. Their 29-year marriage appears to have been a happy one. Tyler became more physical in his affections, as the couple had seven children together, four daughters and three sons.
In 1839, Letitia suffered a paralytic stroke that left her an invalid. As first lady, she remained in the upstairs living quarters of the White House, coming down only once, to attend the wedding of her daughter Elizabeth in January of 1842. Elizabeth married William N. Waller in what actually was a White House wedding. Elizabeth died from the effects of childbirth eight years later in 1850 at the age of 27.
Letitia Tyler became the first first lady to pass away in the White House. She died peacefully at the age of 51, in the evening of September 10, 1842 from a stroke. Her daughter-in-law Priscilla Cooper Tyler remembered her as "the most entirely unselfish person you can imagine. Notwithstanding her very delicate health, mother attends to and regulates all the household affairs and all so quietly that you can't tell when she does it."
The 54 year-old widower President John Tyler shocked everyone, including his children, when just two years later he married 24 year old Julia Gardiner. Although she was First Lady for only a few months, but made a strong impression during her brief time in the White House.
Julia Gardiner was born on May 4, 1820 on Gardiner’s Island, on Long Island, New York. Her father was David Gardiner, a lawyer, real estate property management, and state senator. He was killed on February 28, 1844 as a result of the explosion of the naval cannon “The Peacemaker,” during a Potomac River excursion of the naval cutter Princeton (written about in this community here). Her mother was Juliana McLachlan Gardiner. Julia was the third of four children. She had two older brothers and one younger sister.
Julia was five feet, three inches tall with brown hair and gray eyes. She had once been the antebellum equivalent of a model when, sometime in 1839 she secretly arranged to pose for an engraving which was used for a mass-produced lithograph advertisement for the dry-goods and clothing emporium Bogert & Mecamly, on lower Ninth Avenue in New York City. It depicted her strolling in front of the store, carrying a handbag with the words, “I’ll purchase at Bogert and Mecamly’s, No. 86 Ninth Avenue. Their Goods are Beautiful and Astonishingly Cheap.” This was considered below her social station at the time.
Shortly thereafter, she and her family went on a grand tour of Europe. Arriving from New York in London on October, 29 1840, they visited England, France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Ireland and Scotland. Julia Gardiner was presented to the Roman Catholic Pope Leo, and also explored the volcano at Mount Vesuvius. She also carried on brief romances with a German baron and a Belgian count. The family arrived back in the United States at the end of September 1841.
From January to the end of February 1842, Julia and the Gardiner family lived in Washington. In one letter, the future First Lady recorded that a married Congressman openly flirted with her. He was identified as future president Millard Fillmore. On January 20, 1842, Julia Gardiner and her parents were welcomed as guests in the White House by President John Tyler, whose wife Letitia was unable to fill the role due to her recovery from a stroke.
Julia developed friendships with the President’s two eldest sons, Robert and John, and the Gardiners became friends with the Tylers. Shortly after his first wife's death, the recently widowed President Tyler began to demonstrate noticeable affectionate attention to Julia. He proposed marriage to her on February 22, 1843, at a White House masquerade Washington’s Birthday Ball. She refused to accept, and would continue to do so. They soon began a romantic correspondence and appeared together publicly, prompting open public speculation about the relationship.
On February 28, 1844, Julia Gardiner, her father, President Tyler and members of his Cabinet, as well as social figures like the former First Lady Dolley Madison were aboard the naval cutter Princeton when the vessel’s naval cannon “The Peacemaker” exploded. Among others, it killed the Navy Secretary and Secretaries of State and the Navy, and David Gardiner. According to one account, when Julia learned of her father's death, she feinted into Tyler's arms.
Less than four months later, 24 year old Julia was married to the President of the United States, on June 26, 1844. The wedding took place at The Church of the Ascension, New York City. The couple eloped, using the Gardiner family’s mourning as the reason. There were only twelve guests, including the President’s son John. After the ceremony, there was a wedding breakfast in the Gardiner home, followed by a ferryboat cruise, with various naval salutes in New York Harbor. The couple debarked at Jersey City, where they took a train to Philadelphia. Both there, and in Baltimore, the new presidential bride was the object of enormous public fascination.
A two-hour White House wedding reception was held on June 28, 1844, with a wedding cake displayed in the Blue Room, and served with wine. The couple went to “Old Point Comfort,” at the federal Fortress Monroe, near Norfolk, Virginia on July 4th, where a honeymoon cottage had been outfitted for them. Finally, two days later, they went to the President’s new plantation home “Sherwood Forest,” in Charles City County, Virginia for several days before returning to Old Point Comfort. They returned to Washington in early August.
Julia Gardner gave birth to five sons and two daughters, all born after Tyler left the White House: David Gardiner Tyler (July 12, 1846 - September 5, 1927); John Alexander Tyler (April 7, 1848 - September 1, 1883); Julia Gardiner Tyler [Spencer] (December 25, 1849 - May 8, 1871); Lachlan Tyler (December 2, 1851 - January 26, 1902); Lyon Gardiner Tyler (August 24, 1853 - February 12, 1935); Robert Fitzwalter Tyler (March 12, 1856 - December 31, 1927); and Pearl Tyler [Ellis] (June 20, 1860 - June 30, 1947). Julia Gardiner Tyler is the only woman married to an incumbent President whose children were all born after her tenure as First Lady.
Julia would have the shortest tenure as First Lady, lasting only eight months. Former First Lady Dolley Madison was living across Lafayette Square from the White House and was welcomed as part of the Tyler family circle. The two become close and travelled to New York together in September of 1844. Julia permitted an engraving to be made of her, based on an oil portrait by Francesco Anelli. It was inscribed with the title, “The President’s Bride” and mass-produced and commercially sold. Julia Tyler also gave permission for her name to be used on sheet music used for the popular polka dancing, called “The Julia Waltzes”.
Julia Tyler received requests from individual citizens for executive clemencies, pardons, military leave and federal employment. She would pass these requests on to the appropriate Cabinet departments or the president himself. She was also involved in an unsuccessful effort intended to forge a new party with Tyler as leader, and run him as President in 1848. She used her personal charm as part of a lobbying effort to promote the President’s proposed annexation of Texas among individual House and Senate members.
A story that the couple were on the verge of divorce and had already separated first appeared in the February 21, 1846 New York Morning News and was rapidly picked up in newspapers across the country. The story was in error. It was actually John Tyler, Jr. and his wife who had separated, but had been misunderstood to mean the former presidential couple.
During her lengthy post-White House years, Julia Tyler continued to travel extensively to the fashionable northern summer colonies of Newport, Rhode Island, Saratoga and East Hampton, New York. She met President Zachary Taylor at a reception in Richmond, Virginia in February of 1850. In February of 1861 she returned to Washington for the “Peace Conference,” an effort in which her husband participated in a last-ditch effort to avoid civil war. During their stay in Washington, Julia Tyler was called upon by her old friend, incumbent President Buchanan, but was not with her husband, to meet president-elect Lincoln.
Julia Tyler strenuously defended her husband’s actions in advocating secession and accepting a seat as a member of the Confederate States of America’s provisional Congress. However, Tyler never actually took that seat, as he died several days after the Confederate Congress first convened in Richmond.
After the war, Julia lived in the Staten Island, New York home of her late mother. She resumed residency in Washington, D.C. in January of 1872. She moved into a rental apartment on Fayette Street in the Georgetown section of Washington, D.C. and made numerous visits back to the White House and maintained a friendship with subsequent first ladies Julia Grant, Lucy Hayes and Lucretia Garfield.
Julia Tyler left Washington in the spring of 1876 due to severe financial hardship and returned to Sherwood Forest which had been ordered sold by a court to pay a Bank of Virginia judgment against the Tyler estate. She converted to Catholicism. She also successfully lobbied to not only gain federal jobs for two of her sons, but to gain for herself the presidential widow’s pension. Julia Tyler died on July 10, 1889 in Richmond at the age of 69. She is buried at Hollywood Cemetery, in Richmond, Virginia
When Tyler became President, his wife was the former Letitia Christian. She met John Tyler, then a law student, in 1808. Their five-year courtship was very restrained. It was said that the first time Tyler kissed her was three weeks before the wedding, and that was a kiss on the hand. In his only surviving love letter to her, written a few months before their wedding, Tyler promised, "Whether I float or sink in the stream of fortune, you may be assured of this, that I shall never cease to love you." They married on Tyler's 23rd birthday at Cedar Grove, her family's home. Their 29-year marriage appears to have been a happy one. Tyler became more physical in his affections, as the couple had seven children together, four daughters and three sons.
In 1839, Letitia suffered a paralytic stroke that left her an invalid. As first lady, she remained in the upstairs living quarters of the White House, coming down only once, to attend the wedding of her daughter Elizabeth in January of 1842. Elizabeth married William N. Waller in what actually was a White House wedding. Elizabeth died from the effects of childbirth eight years later in 1850 at the age of 27.
Letitia Tyler became the first first lady to pass away in the White House. She died peacefully at the age of 51, in the evening of September 10, 1842 from a stroke. Her daughter-in-law Priscilla Cooper Tyler remembered her as "the most entirely unselfish person you can imagine. Notwithstanding her very delicate health, mother attends to and regulates all the household affairs and all so quietly that you can't tell when she does it."
The 54 year-old widower President John Tyler shocked everyone, including his children, when just two years later he married 24 year old Julia Gardiner. Although she was First Lady for only a few months, but made a strong impression during her brief time in the White House.
Julia Gardiner was born on May 4, 1820 on Gardiner’s Island, on Long Island, New York. Her father was David Gardiner, a lawyer, real estate property management, and state senator. He was killed on February 28, 1844 as a result of the explosion of the naval cannon “The Peacemaker,” during a Potomac River excursion of the naval cutter Princeton (written about in this community here). Her mother was Juliana McLachlan Gardiner. Julia was the third of four children. She had two older brothers and one younger sister.
Julia was five feet, three inches tall with brown hair and gray eyes. She had once been the antebellum equivalent of a model when, sometime in 1839 she secretly arranged to pose for an engraving which was used for a mass-produced lithograph advertisement for the dry-goods and clothing emporium Bogert & Mecamly, on lower Ninth Avenue in New York City. It depicted her strolling in front of the store, carrying a handbag with the words, “I’ll purchase at Bogert and Mecamly’s, No. 86 Ninth Avenue. Their Goods are Beautiful and Astonishingly Cheap.” This was considered below her social station at the time.
Shortly thereafter, she and her family went on a grand tour of Europe. Arriving from New York in London on October, 29 1840, they visited England, France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Ireland and Scotland. Julia Gardiner was presented to the Roman Catholic Pope Leo, and also explored the volcano at Mount Vesuvius. She also carried on brief romances with a German baron and a Belgian count. The family arrived back in the United States at the end of September 1841.
From January to the end of February 1842, Julia and the Gardiner family lived in Washington. In one letter, the future First Lady recorded that a married Congressman openly flirted with her. He was identified as future president Millard Fillmore. On January 20, 1842, Julia Gardiner and her parents were welcomed as guests in the White House by President John Tyler, whose wife Letitia was unable to fill the role due to her recovery from a stroke.
Julia developed friendships with the President’s two eldest sons, Robert and John, and the Gardiners became friends with the Tylers. Shortly after his first wife's death, the recently widowed President Tyler began to demonstrate noticeable affectionate attention to Julia. He proposed marriage to her on February 22, 1843, at a White House masquerade Washington’s Birthday Ball. She refused to accept, and would continue to do so. They soon began a romantic correspondence and appeared together publicly, prompting open public speculation about the relationship.
On February 28, 1844, Julia Gardiner, her father, President Tyler and members of his Cabinet, as well as social figures like the former First Lady Dolley Madison were aboard the naval cutter Princeton when the vessel’s naval cannon “The Peacemaker” exploded. Among others, it killed the Navy Secretary and Secretaries of State and the Navy, and David Gardiner. According to one account, when Julia learned of her father's death, she feinted into Tyler's arms.
Less than four months later, 24 year old Julia was married to the President of the United States, on June 26, 1844. The wedding took place at The Church of the Ascension, New York City. The couple eloped, using the Gardiner family’s mourning as the reason. There were only twelve guests, including the President’s son John. After the ceremony, there was a wedding breakfast in the Gardiner home, followed by a ferryboat cruise, with various naval salutes in New York Harbor. The couple debarked at Jersey City, where they took a train to Philadelphia. Both there, and in Baltimore, the new presidential bride was the object of enormous public fascination.
A two-hour White House wedding reception was held on June 28, 1844, with a wedding cake displayed in the Blue Room, and served with wine. The couple went to “Old Point Comfort,” at the federal Fortress Monroe, near Norfolk, Virginia on July 4th, where a honeymoon cottage had been outfitted for them. Finally, two days later, they went to the President’s new plantation home “Sherwood Forest,” in Charles City County, Virginia for several days before returning to Old Point Comfort. They returned to Washington in early August.
Julia Gardner gave birth to five sons and two daughters, all born after Tyler left the White House: David Gardiner Tyler (July 12, 1846 - September 5, 1927); John Alexander Tyler (April 7, 1848 - September 1, 1883); Julia Gardiner Tyler [Spencer] (December 25, 1849 - May 8, 1871); Lachlan Tyler (December 2, 1851 - January 26, 1902); Lyon Gardiner Tyler (August 24, 1853 - February 12, 1935); Robert Fitzwalter Tyler (March 12, 1856 - December 31, 1927); and Pearl Tyler [Ellis] (June 20, 1860 - June 30, 1947). Julia Gardiner Tyler is the only woman married to an incumbent President whose children were all born after her tenure as First Lady.
Julia would have the shortest tenure as First Lady, lasting only eight months. Former First Lady Dolley Madison was living across Lafayette Square from the White House and was welcomed as part of the Tyler family circle. The two become close and travelled to New York together in September of 1844. Julia permitted an engraving to be made of her, based on an oil portrait by Francesco Anelli. It was inscribed with the title, “The President’s Bride” and mass-produced and commercially sold. Julia Tyler also gave permission for her name to be used on sheet music used for the popular polka dancing, called “The Julia Waltzes”.
Julia Tyler received requests from individual citizens for executive clemencies, pardons, military leave and federal employment. She would pass these requests on to the appropriate Cabinet departments or the president himself. She was also involved in an unsuccessful effort intended to forge a new party with Tyler as leader, and run him as President in 1848. She used her personal charm as part of a lobbying effort to promote the President’s proposed annexation of Texas among individual House and Senate members.
A story that the couple were on the verge of divorce and had already separated first appeared in the February 21, 1846 New York Morning News and was rapidly picked up in newspapers across the country. The story was in error. It was actually John Tyler, Jr. and his wife who had separated, but had been misunderstood to mean the former presidential couple.
During her lengthy post-White House years, Julia Tyler continued to travel extensively to the fashionable northern summer colonies of Newport, Rhode Island, Saratoga and East Hampton, New York. She met President Zachary Taylor at a reception in Richmond, Virginia in February of 1850. In February of 1861 she returned to Washington for the “Peace Conference,” an effort in which her husband participated in a last-ditch effort to avoid civil war. During their stay in Washington, Julia Tyler was called upon by her old friend, incumbent President Buchanan, but was not with her husband, to meet president-elect Lincoln.
Julia Tyler strenuously defended her husband’s actions in advocating secession and accepting a seat as a member of the Confederate States of America’s provisional Congress. However, Tyler never actually took that seat, as he died several days after the Confederate Congress first convened in Richmond.
After the war, Julia lived in the Staten Island, New York home of her late mother. She resumed residency in Washington, D.C. in January of 1872. She moved into a rental apartment on Fayette Street in the Georgetown section of Washington, D.C. and made numerous visits back to the White House and maintained a friendship with subsequent first ladies Julia Grant, Lucy Hayes and Lucretia Garfield.
Julia Tyler left Washington in the spring of 1876 due to severe financial hardship and returned to Sherwood Forest which had been ordered sold by a court to pay a Bank of Virginia judgment against the Tyler estate. She converted to Catholicism. She also successfully lobbied to not only gain federal jobs for two of her sons, but to gain for herself the presidential widow’s pension. Julia Tyler died on July 10, 1889 in Richmond at the age of 69. She is buried at Hollywood Cemetery, in Richmond, Virginia