Church, Philip Schuyler, 1778-1861

Historical Note: : Son of John Barker Church and Angelica Schuyler Church; founder of Angelica, New York, and county judge of Allegany County, New York.

Philip Schuyler Church (April 14, 1778 – January 1, 1861) was an American judge, landowner, and founder of the town of Angelica, New York.[1] From 1798 to 1800, during the Quasi-War with France, he was a captain in the U.S. Army and aide-de-camp to Alexander Hamilton, his uncle, who was then Major General of the Army. Church was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on April 14, 1778. He was the oldest child of Angelica Schuyler Church and John Barker Church, a British-born merchant and member of Parliament.

As a small child, he moved with his family from New York to Paris, where he and his mother were painted together by John Trumbull. After 18 months, the Church family moved to London, and Philip was educated for six years at Eton College. He began the study of law at the Middle Temple before returning to New York in 1797.[1]

In New York, he continued his law studies, working in the offices of Nathaniel Pendleton. He also served as a U.S. Army captain and was appointed aide-de-camp to Alexander Hamilton from 1798 to 1800, while Hamilton was Major General and Inspector General of the Army during the Quasi-War with France.[1][2] His mother, Angelica, was the sister of Hamilton's wife Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton.

Prior to his admission to practice law in New York, Church served as second to his cousin Philip Hamilton in his fatal 1801 duel with George Eacker.[1] In May 1800, at the age of 22, Church became a major landowner in western New York, with a tract of 100,000 acres (40,000 ha) of land in present-day Allegany County and Genesee County, New York that had been a portion of the Phelps and Gorham Purchase.[1] Church was still under 30 when he was appointed the first Judge of the New York County Court for Allegany County, in 1807.

He died in Angelica on January 7, 1861, at the age of 82. On February 4, 1805, Church married Anna Matilda Stewart (1786–1865), the daughter of General Walter Stewart.[3][6] Soon after their wedding in Philadelphia, the two settled in the village of Angelica, where a small whitewashed house (locally known as the "White House") had already been built for the couple on the banks of the Genesee River.[7]

In 1806, Angelica and John Barker Church began construction on a thirty-room mansion nearby, called Belvidere, which still stands as a privately owned home on the banks of the Genesee in Belmont, New York, near the town of Angelica.[7] Although they had intended to make it their summer home, it instead became the residence of Philip and Anna Church when it was partially completed in 1810.[7]