Andrew Jackson’s 256th Birthday

On this day, March 15, 1767, Elizabeth Hutchinson Jackson, an immigrant from what is now Northern Ireland, gave birth to her third and final child, Andrew Jackson, at the home of her sister’s family in the Waxhaw region of the Carolinas. Elizabeth had lost her husband mere weeks before Andrew was born. Aged about 27 years, she was now a widow and mother of three boys, Hugh, Robert and Andrew—all younger than 7.

Elizabeth led a very challenging life. Born in Northern Ireland about 1740, she was the youngest of six girls. She married Andrew Jackson, Sr. around 1760 and crossed the Atlantic Ocean to come to North America in 1765. After the Revolutionary War broke out, Elizabeth’s sons got involved. Hugh died in battle in 1779, and Robert died of smallpox contracted during imprisonment with Andrew in 1781, an imprisonment from which Elizabeth secured their release. She also participated in the war by nursing the sick and wounded. She traveled to Charleston, SC to provide aide and relief to prisoners, including two of her nephews. On this trip, she fell ill and died of cholera in November 1781; Andrew was 15 years old. Jackson later tried to find her grave with the hopes of reinterring her with his father and brothers. Unfortunately, the exact location of her remains has never been found. Multiple memorial markers are located throughout Charleston in honor of her memory. #Women’sHistoryMonth

Image: Andrew Jackson as a Youth, by an unknown artist, undated. Andrew Jackson’s Hermitage Collection.

Sources:

-Letter from AJ to James Hervey Witherspoon, August 17, 1824. The Papers of Andrew Jackson, Volume 5.

-LHA Research File #1175.

–Born for a Storm, AJF Exhibit.