Eliza Hamilton Holly was born on November 20th, 1799, and she was the second daughter of Alexander Hamilton.
She was the seventh child of the family. Her mother Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton was a philanthropist and co-worker with Alexander Hamilton who was one of the founding fathers of the United States.
Alexander Hamilton:
Alexander Hamilton was born on 1755/1757 and died in 1804. He was a renowned and reputable man, as he was an American statesman. He was a multi-talented person as he was a scholar, military commander, politician, lawyer, economist, and banker all at the same time.
He was an influences of the constitution of his time and was considered a founding father of the US. In 1789, Hamilton was appointed as the secretary of the Treasury by the president of that time. Hamilton was also selected for the constitutional convention as he has given his services as an assemblyman.
Alexander Hamilton married the daughter of a General. He and his wife had eight children but often people get confused as two of the sons of Hamilton shared the same name. The first and the last son of Hamilton were named Philip (as his first son Philip died a year before the birth of the last son of Alexander Hamilton).
Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton:
As mentioned above, Eliza and her mother somewhat shared the name Elizabeth. Elizabeth Schuyler was born in the same year as her husband; 1757 and lived a long life of 97 years. Betsy and Eliza were the popular nicknames of Elizabeth.
She was a socialite as well as a humanitarian. She helped her husband a lot and defended his work in every possible way. She was deputy director of the first-ever orphanages in New York City and did a lot of work for people.
After offering her services for the private orphanage, she later became an active member of the Orphan Asylum Society. She is remembered as the earliest humanitarians’ of the American state.
The life of Elizabeth Schuyler after the death of her husband Alexander Hamilton was not an easy one, as she had to pay all the debts of Hamilton. She had to sell her house in a public auction. Later she bought the same house and sold it to build the Hamilton-Holly House.
The later life of Elizabeth was spent with her widowed daughter Eliza Hamilton Holly whom she left on her death.
Hamilton Family:
Hamilton family was a highly regarded family and is considered as a Scottish origin. The father of Eliza Hamilton Holly was the eminent and high-flying member of the Hamilton family.
The father and mother of Eliza Hamilton Holly was the prominent first generation of the Hamilton family and the family held strong up to five generations.
Eliza Hamilton Holly whereas produced no prodigy so, her generation was buried with her and there are no descendants.
Early Life:
Eliza Hamilton Holly was born in New York City. She shares her mother’s nickname which was Eliza. In her early days of life, she was a sick child and her parent had to take greater care of her as compared to her other siblings.
Eliza Hamilton was only four years old when she faced her father’s death along with her six siblings. But she and her mother Elizabeth Schuyler were not present at the funeral of her father Alexander Hamilton. All of her siblings stood behind each other on the death bed of Alexander Hamilton so that they can see their father in his last few moments.
Married Life and Family:
Eliza Hamilton married Sidney Augustus Holly when she was 26 years of age and he remained the spouse of Augustus Holly until his death.
Sidney Augustus Holly was born in 1802 and lived a life of 40 years and breathed his last on June 26th, 1842. He lived in New York City and was a merchant. Augustus Holly has eight siblings and was a child of David Holly.
Augustus Holly was a descendant of Stamford’s setters and he and his family had a reputable position. As his father was a great landlord of his times and he had a prominent business of both local and governmental setup.
Even after marriage, Eliza Hamilton lived with her mother, as she was close to her and loved her quite a lot. Elizabeth Schuyler held Eliza very dear to her as she said in her letters that Eliza was very much like her father and he could see her stepping in her father’s steps.
Later Eliza started living with his brother Alexander Hamilton Jr., his wife, her mother, and her husband Sidney Augustus Holly in a house that is now known as Hamilton-Holly House. This shows that she never wanted to part with her mother and lived with her even in the later parts of her life.
Later Life:
Eliza moved with her mother into the presidential house of James Monroe after she got widowed in 1842. But in 1848 she and her mother again changed their place and moved to Washington D.C. Their house entertained many guests as it was very close to the White House and in this way they had a busy life. Eliza Hamilton Holly even dined in the white house with her mother as a prestigious guest of president Millard Fillmore.
Eliza never left the side of her mother and took care of her until her mother breathed her last at the age of 97 in 1854. After the death of her beloved mother, Eliza started the unfinished work of her mother known as ‘Justice shall be done to the memory of my Hamilton’ which was probably the biography of her father Alexander Hamilton.
There is not much about the life of Eliza after the death of her mother. She died at the age of 60 on October 17th, 1859 in Washington D.C. Eliza never changed her place after her mother passed away. She and Sidney Augustus Holly left no ancestry.
Eliza Hamilton Holly was buried beside her brother and sister in the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery.