Rachel DONELSON

  General Notes:

Rachel Donelson Jackson

Wearing the white dress she had purchased for her husband's inaugural ceremonies in March 1829, Rachel Donelson Jackson was buried in the garden at The Hermitage, her home near Nashville, Tennessee, on Christmas Eve in 1828. Lines from her epitaph--"A being so gentle and so virtuous slander might wound, but could not dishonor"--reflected his bitterness at campaign slurs that seemed to precipitate her death.

Rachel Donelson was a child of the frontier. Born in Virginia, she journeyed to the Tennessee wilderness with her parents when only 12. At 17, while living in Kentucky, she married Lewis Robards, of a prominent Mercer County family. His unreasoning jealousy made it impossible for her to live with him; in 1790 they separated, and she heard that he was filing a petition for divorce.

Andrew Jackson married her in 1791; and after two happy years they learned to their dismay that Robards had not obtained a divorce, only permission to file for one. Now he brought suit on grounds of adultery. After the divorce was granted, the Jacksons quietly remarried in 1794. They had made an honest mistake, as friends well understood, but whispers of adultery and bigamy followed Rachel as Jackson's career advanced in both politics and war. He was quick to take offense at, and ready to avenge, any slight to her.

Scandal aside, Rachel's unpretentious kindness won the respect of all who knew her--including innumerable visitors who found a comfortable welcome at The Hermitage. Although the Jacksons never had children of their own, they gladly opened their home to the children of Rachel's many relatives. In 1809 they adopted a nephew and named him Andrew Jackson, Jr. They also reared other nephews; one, Andrew Jackson Donelson, eventually married his cousin Emily, one of Rachel's favorite nieces.

When Jackson was elected President, he planned to have young Donelson for private secretary, with Emily as company for Rachel. After losing his beloved wife he asked Emily to serve as his hostess.

Though only 21 when she entered the White House, she skillfully cared for her uncle, her husband, four children (three born at the mansion), many visiting relatives, and official guests. Praised by contemporaries for her wonderful tact, she had the courage to differ with the President on issues of principle. Frail throughout her lifetime, Emily died of tuberculosis in 1836.

During the last months of the administration, Sarah Yorke Jackson, wife of Andrew Jackson, Jr., presided at the mansion in her stead.



Rachel Robards was born in Halifax County, Virginia, on June 15, 1767. She moved with her family to Tennessee and Kentucky as a child. At age seventeen she married Lewis Robards, an intensely jealous husband who sent her to live with her family in Nashville while he was away on navy duty. While living with her widowed mother in Nashville, she fell in love with a handsome stranger who took lodging at her mother's inn. When her husband returned from duty, she accompanied him back to Kentucky, miserably in love with Jackson. Jackson, fearing for her safety, raced to Kentucky to rescue her. Robards then obtained permission from the state legislature to divorce Rachel. Mistaking this preliminary action as a final divorce, Jackson married Rachel in 1791. But the writ of permission was not a divorce—something which lawyer Jackson should have known, and Rachel's legal husband then sued for divorce on grounds of adultery. The final decree was issued in September 1793 and Jackson remarried Rachel in 1794.

Rachel Jackson
For the rest of her life, Rachel suffered from this charge of adultery. A vivacious young woman when Jackson first met her, she became a dowdy and matronly lady in her middle age, taken to smoking corncob pipes. With Jackson, a raise of her eyebrow or a stern look always calmed him down and curbed his often violent temper. Unable to have children of their own, the couple adopted Rachel's twin nephew in 1810. They raised him as their own, naming him Andrew Jackson, Jr. Rachel died suddenly on December 22, 1828, partly as a result, Jackson always claimed, of the political attacks that accused her of being a prostitute and adulterous woman.

Although Rachel Jackson never lived in the White House or served officially as First Lady, her spirit dominated the executive mansion. After her death and just weeks before Jackson's inauguration, Jackson invited Rachel's niece, Emily Donelson, to come to the White House to fill the role of hostess. She was married to Jackson's nephew and private secretary, Andrew Jackson Donelson. Only twenty-one at the time, western in appearance, and with little formal education, Emily brought a youthful enthusiasm into the White House. Unfortunately, as did so many others within the President's circle, Emily fell victim to the Peggy Eaton affair (see Domestic Affairs section). Following the advice of the cabinet wives, Emily shunned Peggy Eaton. This enraged Jackson, who valued personal loyalty above all else, and he sent the Donelson family back to Tennessee. To rub salt into the wound, Jackson then pointedly made Peggy Eaton the official hostess at the White House; she served in this capacity until she left Washington, D.C., with her husband in 1834 when he became governor of the Florida Territory.

Rachel married Andrew JACKSON, son of Andrew Sr. JACKSON and Elizabeth HUTCHINSON. (Andrew JACKSON was born on 15 Mar 1767 and died on 8 Jun 1845.)