Rachel Stockley (Donelson) Jackson (1767 - 1828)

Born 15 Jun 1767 in Halifax, Virginia

Ancestors

Wife of Lewis Robards — married 1 Mar 1785 in Kentucky, Virginia, United States

Wife of Andrew Jackson — married 17 Jan 1794 in Natchez, West Florida, New Spain

Died 22 Dec 1828 at age 61 in Nashville, Davidson, Tennessee, United States

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Biography

Born near the Banister River, about ten miles from present-day Chatham, Virginia, Pittsylvania County, in 1767; the exact date of her birth was not recorded at the time, but has been invariably attributed to the month of June, with some sources designating the date as 15 June

Ancestry

Scottish, Irish, Welsh, English; It appears that Rachel Jackson's paternal great-grandfather was Patrick Donelson, who was born in Scotland about 1670. He had a son named John who settled in Maryland. His wife was Catherine Davis of Welsh ancestry. They had a son John who married one Rachael Stockley, daughter of Alexander Stockley and Jane Matthews: the Stockley family allegedly originated in Ulster, Northern Ireland, and the Matthews from England. Both Rachel Jackson's father and paternal grandfather are listed in the DAR Patriot Index.

Birth Order and Siblings

Tenth of eleven children, seven brothers, three sisters; Alexander Donelson (1749-1785); Mary Donelson Caffrey (1751-?); Catherine Donelson Hutchings (1752-1835); Stockley Donelson (1753-1804); Jane Donelson Hay (1757-1834); John Donelson (1755-1830); William Donelson (1756-1820); Samuel Donelson (1758-1804); Severn Donelson (1763 or 1773 -1818); Leven Donelson (1765-?)

Physical Appearance

Short, brown hair, brown eyes

Religious Affiliation

Presbyterian

Education

There is no extant record of Rachel Jackson having received a formal education. In light of the fact that she spent the first twelve years of her life in a relatively rural part of Virginia, and there was not a tradition of educating young women beyond the basics of reading and writing. She was taught housekeeping duties such as sewing, spinning, weaving, embroidery, as well as preserving foods, overseeing the kitchens and generally managing the plantation life, including direction of the slaves' duties. She played musical instruments and was an accomplished horsewoman. Although most of her correspondence was destroyed in an 1834 fire at the Hermitage, her extant letters show that while her spelling and grammar were poor, she intelligently conveyed her thoughts. In later life, most of her reading was of the Bible and other religious works, yet she also had an extensive collection of poetry.

Occupation before Marriage

Rachel left Pittsylvania County at age 12 when her parents moved to what would later become part of Tennessee. The Donelson family and other families totaling about 600 people, were led by her father, transported on 40 flatboats and canoes for almost 1000 miles from Fort Patrick Henry along the Holston River to the Cumberland River and the new settlement of Fort Nashborough, later to be named Nashville. The Donelsons were on the largest boat, Adventure.

First marriage to Lewis Robards

18 years old to Lewis Robards (born 1758, Harrodsburg, Mercer County, Kentucky; died, 15, April, 1814, Harrodsburg, Kentucky), land owner, speculator, on 1 March, 1785, at Lincoln County, Kentucky. Lewis and Rachel Robards lived in Harrodsburg with his elderly mother for over three years, until the late summer or early fall of 1788.^[1] Divorce: The ultimate divorce of Rachel Jackson from her first husband would come to shatter all precedent in presidential history. It was the first time that such a deeply personal event would be used against a presidential candidate in a campaign and it was also the first large public consideration of the conceptual ideal of what kind of personal background a First Lady should ideally possess. It thus unwittingly played one of the first and important public debates in the history of First Ladies. Lewis Robards and his defenders would claim that his former wife had shamelessly flirted and that he asked her brother to remove Rachel from her marital home, but that he later sought reconciliation. Upon his return to Nashville, they claimed he found her in an inappropriately close relationship with Andrew Jackson, a circuit lawyer boarding with the Donelsons who then eloped with her in Natchez, Mississippi in an illegal marriage. This resulted in his seeking and gaining a divorce. In contrast, the Donelsons and Jacksons claimed that Robards had physically abused Rachel and that she ran first to her mother's home and then - when word came that Robards was coming to take her back to their Kentucky home - fled for fear of her life to Natchez with friends, a married couple, all of them guided and protected by Jackson.

The divorce case filing record of Lewis Robards divorce of Rachel on grounds of adultery. (Tennessee State Archives) They further claim that when Jackson returned to Nashville alone that he was told that Robards had boasted that he had successfully processed a divorce from Rachel, thus leaving her open to marry Jackson. The Jackson defenders would suggest that Robards had purposely misled them so that if Andrew and Rachel Jackson did marry and live together that it would make the union an adulterous one that was all the proof needed for Robards to then gain a divorce.

The Jackson evidence was weakened by the fact that no legal marriage of theirs could be legitimized in then-Spanish-ruled Mississippi because they were Protestant and only Catholic wedding ceremonies were recognized as legal unions. Robards did follow the law by first obtaining a required legislative grant to file a divorce. He then did so based on the fact that Rachel had openly committed adultery, and the divorce was granted to him, she found to be guilty of abandonment as well. The Jacksons remarried legally inTennessee, but the incident had made Rachel Jackson a bigamist and adulterer.

• Rachel Robards Jackson was the first of three First Ladies who marriages previous to that of a President had ended in divorce.

Second marriage to Andrew Jackson

26 years old, to Andrew Jackson (born March 15, 1767 in Waxhaws, North Carolina - died June 08, 1845, at the "Hermitage," in Davidson, Tennessee) on January 7, 1794, Nashville, Tennessee at the Donelson home.^[2]

After being divorced on the basis of her technically committing adultery and living as a bigamist, Rachel Jackson had a second wedding ceremony to Andrew Jackson, in 1794. (Andrew Jackson, Frontier Statesman, 1954) For the three years following their "Natchez" wedding, Andrew Jackson and Rachel Robards had lived with her mother and the Donelson clan in Nashville. They continued to make their home there until they began construction of what would be the first building to later comprise their famous Hermitage plantation. Rachel Jackson chose the plot of land on which it was built.

Children

Two adopted sons: Andrew Jackson, Jr. born, December 04, 1808 in Davidson, Tennessee, died 17 April, 1865 in Hermitage, Davidson Co., Davidson, Tennessee; he was actually Rachel Jackson's nephew, one of a pair of twins born to her brother Severn Donelson; since both of his parents were alive at the time of his adoption, the reason he was given to them is not clear; Lyncoya Jackson (c1811-1828), an American Indian child found by Jackson on a battlefield with his dead mother, was raised by the Jacksons from the age of two.

Rachel Jackson adopted her nephew, naming him Andrew Jackson, Jr. He married Sarah Yorke. (The Hermitage)

Legal guardian for six boys and two girls:John Samuel Donelson (?-1817), Daniel Donelson (1801-1863) and Andrew Jackson Donelson (1799- 1871) were all nephews of Rachel Jackson, the sons of her brother Samuel Donelson who died in 1804. The last of the three, another namesake of the president served as his private secretary in the White House, and married his cousin, Rachel Jackson's niece Emily, the daughter of her brother John Donelson; Andrew Jackson Hutchings (1812-1841), the orphaned grandson of Rachel Jackson's sister Catherine Donelson Hutchings; Caroline Butler, Eliza Butler, Edward Butler and Anthony Butler, children of Revolutionary War General Edward Butler, who named Jackson as guardian to the children and who often came to live at the Hermitage following their father's death.

Burial

Her final resting place is The Hermitage in Nashville Tennessee near her husband.^[3]

Unlike the death and burial of any previous presidential wife, the circumstances surrounding the demise of Rachel Jackson drew not only regional but national attention. It was ultimately used by Jacksonian Democrats as a telling story in the drama of conflict between the established Eastern seaboard ruling elite - as embodied by the defeated incumbent President, New England native John Quincy Adams - and the new power of the rustic western block from the frontier territories. Following news of Rachel Jackson's death, the mayor and the board of alderman of Nashville voted a resolution urging the people of the region to abstain from their ordinary business on December 24 - the day of her funeral - and that church bells be tolled from one to two o'clock during the hour of her burial.

On the day of her funeral, some 10,000 people turned up, according to newspaper accounts, coming not only from the area but also drawing Jackson political supporters from around the country. White and black, wealthy and poor were noted in the gathered crowds, a potent symbol of democracy. Among the pall-bearers was Tennessee Governor Sam Houston, who led the procession to the burial site, followed by Jackson, then the Donelson clan, and finally the Hermitage slaves. Family tradition holds that she was buried in the gown and white slippers she planned to wear to her husband's Inauguration. Jackson spoke at the ceremony: "I am now President of the United States and in a short time must take my way to the metropolis of my country; and, if it had been God's will, I would have been grateful for the privilege of taking her to my post of honor and seating her by my side; but Providence knew what was best for her. For myself, I bow to God's will, and go alone to the place of new and arduous duties…"

The death of Rachel Jackson also became the headliner subject of many national newspapers, cast as a political and public news story rather than a private and personal one. It attracted more editorial notice than any obituaries of more famous presidential wives like Martha Washington, Abigail Adams had or Dolley Madison and Mary Lincoln would in future decades.

Sources

1. ↑ Marriage: "Kentucky, U.S., Compiled Marriages, 1802-1850"
   Original data: Dodd, Jordan, Comp.. Kentucky Marriages to 1850. Electronic transcription of marriage records held by the individual counties in Kentucky
   Ancestry Record 2089 #39967 (accessed 17 February 2024)
   Rachel Donelson marriage to Lewis Robards on 1 Mar 1785 in Lincoln, Kentucky, USA.
2. ↑ Marriage: "Tennessee, U.S., Compiled Marriages, 1784-1825"
   Original data: Dodd, Jordan, comp.. Tennessee Marriages to 1825. Electronic transcription of marriage records held by the individual counties in Tennessee
   Ancestry Record 2099 #1814 (accessed 17 February 2024)
   Rachel Donelson marriage to Andrew Jackson on 17 Jan 1794.
3. ↑ * Obituary: "Boone County, Missouri Obituaries, 1871-1891"
   Original data: Weant, Kenneth, comp.. 5558 Deaths Reported in and Chronological Index to Selected Articles from the Columbia Missouri Herald, 5 Jan 1871 - 31 Dec 1891
   Ancestry Record 3497 #4146 (accessed 17 February 2024)
   Name: Mrs. Rachel Jackson; Death Date: 22 Dec 1828; Death Place: Boone, Missouri.

• Birth: "Family Data Collection - Births"
  Ancestry Record 5769 #1305175 (accessed 17 February 2024)
  Rachael Donelson born on 15 Jun 1767, child of John Donelson & Rachel Stockley, in VA, USA.
• Davidson County Census: "Davidson, Sumner, and Tennessee Counties, U.S., Census of the Cumberland Settlements, 1770-1790"
  Davidson County Census
  Ancestry Sharing Link - Ancestry Image (accessed 17 February 2024)
  Rachel Donelson.
• Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/19468/rachel-jackson: accessed February 17, 2024), memorial page for Rachel Donelson Jackson (15 Jun 1767–22 Dec 1828), Find a Grave Memorial ID 19468, citing Jackson Family Cemetery, Hermitage, Davidson County, Tennessee, USA; Maintained by Find a Grave.
• Historical First Lady Library online