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Julia Tyler Facts & Worksheets

Julia Gardiner Tyler was the second wife of the 10th President of the United States, John Tyler.

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Julia Gardiner Tyler was the second wife of the 10th President of the United States, John Tyler. She served as the First Lady of the United States after their secret engagement and wedding from June 26, 1844, to March 4, 1845..

See the fact file below for more information on the Julia Tyler or alternatively, you can download our 21-page Julia Tyler worksheet pack to utilise within the classroom or home environment.

Key Facts & Information

EARLY LIFE

  • On July 29, 1820, Julia Gardiner Tyler was born. She was born at New York’s Gardiner’s Island, one of the largest privately-owned islands in the United States.
  • Julia was the daughter of David Gardiner, who was a landowner and New York State Senator, and Juliana MacLachlan Gardiner.
  • Julia’s ancestry was Dutch, Scottish, and English.
  • Julia is the third among the four children. She has two brothers and one sister named David Lyon Gardiner, Alexander Gardiner, and Margaret Gardiner [Beeckman].
  • Julia grew up in the town of East Hampton and the small hamlet of Bay Shore.
  • She had her education at the Chegary Institute in New York.
  • Julia shocked the polite society in 1839, by secretly arranging to pose in a newspaper advertisement for a middle-class department store.
  • Although her name was not used, she was identified as “The Rose of Long Island.” Julia was the first prominent woman known to do a commercial endorsement in the history of New York.
  • The public exposure of a young, unmarried woman, especially in a commercial venture, was deemed humiliating within her parents’ socially elite class.
  • To protect Julia from further publicity, the Gardiner family took her to Europe and let her notoriety recede.
  • Arriving on October 29, 1840, they first went to London. In September 1841, they visited England, France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Ireland and Scotland before going back to New York.

PRESIDENT TYLER AND FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES

  • The 21-year-old Julia was introduced to President John Tyler on January 20, 1842, at a White House reception.
  • Although it was only a matter of five months since President Tyler had been widowed by his wife, Letitia Christian Tyler, on September 10, 1842, the President made it clear that he wished to get involved with Julia.
  • Initially, Julia felt little attraction to President John, who was thirty years her senior.
  • President Tyler first proposed marriage to Julia when she was 22, on February 22, 1843, at a White House masquerade – Washington’s Birthday Ball. Julia refused to accept and would continue to do so on the later proposals he made.
  • They soon started a romantic correspondence that prompted public speculation about their relationship.
  • Julia, her sister Margaret, together with her father, joined a Presidential excursion on the new steam frigate Princeton.
  • On this excursion, David Gardiner, Julia’s father, along with a number of others, lost his life when the vessel’s naval cannon “The Peacemaker” exploded.
  • At the death of her adored father, Julia was devastated.
  • President Tyler comforted Julia in her grief and won her approval to a secret engagement, proposing once more in 1844 at the George Washington Ball.
  • After a wedding trip to Philadelphia, a White House reception, and a stay at Sherwood Forest, the newlyweds returned to Washington, where Julia completely enjoyed the duties of First Lady.
  • The anthem Hail to the Chief had been played at a number of events correlated with the arrival or presence of the President of the United States before Julia Tyler became First Lady.
  • But she ordered its regular practice to announce the arrival of the President. It became an established practice when her successor Sarah Childress Polk did likewise.
  • In the last month of Tyler’s administration, she hosted a grand White House ball for 3,000 guests.

LATER LIFE

  • The Tylers retired to Sherwood Forest, where they lived with tranquility until the Civil War. After the death of her husband in 1862, Julia moved north to Staten Island.
  • Julia converted to Roman Catholicism and in May 1872 she was re-baptized.
  • The depression that followed the Panic of 1873 drained Julia’s finances. She went back to Virginia to live with the aid of her grown children. She lobbied Congress for a pension and in 1880 she was granted a monthly allowance. After President James Garfield’s assassination in 1881, Congress granted an annual pension of $5,000 to widows of former presidents.

PERSONAL LIFE

  • Due to the circumstances encompassing the death of her father, Julia and John agreed to marry with a minimum of celebration. On June 26, 1844, the President quietly came to New York City, where the wedding was made at the Church of the Ascension, not too far from Gardiner’s residence on LaGrange Terrace. The wedding made Julia the first First Lady to marry a President who was already in office at the time of the wedding.
  • John Tyler was very concerned about keeping the secrecy of their marriage that he did not confide his plans to the rest of his children, only to John Tyler III who was the only representative of the groom’s family.
  • The news was then shared with the people of America, who greeted it with keen interest and much publicity.
  • Julia and John had seven children together between 1846 and 1860.

DEATH AND LEGACY

  • Julia suffered a stroke in Richmond and died there on July 10, 1889, aged 69, at the Exchange Hotel. 27 years earlier, John died in the same hotel, and his reason for death was stroke as well.
  • Julia was buried beside the President at Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond. Her burial was held on July 12, 1889, in Richmond at St. Peter’s Cathedral.
  • Her funeral was attended by Governor Fitzhugh Lee and Mayor James Taylor Ellyson, with the absolution made by Bishop Augustine Van de Vyver.
  • The Gardiner’s Park, a wide expanse of untouched land with trails leading to the South Shore in Bay Shore, the Gardiner Drive, as well as the Gardiner Manor Elementary School are all named after her family.
  • The United States Mint honored the former First Lady with the issuance of a 24 karat gold coin in 2009.
  • The papers of the Tyler family, together with Julia Gardiner Tyler, are held by the Special Collections Research Center at the College of William and Mary.

Julia Tyler Worksheets

This is a fantastic bundle which includes everything you need to know about the Julia Tyler across 21 in-depth pages. These are ready-to-use Julia Tyler worksheets that are perfect for teaching students about Julia Gardiner Tyler who was the second wife of the 10th President of the United States, John Tyler. She served as the First Lady of the United States after their secret engagement and wedding from June 26, 1844, to March 4, 1845.

Complete List Of Included Worksheets

  • Julia Tyler Facts
  • Julia Tyler Quick Facts
  • Julia ‘s Biography
  • Julia Tyler’s Timeline
  • The Rose of the Long Island
  • Identification
  • Random Article
  • Julia and John Love Story
  • Trip to Europe
  • More Facts Please
  • Symbolize Julia

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