What if the First Lady Had a Baby

A composite paradigm of Robert, John, Alice, Letty and Lizzie Tyler during their White House tenure. (world wide web.carlanthonyonline.com)

She is one of the most obscure of First Ladies, her tenure as a presidential spouse among the briefest, lasting from the time her husband became the commencement Vice President to assume the presidency upon the decease of his predecessor in Apr of 1841 until her ain death just seventeen months later, in September of 1842.

A present but publicly inactive First Lady Letitia Tyler, painted past Lyle Tayson in 1979. (artworkoriginals)

The fact that she was unable to, in any mode, perform the public aspects of the Beginning Lady function and, in fact, was merely seen in public on 2 known occasions, stemmed from the reality that she had suffered a stroke that left her physically disabled with paralysis, though her cerebral functions of speaking, seeing and hearing were unharmed.

Letitia Tyler, however, holds an unusual tape among Offset Ladies, one involving the well-nigh important office of all to her, that of mother. She gave nascency to eight children, the greatest number of  any presidential spouse, a tape she shares with Lucy Hayes.

Only five of the Hayes children lived to adulthood only Mrs. Tyler, enjoyed seeing seven of her eight children live to adulthood, making her mother to more children while she was Get-go Lady than whatsoever other.

The only 1 of her eight children who died as a kid was the fifth 1 she gave birth to, Anne Contesse Tyler, born in April of 1825 and living only three months, into July of that year.

During the time she was Commencement Lady, all 7 of her children lived with her and the President in the White Firm, some for the entire duration of the presidency, others for periods of time.

Mary Tyler Jones's obituary. (findagrave.com)

Letitita'due south start child Mary, born in 1815, was already married and living in Williamsburg, Virginia with her married man Henry Lightfoot Jones.  Less than two weeks afterwards her begetter became president, Mary Jones turned 26 years erstwhile.

Records evidence that Mary Jones and her two sons John and Henry lived in the White House. Her tertiary son was born a year after her mother died. Mary Jones was 32 years old when she died suddenly in 1847, surviving her mother by but five years.

Letitia's second kid, Robert, born in 1816, lived for a long catamenia in the White House, serving as the President's private secretarial assistant and drawing a federal salary for a position that was federally appropriated.

Robert Tyler. (NFLL)

Robert Tyler played an important function for his father, becoming a political liaison for him to many national Democratic Party leaders in Congress equally well as state representatives of the political party from the northeastern states.

His presence, however, served an peculiarly important role in the life of the First Lady for it was his married woman Priscilla Tyler who served as the public hostess from Apr of 1841 until Apr of 1844.

Priscilla Cooper Tyler. (NFLL)

A former phase extra who had performed with her male parent, a famous tragedian Thomas Cooper, she had been born and raised in Pennsylvania but adapted chop-chop to the household customs of the Virginia plantation, acculturated by her mother in law. They came to the White House with their one year erstwhile daughter Mary and when Priscilla gave birth to a 2d girl in the the White House, the child was named for her grandmother, the Get-go Lady.

Robert Tyler'southward daughter Mary was honored with a children's costume party in the White House, attended by Dolley Madison, President Tyler and Priscilla Cooper Tyler, her mother. (NFLL)

Although two developed daughters moved into the White House with their mother, Letitia Tyler designated daughter-in-police Priscilla Tyler to act as the public presidential hostess, while she herself directed the purchasing and preparation of food too as entertaining in conjunction with the President's approval.

Robert and Priscilla Tyler decided to strike out on their own then he could begin developing his own political career. They relocated to Philadelphia in Apr of 1844.

Once the Civil War began, they placed their loyalties with the Confederacy, as did his begetter, and moved in Alabama. Although their first daughter Mary died at only iv years old, just two months subsequently her grandad's presidency concluded, Robert and Priscilla went on to accept vi more children. Robert Tyler died in 1877, Priscilla in 1889.

Her third child, son John Tyler, Jr. (he was technically the fifth John in the male person family line), had a less stable marriage.

John Tyler, Jr. (findafgrave.com)

At the fourth dimension his male parent was president, John, Jr. was estranged from his showtime and only wife Martha Rochelle. At that place is no documentation indicating that Rochelle Tyler e'er lived with her in-laws in Washington. John, Jr. fabricated the White House his home base but was oft traveling the state for long stretches of time and seems to have been his begetter's personal representative on his Virginia property and business matters, frequently in Richmond.

John Tyler, Jr. never formally divorced Martha Rochelle Tyler. They had three children, ane of whom was named for the Beginning Lady. This presidential son lived into his 75th yr, dying in 1896.

Too indelible a bad and estranged marriage was Letitia Tyler's 4th child, who was named for her but always known by the name of "Letty."

Built-in in 1821, Letty Tyler was married to seaman James Allen Semple. Blessedly, the president's son-in-law was away at body of water for about of the presidency and thus spared the household the apparently frequent and bitter arguments between the mismatched couple.

Letitia Tyler Semple at the time she served as Start Lady, (NFLL)

Letty Tyler Semple had moved into the White House with her male parent when he first took possession of information technology, merely evacuated in anger before his presidency ended when, as a widower, he eloped in June of 1844 with his second wife, the New York socialite Julia Gardiner.

Just i year older than her new stepmother, Letty Tyler Semple never reconciled herself to her begetter replacing her beloved mother. She vacated the Executive Mansion before August of 1844, when the new First Lady took, as she put it "quiet possession" of information technology.

Two years the inferior of Letty Tyler was her sister Lizzie Tyler. On several known occasions, both Letty and Lizzie served as social aides to Priscilla Tyler in welcoming guests at public social events in the White House.

William Waller, White House bridegroom. (Academy of Alcala)

Subsequently the hymeneals, she moved with her hubby William Nevilson Waller to a home in Williamsburg, Virginia merely was living in the White House when her starting time kid, William, was born in 1843.

Half dozen years after her mother died, Lizzie Tyler Waller had a second kid, a daughter, who she named in her honor of the Starting time Lady. Lizzie only lived seven years longer than her mother, dying suddenly in 1850.

Elizabeth "Lizzie" Tyler Waller. (University of Alcala)

Thus, the First Lady Letitia Tyler had three granddaughters all named for her.

Interestingly, while Letitia Tyler's grandson William Waller was built-in in the White House, he was married in the Amalgamated White House, in Richmond, Virginia and he married Jeanne Howell, the sis of the Confederate Starting time Lady.

There was then a four yr gap between Letitia Tyler's children. Subsequently her babe Anne had died, Mrs. Tyler gave nascence to another girl, Alice, in 1827.

The last child, her third son, was named Tazewell Tyler and was born in 1830.

Alice Tyler. (carlanthonyonline.com)

Little is known well-nigh the White Business firm life of these two youngest of Letitia Tyler's children, both of whom lived there from the first to the last day of their father's occupancy of it.

Alice Tyler was fourteen years one-time and Tazewell Tyler was only xi years onetime when their male parent became president and thus fifteen years old and twelve years quondam, respectively, when their mother died.

Tazewell Tyler some years after he was a teenage boy in the White Business firm. (individual collection)

Alice would go on to ally Henry Mandeville Denison, merely two years subsequently giving birth to her only child, a daughter, she died young, at historic period 27 years onetime, in 1854.

Tazewell as well married, to the onetime Nannie Bridges, living some xxx years after leaving the White House, divorced and dying  of alcoholism in California, in 1874. He had two children named Martha and James.

Letty Tyler Semple. (Virginia Historical Lodge)

For the 4 Tyler children who lived to meet the Ceremonious War, life changed radically. Their father the former President died, family property was seized by Union troops,  the siblings dispersed and new, sometimes uncertain relationships with their 7 much younger half-siblings, the children of John and Jullia Tyler.

Nevertheless, as family unit letters now largely preserved at the Swem Library at the College of William and Mary show, Letitia Tyler's children kept in shut bear upon through correspondence, looking later on each other'due south emotional if non always financial well-beingness until the number dwindled down to merely the 1 who lived into the 20th century.

In 1 of Letty Semple'south concluding letters, the sole surviving of Letitia Tyler's children bemoaned being alone without them. (individual collection).

Cleaved by her failed marriage, her bitter relationship with her stepmother who had rightfully carried the President's legacy past his death, her financial and professional struggles, Letty Tyler Semple establish herself returning to Washington, D.C. at the end of her life.

She lived there in what was called The Louise Home, an "old folks habitation" for indignant southern women funded past the millionaire W.W. Corcoran.

Every bit a one-time Starting time Lady herself, albeit for a cursory time, she was an honored guest on many occasions at the White Business firm, invited past several of her successors, most especially Ida McKinley who often sent the presidential railroad vehicle for Mrs. Semple to use.

Letitia Tyler's portrait. (WHHA)

She refused, however, to visit the Roosevelts considering of the renovation of the executive mansion, which she described as a "atrocious slaughterhouse" of the old house she had loved living in with her family.

In Mrs. Semple'due south small room at the Louisa Home, reporter Daisy Ayres noted an oil portrait hanging above the pall.

Information technology was of a First Lady long gone and long forgotten, but for the elderly woman the effigy in the painting that she looked at daily remained honey and important in the most personal mode possible, equally her mother.

Letitia Tyler Semple died three days before the new yr of 1908.

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Source: http://www.firstladies.org/blog/letitia-tyler-mother-to-the-most-children-living-in-the-white-house/