Maria Reynolds (née Lewis; March 30, 1768 – March 25, 1828) was the wife of James Reynolds, and was
Alexander Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755 or 1757July 12, 1804) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first United States secretary of the treasury from 1789 to 1795.
Born out of wedlock in Charlest ...
's mistress between 1791 and 1792. She became the object of much scrutiny after the release of the
Reynolds Pamphlet and central in
America's first political sex scandal.
Early life
Maria Reynolds, born as "Maria Lewis," was born in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
on March 30, 1768, the daughter of Susanna Van Der Burgh and her second husband, Richard Lewis. She had six half-siblings, including Col. Lewis DuBois and Captain Henry DuBois, and five full siblings, at least two of whom (older sisters named Susannah and Sarah) lived to adulthood.
The Lewises do not appear to have been well-off: Richard Lewis was a merchant and/or laborer, and could not sign his name.
Susanna Van Der Burgh Lewis, however, could write at least her name, and Maria Lewis grew up literate, though largely uneducated. On July 28, 1783, when she was 15, Maria Lewis married James Reynolds.
Reynolds had served in the
Revolutionary War in the commissary department, and was older than Maria by at least several years. After the war, he tried frequently to claim
damages and obtain reimbursement from the government. Maria had one child with Reynolds, a daughter named Susan, born August 18, 1785, later baptized in October.
The Hamilton affair
At some point before 1791, James Reynolds moved with Maria and their daughter from New York to
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
. It was there in summer 1791 that 23-year-old Maria visited 34-year-old Hamilton at his Philadelphia residence and asked for help, claiming her abusive husband had abandoned her. Due to Hamilton's political office, he could very easily help her move back to New York City. Hamilton organized a meeting for later that evening to give Maria the money. Once Hamilton arrived at the
boarding house where Maria was lodging, she brought him upstairs and led him into her bedroom, where he recounts that "Some conversation ensued from which it was quickly apparent that other than