Birth of Maria Reynolds, Mistress of Alexander Hamilton

Birth of Maria Reynolds, Mistress of Alexander Hamilton

Alexander Hamilton sabotaged his own presidential ambitions in 1797, when he published a tell-all pamphlet about the sordid details of his affair with a married woman ~ and the blackmail payments he made to her husband to cover up the affair.

According to Hamilton’s version of events, which he shared with the world in 1797, Maria Reynolds came to his family home in Philadelphia in the summer of 1791.
She asked to speak to him in private.

The pretty 23-year-old blonde presented herself as a damsel in distress, telling the treasury secretary that her abusive husband, James Reynolds, had left her and their young daughter, and ran off with another woman.
Maria said she was destitute, and asked for money to help her get to friends in New York.

At the time, Hamilton was at the height of his influence as treasury secretary, and was considered the second most powerful man in the United States.

Hamilton was eager to be of service, but, he recounted later, it was not possible at the moment of her visit, so he arranged to visit her that evening, money in hand.

That night, Hamilton took a 30-note bill to the rooming house where Maria Reynolds was staying.
She led him upstairs, where, in his words, “it was quickly apparent that other than pecuniary consolation would be acceptable.”

They began a sexual relationship, meeting often at Hamilton’s own home after his devoted wife, Eliza, took their children to visit her father in Albany.

Soon enough, Maria’s husband, James Reynolds, confronted Hamilton via letter and demanded $1,000 ~ the equivalent of nearly $25,000 today ~ to keep quiet about the affair.
Hamilton paid the full amount in two installments, but Reynolds stayed in Philadelphia despite his promise to leave town.

Reynolds even encouraged Hamilton to resume the affair with his wife, who claimed to be devoted to her powerful lover.
That spring, Reynolds repeatedly asked Hamilton for smaller amounts in “loans.”
Finally in the summer of 1792, Hamilton stopped seeing Maria for good.

In November, James Reynolds and an associate, Jacob Clingman, were arrested and imprisoned for their involvement in a scheme to defraud the government.

While out on bail, Clingman approached a congressman from Pennsylvania, and claimed that Reynolds had been involved in illegal speculation with none other than Alexander Hamilton.

The congressman went to Hamilton to confront him in person about these suspected illegal dealings.

Hamilton came clean about his extramarital affair, even sharing the letters he received from both Mr. and Mrs. Reynolds.
Over the next several years, Hamilton retired from his Cabinet post and went back to New York to his law practice.

Maria and James Reynolds split up ~ with Aaron Burr serving as Maria’s attorney!
Maria married Jacob Clingman the same day her divorce became official.

In the summer of 1797, scandal-mongering journalist James Callender wrote about Hamilton’s sexual indiscretions, and that Hamilton had used federal funds to illegally speculate in government securities with Reynolds.

Given the charges against him, Hamilton decided his best option was to come clean about his infidelity, so he could defend himself on the speculation charges, that would ruin his career.

In late August 1797, Hamilton published what became known as the ‘Reynolds Pamphlet’
In this, he shared the details of his affair with Maria and the subsequent blackmail payments he made to James Reynolds, including excerpts from their letters.

While the Reynolds Pamphlet successfully refuted the more serious accusations against Hamilton, the sordid revelations of his affair humiliated his wife and permanently ended any hope he might have had of becoming president of the United States.

In 1842, it was reported that Maria had written a pamphlet of her own, giving her side of the story that Hamilton had told in his Reynolds Pamphlet.
If Maria’s pamphlet existed, it was never published…..

In 1806, Maria married a Dr. Mathew.
She became highly respected with her marriage to the doctor.
Maria became religious, joining the Methodist Church, and put her past behind her.
Maria died on 25th March 1828, aged 59.

? Jasmine Cephas Jones as Maria & Lin~Manuel Miranda as Hamilton in the 2020 movie ‘Hamilton’