John Church Hamilton

John Church Hamilton (August 22, 1792 − July 25, 1882) was an American historian, biographer, and lawyer. He was the son of Alexander Hamilton, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States.

Early life and education Hamilton was born on August 22, 1792, in Philadelphia, then the capital of the newly-established United States following the victory of American Revolutionary forces in the Revolutionary War, where they emerged victorious against the Kingdom of Great Britain and the British military, then considered the most powerful in the world.

In 1809, he graduated from Columbia College, and subsequently studied law.

During the next decade, Hamilton edited his father's collected writings under the authority of the Joint Library Committee of the United States Congress. The seven-volume authorized edition, The Works of Alexander Hamilton: Containing His Correspondence, and His Political and Official Writings, Exclusive of the Federalist, Civil and Military, was published by order of Congress in 1850–1851.

In 1869, Hamilton published an edition of The Federalist, with historical notes and commentary.

Politics Hamilton was a member of the Whig Party and later a Republican, but never held elected office, having lost a run for Congress to represent part of New York City.

Family

His daughter, Elizabeth Hamilton Halleck CullumHe was married to Maria Eliza van den Heuvel (January 4, 1795 – September 13, 1873), the daughter of Jan Cornelis Van den Heuvel, a Dutch born plantation owner and politician who served as governor of the Dutch province of Demerara from 1765 to 1770 and later became a merchant in New York City with the Dutch West India Company. Together they had fourteen children:

General Alexander Hamilton (1815–1907), a major general in the Civil War, author of Dramas and Poems (1887). Maria Williamson Hamilton (1817–1822) Charles Apthorp Hamilton (July 23, 1826 – November 29, 1901), was educated in New York, England, and Germany. After clerking for a New York law firm, he practiced law in Wisconsin. He enlisted in the Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry at the start of the Civil War in 1861, reaching the rank of lieutenant colonel. A severe battle injury to both legs compelled his resignation in March 1863, and he returned to practicing law. In 1881, he was elected judge of the circuit court for Milwaukee. Robert P. Hamilton (1828–1891) Adelaide Hamilton (1830–1915) Elizabeth Hamilton (1831–1884), who first married Henry Wager Halleck in 1855 and after his death, married George Washington Cullum in 1875. William Gaston Hamilton (1832–1913), a consulting engineer of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company Alice Hamilton (September 11, 1838 – September 15, 1905)