At the metropolitan museum journal. She has her phd in art history at theu and volunteers mansion in new york and we will find out about that connection and the book the remarkable rise of eliza jumel a story of marriage and money in the early republic. Will be on sale afterwards. It is my pleasure to introduce margaret oppenheimer. Margaret thank you very much. On wednesday, july third, 1833, a distinguished new yorker and a former mayor of new yorker wrote a note in his diary. The celebrated colonel byrd was married on monday evening. The choice of at because was interesting. Not distinguish but celebrated. Celebrity have the same connotation it has today. Someone who was known to the public but not always with a mixed approval. Today, on going to talk about how alive the and aaron became public figures, why they married, and what happened after these celebrities joined hands. Ladies first. Here, we see allies are eliza on your right. She is painted here about a year before her marriage next to a picture of aaron burr six months after the ceremony. Betsy in born providence, rhode island in april 1775, 2. 5 weeks before the battle of lexington marked the outbreak of the revolutionary war. There was nothing in her beginning to suggest her name would one day be known about america around america. She was born in indescribable poverty. By the time she was seven years in a brothelliving with her mother. Older, she a little stayed twice in the workhouse of providence won her mother was unable to take care of her. When she was only 10 years old, the overseers of the poor down her out as an indentured servant , meaning from the age of 10, she would be living and working in a strangers home. This was not a promising beginning but the young betsy bowen was a survivor. She reinvented herself. She got herself to new york city and adopted a more fashionable name. She called herself eliza. She also worked at least briefly as an extra in the theater in the park theater on par growth park row. She met and married a wealthy french merchant named stephen juvenile jumel. This sounds easy but it was not in this day. Without financial assets, without prominent family connections to offer. This marriage vaulted her into the uppermiddleclass. Stephen lived in lower manhattan. At one point offbroadway. They also acquired a Country Estate 9. 5 miles north of the city. Today, it is washington heights. Country seat they acquired. Historic house museum well worth visiting. The jumels purchase Property Three blocks south of wall street. They paid about 14,000, be envious. This is there broadway frontage. The building on the right is there broadway frontage in 1848. They owned about 3. 5 times this much around the corner. At the fall of napoleon the jumels spent some time in france. Is where they lived for several years, one of pariss most elegant addresses. Eliza assembled an art collection. She turned herself into a connoisseur. This was the largest collection assembled by a private citizens of the United States up to that time. She had 242 european paintings. She also took great pride in having contact at the court of louis the 18th, would she would later exaggerate to inflate her social status. Unfortunately, their time in france ended with the panic of 1825, which threatened her and her husbands security. Put their country home in new possibly atd trust her urging. That meant it would be hers for life free to manage as she wish and safe from his creditors. Predeceased her, she would not have to worry about spending her widowhood in poverty. Ensured her financial security. 1826, she returned to the United States before her husband. She used a power of attorney he had given her to put almost all of the remaining real estate, including those broadway and liberty street buildings, in trusts to herself for life. She transmuted herself into something very rare, a married woman who was also a landed proprietor in her own right. Of 67. Died at the age , turning herater into a wealthy wife into an even wealthier window. But, she was celebrity. Until quite late in her life, people always remembered that she wasnt for the manor born. Word had gotten around about how she transferred her and her husbands property into her own name and most people at least most men disapproved. She remained an outsider and was not a member of new yorks elite. In contrast, her soontobe husband aaron burr was born to the social status she only dreamed of entering. President of the college of new jersey, todays princeton, which aaron also attended. On his mothers side, he was the grandson of the famous cleric jonathan edwards, who wrote the sermon sinners in the hands of an angry god. He served quite bravely for five years in the war of independence. Here is a scene from the battle of quebec in which he served. After the war, he trained as a lawyer. In the new York State Assembly and served a term as new York Attorney general. He also served a term in the u. S. Senate, beating out Alexander Hamiltons fatherinlaw. 1800, when Thomas Jefferson was elected president of the United States, aaron burr became Vice President. Here he is during his time in office. In spite of his fine beginnings, by the time of his marriage to eliza, he was celebrated, even notorious, rather than distinguished. Trouble began in 1800 41 he ran for governor of new york. He was defeated in part because of slurs about his characters disseminated by his political rival, Alexander Hamilton. He lost. The election, hamilton said something derogatory about aaron burr at a private dinner party. Aaronback to erin burr and you all know what happened. Challenged hamilton to a duel. They fought on the dueling grounds across the river. Burr shot hamilton in the abdomen. Dammartin died the next day. Burrs reputation never recovered. Between 1804 and 1807, he made a quasilegal attempt to seize spanish lands of mexico and what is now the southern United States. This resulted in a trial for high treason by the u. S. Supreme court. He was acquitted. Jefferson and his second term as r, whoent was against bur he saw as a political rival. Further attempts at prosecution more likely or likely. Fled to europe. When he came back, he slipped into the country under a false name. To theely, he returned practice of law in new york city and that is what he was doing in 1833, the year of his marriage to eliza jumel. Remains, what brought these two celebrities together . The undoubted, attraction was elizas money. In many a brilliant man ways. He was a genius at seizing opportunities but a compulsive debtor, totally unable to save money for tomorrow. Records ofte a few the new york courts that have not previously been examined in literature and they show him time after time promising to pay money back and defaulting. Example, i found five cases between 1819 and 1829 in which , given arrowed money promissory note saying he would pay in a few months, and then one then was unable to pay. Then in 1833, two months before his marriage to eliza jumel, he had to find a new place to live because he was addicted at his lodgings for nonpayment of rent. Evicted at his lodgings for nonpayment of rent. Here, i have circled the address where he lived. These cases are only the ones that made it into court. There must have been far more instances when he borrowed money, didnt return it, and the lender wrote it off as a bad debt. Say i defense, i will think he typically intended to pay back the money he borrowed but was simply unable to control his spending. The most telling argument in support of this is something that occurred three months after his marriage to eliza jumel. Burr took the risk of conducting a deal that was highly questionable ethically because it would provide him with a regular income of 500 twice yearly for the rest of his life. Immediately did himself out this valuable annuity. He used the agreement as fromity to get advances the future chase manhattan bank. Two of his received promised 500 payments when he was so overdrawn on his account that the Manhattan Company seized ownership of the bond he had given as security so he wouldnt be able to claim any more of these payments which otherwise would have been his for life. He squanderedet in perspective, as late as 1850, a workingclass family of four could live in new york city for 600 a year. Seem to be able to husband money in a matter the cost. A marriage to eliza jumel would give him a big pot of money to spend. Eliza had motivations for the marriage. On the one hand, she would soon have to begin settling her first husbands estate. Burr could help her protect her assets. But the Main Attraction of the marriage for her was the opportunity to enter Social Circles that have been previously closed to her. Burr still had enough friends that she could anticipate this marriage would pry open social doors. Rr was a very charming man. For women who had the struggle for social acceptance come it must have been very flattering to have the courtship of a man who had held this countrys second highest office. Both parties had something to gain from the union and they entered it willingly. Married july 1, 1833 in the s mansionor of jumel in washington heights. She was 68. He was 77. How long do you think this marriage lasted . [laughter] margaret any guesses . Your optimistic. July 1, 1833. They were separated by the end of september. November well, by the end of september, aaron burr left the mansion. I november, they were separated for good and a year after the 1834, elizajuly 11, jumel filed for divorce. She filed on the 30th ruinousary of burrs duel with hamilton. [laughter] host well, what went wrong . [indiscernible] margaret it seemed a promising marriage on the surface. As to what went wrong, the closest indicator comes from an juneent that occurred in 1834 and month before she filed for divorce. Was out and about in manhattan and she saw william dunlap. Here he is. He had been the manager of the park theater where she had worked as a next her 20 years as a next her 20 years an extra 20 years before. Dunlap records this in his diary. And she said burr i dont see him anymore. My property00 of and spent it away. I have a new carriage and a pair of horses. Was appalled at her frankness. Int confidence can be placed the words of such a woman is hard to say, he said in his diary. Woman to be critical of her husband to a near acquaintance just wasnt done in dunlaps Social Circle. If we are going to be critical of behavior here, burr was far worse. To put the 13,000 he had spent in perspective, that some has the buying power of 378,000 today. He just went through it in a matter of three months with nothing to show for it. Had 13,000 jumel to spend a few years later. She used it to buy 217 acres of land in saratoga springs, which she rented to farmers, assuring herself of a steady income. Part 13,000 investment was worth about 400,000. Here, you see the land she owned. They were ultimately sold 15 years after her death. Fact,s an interesting notice the man in charge of the sale is a man named philo t. Ruggles. 40 years before, he was a young master in chancery. He was assigned to collect the burrence in the jumel divorce. New york can be a very small town. Itself, spending patterns. Dominant Financial Strategy was by and hold. Burrs was borrow and spend. When eliza jumel filed for divorce, she obtained an immediate separation and divorce so you would not have access to her money during the Divorce Proceedings. Most of the bill of complaint in which she requested details the ways in which he had been running through her money. Strictly speaking, none of this financial business had any weight in the bill of divorce. In 1834 in new york state, there was only one ground for divorce. Anyone know what it was . Adultery. For jumel, burr was a ladies man. Year before his marriage to eliza jumel, he had been closely acquainted with a 25yearold woman and almost certainly have been her lover. Eliza jumel used this relationship against aaron burr. She arranged for a servant of to having seenfy him engage in adultery in a house in jersey city in august 1833 one year after his marriage to jumel. Hadosedly, the servant spied on them through windows. She had crawled up on a shed adjacent the back window of the pese, turned back a blind, eked through and saw the couple entangled. She had been married three times so she knew what she was seeing. I realize from the laughter you think this evidence sounds a bit implausible but i must point out in order to get in new york divorce at this time, you had to supply date, time, detailed circumstance of the adultery. That meant that virtually every divorce awarded in new york state relied on any factual evidence. For instance, i read another divorce case from the 1830s. Dressmaker according to her story, she had gone upstairs to her better and to get fabric. She opens the door to the room, she observes the couple in the act of adultery on the bed. At this point, most of us would mumble some sort of apology and back out. Not this witness. She testifies she went into the room, retrieves the fabric, and exited, having had ample time to assure herself of the identity of the couple on the bed. Ls case was better than most because she brought in other witnesses to testify that burr had a relationship before his marriage to jumel, including his former landlady. Burr for his part contested this divorce strenuously. The question is why bother . He was already separated. The marriage had fallen apart. What did he want . Just let it go. Jumels firstr is husbands estate had been settled yet. Once it was settled, if burr mel, all married to ju of that money would be his. In common law, man and wife or one person and that person was the husband. Burr could have spent every penny of that money without asking her permission. Retain hised to recently acquired money pot, he had to avoid a divorce. He gets his own paid witnesses. Jumel of committing adultery herself with eight different men no less. , presumably the site of some of these exotic trips. Wasreason for these charges a divorce petition would be dismissed if the person asking for the divorce was unfaithful. Burrs case turned out to be nowhere near as good. His accusations against her, which included one of adultery with her coachman, these were soon found to be totally implausible. Tonevertheless continued fight the Divorce Proceedings with at least 15 different delays and adjournments. Jumel was ultimately awarded the divorce on july 8, 1836, he appealed the decision immediately. Ended with hisly onth two months later september 14, 1836. In an indication of the typical state of his finances, his executors declined to serve. Jumel was left of the victor. Urr,won her dual with b unlike Alexander Hamilton but the marriage cost her dearly. He ran through massive amounts of money in a short time she could have used for her future security. She also had to pay for lawyers to secure the divorce. Thenl say that legal cost were just as bad as they are now. Cleverly, she managed to turn this disaster is marriage into an asset. It as a way to go in the social status she to gain the social status she desired for so long. By the 1850s, she was traveling in europe as madame burr. As to whether she could actually claim the title as opposed to being the divorced wife of burr, well, that is an interesting little wrinkle in her biography. But i dont want to spoil the story, so the answer to that thetion, whether she was by 1850s the widow or divorcee, you will have to read the book. Thank you, ladies and gentlemenmen, and we are open to questions. [applause] yes . What was burrs primary mode of [indiscernible] margaret he wanted to speculate, because he felt that his speculations would bring so much money that he could live as he wished and not worry about finances. Unfortunately, he tended to be wrong about these speculations. But that was the idea, anyway. Yes . The mansion, they have a plaque that says, at some point after burr moved out, he got dale and was ill and was tended during his sickness at the mansion . Margare that is correct margaret that is correct. I mentioned that burr moved out of the mansion by september 1833, and jumel and burr were separated for goodbye november. By reason for for good november. The reason for this wording is that in october burr was walking down broadway when he lost the use of one leg. He had suffered a stroke. Jumel took him back into the mansion to take care of him, and he was there for about a month. Argued quite a bit during that time her appl period, and ultimately burr was moved out again to his law offices, and that was it. So there was an attempt at a return. I saw this hand first. Hamilton purposely missed. Was going toburr be president . Because the killing destroyed his political career. Margaret im sorry, do you mean if burr had not killed hamilton, might he have become president . I think probably not, simply because when burr was jeffersons Vice President , jefferson had been very careful to marginalize burr. He saw him as a great political rival. I think burr would have had a very difficult time recovering from that. The parties am of who think that burr did not intend to kill hamilton. I think it was meant to simply be a wound that would end the duel. He apparently was quite upset after he saw that hamilton was mortally injured, and tried to come up and talk with him. He knew what a disaster hamiltons death would be. But also, his time to be president had come and gone. Us a little bit about what happened with the mansion after she died . Margaret well, eliza jumels estate was tied up in court for years. The fight over her estate ultimately went to the United StatesSupreme Court twice. As the estate began to be dettled, the mansion was sol in 1882 in an auction, and it elizaught by the widow of andls adopted daughter, eliza jumels greatniece and her husband. The three of them, all relatives of a liza jumel, lived in the mansion until 1887. And then they sold it. The last private owners were Brigadier General ferdinando and his wife Ferdinand Earl and his wife, lily. When ferdinand died, his widow sold the house to the city in 1903, and it was turned into a museum. Margaret we will withdraw that question. Another question . Separation . A legal andaret first of all, burr jumel did not have children. They married when jumel was 58