She arrived in New York calling herself Eliza Brown — but she’d been born Betsy Bowen, daughter of a woman jailed for running a disorderly house in Providence.
By the time she died in 1865, she was Eliza Jumel — Manhattan’s richest woman, mistress of a hilltop mansion in Washington Heights, the widow of a former vice president, and the subject of so many wild rumors that even her New York Timesobituary couldn’t keep the facts straight.
Tom is joined by Catherine Hughes and Danielle Gaita of the historic Morris-Jumel Mansion to sort the legend from the life. Born in 1775 to grinding poverty, Eliza reinvented herself as an actress at the Park Theater, married the French merchant Stephen Jumel in 1804, and in 1810 moved into the grand house that had served as George Washington’s headquarters in the fall of 1776 — Manhattan’s oldest surviving residence.
And from there the story only grows more intriguing. Paris in the age of Napoleon. A staggering art collection. Real estate dealings while her husband stayed an ocean away. A whirlwind second marriage to the 77-year-old Aaron Burr — and a scandalous divorce, finalized on the very day Burr died.
Plus: Lin-Manuel Miranda writing Hamilton lyrics in Burr’s old bedroom!
LISTEN NOW: THE MANY INTRIGUES OF ELIZA JUMEL
FURTHER LISTENING
After listening to this show on Eliza Jumel, listen to these other shows featuring historical stories of Upper Manhattan
