"I shall most cheerfully pay:" The Education of Caty Schuyler

By Jessie Serfilippi

Catharine "Caty" Schuyler at 15
(seated at pianoforte)

By November of 1793, seventeen-year-old Cornelia and twelve-year-old Catharine “Caty” Schuyler had completed six months of French lessons at Albany. Their father, Philip Schuyler, paid tutor Charles Rogers “three Dollars per Month Each.” Unlike their older sisters, who studied largely in Manhattan in the early 1770s, Cornelia and Caty seem to have completed a bit more of their higher education in Albany. This was likely a sign of better quality tutors in Albany.


But there was no delaying the inevitable. By 1795, Caty was enrolled in S. & N. Lilly’s, likely an academy in Manhattan. A surviving receipt of all the expenses her father paid the school for her education provides a window into the world of an upper class girl’s education in the 1790s United States.


Perhaps unlike other students, Caty didn’t live at the academy, as her father only paid “Day Board.” It’s likely that Caty lived with family and friends while in Manhattan. By 1795, her sister Eliza Schuyler Hamilton and her family had relocated to Manhattan from Philadelphia. By 1799, it’s evident that Caty lived with the Hamiltons, though her whereabouts before that are murky. Based on past evidence of the oldest three Schuyler girls living with family while receiving their education in New York City, it’s likely Caty stayed with her older sister.

Dwight's Geography 
Photo Credit: WorthPoint 

It seems as though Caty was immersed in nearly every subject possible. In the first quarter of her schooling in 1795, she took music and drawing lessons. She studied A Short But Comprehensive System of the Geography of the World: By way of question and answer, principally designed for children and common schools by Nathaniel Dwight. This was a newly published common book used to introduce children to the subject of geography, and was one of the first books to be uniquely American in style rather than a copy of British studies. It was the perfect educational tool for a young girl coming of age during the Federalist era, when the United States was distancing itself from British standards and creating its own.

Detail of tambour needlework
from Portrait of Catherine Lane Barker
by Gilbert Stuart; 1792.

Caty also heavily studied embroidery and “fancy needlework.” Three “Tambour Needles” appeared early in the list of expenses for her schooling. Tambour needles allowed the embroiderer to learn and work faster as only one stitch needed to be mastered. From other expenses, it seems Caty’s instructor drew scenes on fabric, creating a pattern for her to follow as she embroidered. These included “drawing a Landscape on Sattin” and “a Flower piece on Sattin.”

Caty studied subjects familiar to students today: writing and arithmetic. During her second quarter of schooling, her parents purchased her a cyphering book, or a book in which she copied her instructor’s multiplication problems, geometry questions, and even trigonometry lessons depending on the level to which she advanced. While this notebook turned textbook by the student was meant to impart mathematics knowledge, the problems were often framed as mercantile, or used to teach surveying, bartering, and interest. It’s impossible to know what level of mathematics Caty achieved or if she learned it with a slant toward something such as interest or bartering, but her father’s many business engagements and his seemingly liberal outlook on his daughters’ educations leaves open the possibility.

Caty’s education in the above subjects continued into 1797. In 1796, she was joined by her eight-year-old nephew, the son of her late brother Johnny, Philip Schuyler Jr. Her sister Cornelia joined her that same year for dancing lessons. Caty completed her own dance lessons in 1797. This could have been a sign that she was ready to enter society. Dancing was an important skill for both girls and boys of high society to possess, as they were expected to know the latest styles of dance for balls––opportunities for meeting a future spouse.

While receipts for Caty’s formal education ended in 1797, in 1799, eighteen-year-old Caty was still studying, though likely on her own. A letter from her father written on November 24, 1799, reveals the one of the only people aside from Caty and her parents with a hand in her education was her brother-in-law, Alexander Hamilton. Schuyler wrote to her that “It gratifies me that you will solicit your brother Hamilton to direct you in your studies, his mind is so correct that he will point out to you the best Authors.”

These authors may have been connected to the study of geography and history, for earlier in the letter Schuyler wrote “Any expenses of tuition or others I shall most cheerfully pay. The science of geography is so essential in order to read history with the best advantage that I am greatly pleased at your intention to study It -– and knowing your attention, I am persuaded you will make great progress in It.”

While not said in Caty’s own words, her father’s response to her now missing letter suggests geography and history were subjects she took an interest in on her own. His praise of her intellect speaks to her intelligence and dedication to her studies… At least to the subjects she was fascinated by. In the same letter, Schuyler reminded her “drawing is also a valuable accomplishment” and encouraged her to continue that line of study; perhaps suggesting it was a subject she did not take much interest in.

Caty’s education marked her as the child of a wealthy family. From music and embroidery, to arithmetic and geography, Philip and Catharine Schuyler provided Caty with a sound education and encouraged her academic interests. At times, the Schuylers’ choice of subjects for Caty held to the conventions of the time period, but at other times their choices ignored popular suggestions for a young lady’s education.

Education philosopher Benjamin Rush’s Thoughts upon female education, published in 1787, could have provided the Schuylers with a guide for Caty’s education. Rush touted writing and reading the English language and arithmetic as essential for a young lady to learn so she could impart that knowledge to her own children, and so she could bookkeep and run a household should her husband die. He believed that the study of geography and history made a woman an “agreeable companion for a sensible man” and qualified her for a “general intercourse” with the wider world. While her parents educated Caty in subjects Rush emphasized as essential, they also deviated from Rush’s philosophy.

Portrait of Caty Schuyler above pianoforte in Best Parlor
of Schuyler Mansion; 2020.

Rush believed American women had no use for the French language; Frenchmen should learn English if they wished to converse with American ladies, and the best of French literature was translated into English. Rush insisted that women should not learn to play any instruments, as mastering them required too much time better devoted to other subjects and the instruments took up too much space in the house. He even stated women shouldn’t learn drawing, as he believed there was no use for it in her future as a wife and mother.

Despite Rush’s philosophies, Caty learned French, the pianoforte, and drawing––subjects seen as unnecessary for future Republican Mothers, but essential for the upper class, accomplished woman her parents wanted her to be. Her parents also knew the better Caty’s education, the better her choices of a husband would be, too. With each subject she studied, Caty was prepared to take part in the changing nation around her.

To see tambour needlework embroidery in action, click here.

To see a video about dancing a minuet, click here.

The receipts referenced are part of the NYPL’s Philip Schuyler Papers.