President John Tyler's Second Marriage

First U.S. Chief Executive to Wed While in Office

Oct 11, 2009

On June 26,1844 President John Tyler married Julia Gardiner. He was 54, she was 24. Tyler was the first American president to wed while in office.

Tyler's second wedding ceremony did not take place in the White House, however. Instead, the subdued ceremony was held at New York's Church of the Ascension, an Episcopal church. The Right Rev. Benjamin T. Onderdonk, bishop of the Episcopal Church of New York, and the Reverend Dr. Gregory Thurston Bedell, rector of the church, presided. Tyler had been a widower since September 1842.

Julia was said to be a beauty with dark hair. She was about 5' 3" tall. She had many suitors. Tyler proposed to her three times before she accepted. One contemporary writer speculated that in the refusals Julia was only prolonging the inevitable.

Guests at the Subdued Wedding

Besides the bride and the groom, among others at the ceremony were the bride's mother Juliana, sister Margaret,and brothers David and Alexander. Alexander gave her away. Present too were the president's son John; Robert Tantoul, a Boston politician; Charles A. Wickliffe, postmaster of the United States, his wife, and their daughters Nannie and Mary; Caroline Legare, daughter of the late Huge S. Legare, secretary of state in Tyler's administration; and John Lorimer Graham, postmaster of New York, and his wife.

Tyler and the Gardiners were careful to keep the wedding secret. First, the differences in age between the bride and the groom apparently scandalized some in Washington. But the more important reason for the lack of fanfare was that only four months before the bride's father David and six others had died in an accident on February 18, 1844. As a 10 – ton gun newly purchased by the U. S. Navy was being demonstrated on the deck of the USS Princeton, it misfired killing a number of spectators. Tyler, Julia and her sister were onboard but apparently below deck at the time of the accident.

Tyler Arrives in New York for Wedding

The day before the wedding, Tyler left Washington about 6 a. m. aboard a steamer, arriving in New York around 10:30 p. m. He and his small entourage stayed the night at Howard's Hotel, where the hotel staff was told to keep mum and "all thre servants locked up" to keep them from talking.

The morning of the wedding, a carriage pulled by four horses took the president to the home of the bride's mother. Tyler went inside and came out with his intended, who was wearing a white wedding dress with a sheer veil flowing from a flowery wreath on her head.

Festivities After the Ceremony

After the ceremony, five carriages carying guests went back to the Gardiner's New York home for a meal. Then the guests toured New York Harbor aboard a ferry with a band onboard. The New York Herald of June 24, 1844 lists 13 additional guests aboard the ferry who may or may not have attended the wedding, as ithe reporting of this point is unclear. Before the ferry headed to Jersey City, the wedding party was pared down to the newlyweds, the President's son John, the bride's sister, and three servants, according to the book White House Weddings.

From New Jersey the celebrants took a train to Philadelphia, where the president's son Robert and his wife Priscilla joined the group for a meal at Hartwell's Hotel. They ate pigeons, woodcock, chicken salad and oysters. Served for breakfast the next morning were "omelets, spring chicken, pigeons, woodcock, ham and eggs, salmon, beefsteaks, kidneys, boiled eggs and young duck," according to White House Weddings, quoting the New York Herald. Following all this, President and Mrs. Tyler went to Sherwood Forest, his Virginia estate.

In the White House

Two days later the couple were back at the White House where they held a reception for cabinet members and ambassadors. Dolley Madison, 76, widow of former president James Madison was one of the guests.

Julia Tyler was First Lady for only eight months. She introducted the tradition of playing "Hail to the Chief" whenever the President entered the room for a state function. After President Tyler left the White House, he and his bride lived at Sherwood Forest. Their marriage lasted 17 years until he died at 72. They had seven children. He and his first wife Letitia had had eight children, seven of them surviving to adulthood.

The copyright of the article President John Tyler's Second Marriage in Politicians is owned by Linda N. Riggins. Permission to republish President John Tyler's Second Marriage in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.