Alexander Hamilton’s parents called themselves husband and wife, but they were not married.
Alexander Hamilton’s parents called themselves husband and wife, but they were not married. Not to each other, that is. Hamilton’s mother Rachel Fawcett was married to a merchant named Johann Lavien, with whom she had a son. Only sixteen years old when she and Lavien married, she left him shortly after the birth of their son and moved to the island of Nevis, where she met and took up residence with James Hamilton. She had two sons with Hamilton before he abandoned the family when Rachel was 36 years old and Alexander was 10. Left to raise her sons as a single mother, Rachel made a modest living keeping a small store. In 1768, when Alexander was 13 years old, she contracted yellow fever and died at age 39. A local charity bought young Alexander clothes so he would have something to wear to his mother’s funeral. Then Lavien showed up and claimed Rachel’s meager estate for the child of their marriage, her illegitimate sons (Alexander and his brother) having no legal claim to it. So,...
