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Letters

Almost two years into their marriage, the young Jacksons, both now twenty-six, discovered that Rachel was still technically married to her first husband, Lewis Robards.

Divorce was still new and the procedures very different from today. Robards had only obtained permission from the General Assembly of Virginia (Kentucky was still a part of Virginia) but he still had to bring the divorce to court and go through a jury trial.

No one knows exactly why Robards waited so long to follow through with a divorce. Perhaps he hoped for a reconciliation, as unlikely as that was; perhaps he sought to share the state of Rachel's late father; perhaps it was his way of getting revenge, of punishing Jackson and Rachel for offending his honor and pride. [3] It is also possible that he didn't clearly understand the confusing laws and procedures of time either. Finally, in 1793, Robards obtained his divorce when the Kentucky courts found Rachel guilty of adultery and desertion.

For the record, Rachel and Andrew married again in Nashville. However, the confused circumstances of their courtship and marriage haunted the couple for the rest of their lives. Andrew Jackson believes the gossip and malicious rumors spread by political rivals about the couple regarding their relationship contributed to the death of his beloved wife.

Rachel Jackson died at the age of 61, only a month after Andrew Jackson won the presidency in 1828. He never married again and deeply mourned Rachel's death for the rest of his life.

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Early Hardships | Once Together | Unconquerable Relationship
Letters

Footnotes:

3. Ibid., p. 63.

Sources for this section of Rachel & Andrew :

Robert V. Remini, Andrew Jackson, Volume One, The Course of American Empire, 1767-1821 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998) Chapter 5, "Marriage."

Alice Osinski, Encyclopedia of Presidents, Andrew Jackson (Chicago: Children's Press, 1987)

Herman J. Viola, World Leaders Past and Present, Jackson (New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1986)

Cass R. Sandak, The Jacksons, First Families (New York: Crestwood House, Macmillan Publishing Company, 1992)

Katherine W. Cruze, An Amiable Woman: Rachel Jackson (Nashville: The Hermitage and the Ladies Hermitage Association, 1994)