Julia Gardiner Tyler

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White House portrait

Julia Gardiner Tyler (July 23, 1820 – July 10, 1889), second wife of John Tyler, was First Lady of the United States from June 26, 1844 to March 4, 1845.

Daughter of David Gardiner, New York State Senator, descendant of prominent and wealthy New York families, Julia was trained from earliest childhood for a life in society; she made her debut at 15.

A European tour with her family gave her new glimpses of social splendors. Late in 1842 the Gardiners went to Washington, D.C. for the winter social season, and Julia became the undisputed darling of the capital. Her beauty and her practiced charm attracted the most eminent men in the city, among them President Tyler, a widower since September.

Julia, her sister Margaret, and her father joined a Presidential excursion on the new steam frigate Princeton and David Gardiner lost his life in the explosion of a huge naval gun. Tyler comforted Julia in her grief and won her consent to a secret engagement, proposing in 1843 at the George Washington's Ball. The first President to marry in office took his vows at the Church of the Ascension in New York on June 26, 1844 in a ceremony presided over by the Right Reverend Benjamin Treadwell Onderdonk, Episcopal Bishop of New York. Julia's sister Margaret was the bridesmaid, and her brother Alexander was the best man.

The news was then broken to the American people, who greeted it with keen interest, much publicity, and some criticism about the couple's difference in age of 30 years. Tyler's oldest daughter, Mary, felt awkward having a stepmother five years younger than she was.

As the new Mrs. Tyler said herself, she "reigned" as First Lady for the last eight months of her husband's term. Wearing white satin or black lace to obey the conventions of mourning, she enjoyed her position immensely, and filled it with grace. For receptions she revived the formality of the Van Buren administration; she welcomed guests with plumes in her hair, attended by maids of honor dressed in white. She once declared, with truth: "Nothing appears to delight the President more than...to hear people sing my praises."

During Tyler's last month in office, she hosted a White House ball attracting more than 3,000 guests.

After the Tylers retired to their home at Sherwood Forest in Charles City County, Virginia, she bore him seven more children. (Tyler also had eight children with his first wife, Letitia). Julia Tyler acted as mistress of the plantation until the Civil War. After the Duchess of Sutherland called on American women to support the gradual abolition of slavery, Julia Tyler published a reply in the Southern Literary Messenger in 1853 branding Sutherland's call an unwarranted attempt to interfere in the affairs of the United States.

John Tyler died on January 18, 1862. As a refugee in New York, Julia Tyler devoted herself to volunteer work for the Confederacy. Its defeat found her impoverished. Not until 1958 would federal law provide automatic pensions for Presidential widows; but Congress in 1870 voted a pension for Mary Lincoln, and Julia Tyler used this precedent in seeking help. In December, 1880 Congress voted her $1,200 a year -- and after Garfield's assassination it passed bills to grant uniform amounts of $5,000 annually to Mrs. Garfield, Mrs. Lincoln, Mrs. Polk, and Mrs. Tyler.

Living out her last years comfortably in Richmond, Virginia, Julia died there on July 10, 1889, several weeks before her 69th birthday. She was buried there at her husband's side in Richmond's Hollywood Cemetery.