"exceedingly disagreeable to me:" Angelica Schuyler's Elopement

 by Heather Damia 

Portrait miniature of John Barker Church
(1748-181) by an unnamed artist. 

On the 23^rd of June, 1777, Angelica Schuyler married John Barker Church. The marriage drew outrage from Angelica’s parents, Philip and Catharine Schuyler, who had not given their permission for the union, and the elopement sparked a dramatic conflict involving three generations of the family. Throughout days of heated arguments, cold disregard, and threats of disinheriting, Angelica and her parents almost never spoke face-to-face. Negotiations happened largely through Angelica’s grandparents, and nearly all direct communication between the Schuylers and their daughter happened through letters. The eldest Schuyler daughter was the first to marry, and she set a precedent for many of her younger siblings, three of whom followed her example in ignoring their parents’ wishes regarding their romantic lives.

John Barker Church was certainly not an ideal suitor for a daughter of one of the most important families in Albany. At the time, the Englishman was in debt, and worked as an auditor for the Continental Army under the alias “John Carter.” Because he was known in New York under this false identity, rather than under his true name, John was very secretive with details regarding his background, his family, and his past. Specific information about his family or connections back in England ran the threat of revealing the falsehood of the “John Carter” identity, so he was limited in what he could reveal without causing issues for himself with both his family and his new acquaintances. Shortly after the elopemnet, Philip Schuyler aired his frustrations in a letter to William Duer, a friend who was also involved in the ongoing revolution. Philip cited his lack of knowledge regarding the suitor’s background as a major objection to the marriage, and possibly the primary reason he was opposed to it: “Carter & my oldest daughter ran off and married on the 23^rd inst., unacquainted with his family, his connections and situation in life, the match was exceedingly disagreeable to me and I had signified it to him.” [1] While John’s true identity was eventually revealed to his in-laws, they continue to refer to him as “Carter” in letters for quite some time, so it is unclear when his real name was made known to them. 

Not much is definitively known regarding the courtship of John Barker Church and Angelica Schuyler. They likely met in 1776, perhaps when “John Carter” was part of a group selected to audit the accounts of the Northern Department, which was under Philip Schuyler’s command as a major general, but the details of their first meeting and subsequent relationship are few and far between. It appears that prior to the elopement, Angelica and John’s relationship wasn’t a secret romance. Philip’s inclination to “signify” his disapproval of the match to John hints at the Schuylers’ awareness of Angelica and John’s courtship. This may imply that the young couple asked for permission to marry—and were denied. The lack of permission did not deter them. They eloped on June 23^rd, 1777, when John was 28 years of age, and Angelica was 21. This development came at a particularly bad time for Philip, who had recently lost the election for governor, and who was struggling both militarily and politically. His letter to Duer also features extensive complaints about the state of politics at the time, and frustration with his loss, which he felt was unjust. The elopement was yet another unpleasant surprise to return home to.

Angelica Schuyler Church circa 1780s,
attributed to Richard Cosway.

Naturally, Angelica’s parents reacted rather poorly to the marriage. Their objections were so strong that it seems they cast out their own daughter in anger. At the very least, they made her feel unwelcome enough that she, along with her husband, left the house to find another place to stay. The newlyweds sought the aid of Angelica’s maternal grandfather, Johannes van Rensselaer, who lived across the Hudson River from Schuyler Mansion at Fort Crailo in “Greenbush” (current day Rensselaer) with his wife, Catharine’s stepmother. In a letter to Walter Livingston dated to July 2^nd, John explained: “we stopped at GreenBush on Thursday Afternoon, where we were received by the amiable and venerable Proprietors with the Greatest Friendship and cordiality and instantly heard Promises of all their influence being exerted in our favor.” [2] Their hosts were very generous, and their treatment of the young couple was “beyond description charming and affectionate”—a stark contrast to the coldness of Philip and Catharine Schuyler.

The van Rensselaers quickly made good on their promise to help the new Mr. and Mrs. Church. In the same letter, John detailed days worth of peacemaking attempts on the part of Angelica’s grandfather and his wife. Their first attempt to encourage reconciliation was to pass along a letter from Angelica and her husband to Philip and Catharine, who were residing at their home in Saratoga at the time. John wrote: “The General and Mrs S had not arrived here and Mrs. Rennsillear desired the major to go with our Letter to Saratoga. Next morning; he met them at Stillwater coming down on Friday, they took the letter and sent him on…” This effort to connect with Angelica’s parents seems to have been in vain, however. Philip and Catharine returned from Albany and took up residence across the river at Schuyler Mansion that very afternoon, but the letter received no response, either that day or the next. Initial attempts at reconciliation were met with silence. 

A 20th century postcard depicting Fort Crailo.
This was Catharine Van Rensselaer Schuyler’s
childhood home and the location at which
Angelica Schuyler Church and her husband,
John Barker Church, took refuge after they
were exiled for their elopement. 

The slight did not go unnoticed. While Mrs. van Rensselaer encouraged her husband to visit the Schuylers to talk and “make Peace,” he was less willing to extend the olive branch. He believed that “it was his Daughter’s Duty to come to him,” and refused to send for her on the grounds that “her Duty ought to bring her [there] without sending.” Eventually, van Rensselaer yielded to his wife’s wishes, and sent a letter to his daughter and son-in-law inviting them to dinner at his home. After sending this message, he suggested that Angelica and John spend dinner time in Albany rather than with them at the house in Rensselaer—a request that John interpreted as a suggestion to make themselves scarce while Angelica’s parents were visiting in order to avoid further conflict between them. More letters were exchanged to negotiate the time of the meeting, and the Schuylers agreed to visit, but the visit never actually took place. By 8 o’clock that evening, the Schuylers still had not arrived, and the Churches decided to return to Crailo. As they approached the ferry from Albany back across the river, they caught sight of the Schuylers, also seemingly on their way to the very same ferry. Upon seeing their daughter and son-in-law, Philip and Catharine turned back and returned home without ever going to Crailo.

Portrait of Philip Schuyler, Angelica Schuyler
Church’s father, from 1792 by artist John Trumbull.

They tried again on Monday—the Churches once again fled into Albany to leave a clear path for the Schuylers to visit Crailo, and this time, the meeting actually occurred. Unfortunately, John’s letter described it as a very tense exchange:

[…] the General scarcely spoke a dozen Words all the Time, Mrs S was in almost violent Passion and said all that Rage of Resentment could inspire…she exasperated [van Rensselaer], and he told her that he didn’t know who she took after, he was sure not after her Father and Mother…and that he was convinced I would make his child an affectionate Husband, that they might do as they please, but if they would not be reconciled to us, he would look upon us as his Children and that we should stay at his House…

An outburst from Mrs. Schuyler was met with a sharp rebuke from her father: a threat to “look upon [the Churches] as his Children,” possibly suggesting that Catharine’s inheritance could be given to her estranged daughter in her stead. The Schuylers insisted that Angelica and her husband should have talked to them when they encountered one another on Sunday, and should have written to them again, but the van Rensselaers argued that the young couple could not be expected to send more letters when their first had been ignored. The negotiations were ultimately concluded when the Schuylers finally agreed to respond to any messages the Churches sent. They did as they had promised, and while John described their responses as cold, they did agree to have their daughter and son-in-law for a visit at Schuyler Mansion.

John described the Schuylers as treating him and his wife “as cooly as their letter promised.” He presented a rather dramatic and emotional meeting, in which he begged Catharine to accept them back into the family, and implored Philip to “forget what was past.” From Philip’s point of view, however, this meeting seemed to have been largely a formality. Philip’s letter to William Duer stated: “as there is no untying this gordian knot I took what I hope you will think the prudent part: I frowned, I made them humble themselves forgave and called them home.” Philip described the meeting as something of a power play—an assertion of authority over his daughter and son-in-law to make them feel as though they must “humble themselves” to earn his approval. Despite this show of authority, it seems his mind was settled on forgiveness before the Churches arrived and made their declarations. Philip’s conversation with his father-in-law and the negotiations via letters were seemingly enough to settle him on this course, but the conversation allowed him to set himself in a position of power over the man who ran off with his daughter, promising to “take the Freedom of giving [John] advice when he thought [he] stood in need of it with the Candor of a Parent…” John, of course, said what he knew would appease Philip: “I thanked him and told him I should be much obliged to him for it and would always pay a deference to it…” John and Angelica continued to feel unwelcome and unforgiven, believing that the Schuylers had only made peace out of “Fear of disobliging Mr R if they continue their Coldness”, but Philip, at least, claimed to have moved on and accepted the situation. 

Portrait of Angelic Schuyler Church painted circa 1785,
by artist John Trumbull. The image shows Angelica in a
peach colored dress with one of her children and a woman
who is most likely a maid or family member.

Letters were the main mode of communication in the 18th century, and enduring this
upheaval in the Schuyler family was no exception. Much of the negotiations conducted regarding the marriage occurred through letters, but, unfortunately, not all of the letters seemed to have survived to the present day. The two letters cited in this post provide a different—but still valuable—perspective, as they tell us how the men involved perceived the events. As both men wrote to someone removed from the situation, it’s possible they were more honest about their feelings in these letters than they might have been in their letters to one of the people involved in the whole affair. However, it remains unclear what the Churches and Schuylers actually said to one another in these messages back and forth across the river. What justifications might Angelica and her husband have given for their actions? Did they beg forgiveness, express regret? Were the Schuylers truly as frigid as John described them to be? The letters so central to the events of this Schuyler family story cannot provide us with intimate knowledge of how the people involved actually addressed one another. The most glaring absence is the lack of sources directly from the women: the daughter who eloped and the mother driven to “a most violent Passion” by the betrayal. The women’s reactions are described by John—“Angelica is much distressed”—but their own thoughts are notably absent in the narrative. The exact thoughts, feelings, and details surrounding the elopement may remain a mystery, but through the two different accounts, we’re at least able to reconstruct the bare bones of this dramatic chapter in the Schuyler family story. 

 

[1] Letter from Philip Schuyler to William Duer from July 3-5, 1777, in the New York Public Library Schuyler Papers. 

[2] Letter from John Barker Church to Walter Livingston from July 2, 1777.