Holly, Eliza Hamilton, 1799-1859
Eliza Hamilton Holly (November 20, 1799 – October 17, 1859) was the seventh child and second daughter of Alexander Hamilton, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, and his wife, Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton.[1] Eliza was born in New York City, New York on November 20, 1799 to Alexander Hamilton and Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton.[2] Unlike her mother (who was called Eliza as a nickname), her name was Eliza, not Elizabeth; the first name Eliza was given on her baptismal and marriage records Eliza married Sidney Augustus Holly on July 19, 1825, and they remained married until his death in 1842.[3][8] Holly, a merchant in New York City, was one of eight children of David Holly (1768–1843), a large land owner in Stamford, Connecticut.[9] Holly's family, descended from one of Stamford's earliest settlers in 1642, was prominent in business and local government.[9]
Prior to 1833, Eliza and her husband lived at The Grange (now the Hamilton Grange National Memorial) with her mother, Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton. From 1833 to 1842, Eliza and Sidney Holly continued to live with her mother in an East Village, Manhattan townhouse at 4 St. Mark's Place (now known as the Hamilton-Holly House), together with Eliza's brother Alexander Hamilton Jr. and his wife Eliza P. Knox Hamilton. Alexander Jr. had purchased the townhouse for their mother in 1833, using proceeds from the sale of The Grange.
In 1836-7, Eliza and Holly travelled with Elizabeth on an execurion through the west to visit William S. Hamilton Eliza was widowed on June 26, 1842.[13] That year, she moved with her mother to 63 Prince Street in Lower Manhattan,[8] which had previously been the home of President James Monroe and Samuel L. Gouverneur.
In 1848, she and her mother moved to Washington, D.C. They lived near the White House in a house on H Street, where they entertained many guests. On New Year's Day of 1853 alone, their visitors included General Winfield Scott, New York Senator William H. Seward, and President Millard Fillmore. A month after their first meeting with President Fillmore in their house, Eliza and her mother dined at the White House with Fillmore and his wife.[1]
Eliza continued to care for her mother until 1854, when her mother died at age 97.[1] After her mother's death, it is believed possible that Eliza influenced or expedited the creation of the biography of her father by her brother John Church Hamilton, as she chastised him for his overdue writing based upon their mother's imperative that "Justice shall be done to the memory of my Hamilton."[1][14]
Eliza Hamilton Holly died in Washington, D.C. on October 17, 1859 due to unknown causes. It is theorized she died to an unknown sickness, in the memoirs of her friend, Marian Gouverneur, it says that she had been sick for at least a month before her death, which was likely the cause.[15] She and her husband left no descendants.[13] She was buried in Westchester County, New York at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, where her sister Angelica Hamilton had been buried two years earlier; in 1878, their brother James Alexander Hamilton was also buried there.
