Priscilla Cooper Tyler

Background and early life

Priscilla Cooper was born in New York City in 1816. Her father Thomas Apthorpe Cooper was a successful stage actor and producer. Her mother Mary Fairlie Cooper was a New York socialite. Priscilla's maternal grandfather, James Fairlie (1757-1830), was a veteran of the Revolutionary War. Priscilla began to work as an actress at the age of 17. Thomas Apthorpe Cooper achieved great success in the theater business and they lived in a grand house on Broadway. The family's fortunes were reversed during the Panic of 1837. The family lost their house and at one point were reduced to subsisting on radishes and strawberries.

While playing Desdemona in a production of Othello in Richmond, Virginia, she met Robert Tyler, the eldest son of wealthy plantation owner and former US Senator John Tyler. In Victorian America, acting was considered a scandalous profession and actresses had little social standing. The addition of the Cooper's financial woes seemed to conspire to make any match between the two unlikely. Despite their social differences, the couple wed in Bristol, Pennsylvania on September 12, 1839. After their marriage, the couple moved to Williamsburg, Virginia to live with Robert's family. John and Letitia Tyler warmly welcomed her into the Tyler family. Priscilla became close to her father-in-law and their fondness for each other grew quickly. John Tyler even allowed her to open an account in every store in Williamsburg.

John Tyler was the successful candidate for Vice President of the United States in the 1840 election. After the sudden death of President William Henry Harrison just one month after taking office, John Tyler became President of the United States.

White House hostess

By the time John Tyler assumed the Presidency, his wife Letitia was a semi-invalid. The president asked Priscilla to assist him as White House hostess. Priscilla was described as extroverted, attractive, intelligent, and witty. She was also the first woman acting as First Lady to travel with the President as an official member of the Presidential party, accompanying John Tyler to Boston for the dedication of the Bunker Hill Monument in June 1843.

Priscilla's status as a surrogate or "proxy" hostess reflected a larger trend during the antebellum years in which younger female family members stood in for the wives of presidents. Martha Jefferson Randolph established the precedent when she occasionally acted as hostess for her widowed father, Thomas Jefferson. Emily Donelson, wife of Andrew Jackson's nephew, served as hostess during the Jackson administration. Angelica Singleton Van Buren, daughter-in-law of Jackson's successor, the widower Martin Van Buren, served as official hostess from 1837 to 1841. Mary Taylor, daughter of President Zachary Taylor, became official hostess in place of her ailing mother, as did Mary Abigail Fillmore, who served in that capacity for her father, Millard Fillmore. Finally, Harriet Lane, James Buchanan's niece, acted as hostess for the only bachelor president in American history.

After President Tyler remarried on June 26, 1844, Robert Tyler moved to Philadelphia and the President's new wife, Julia Gardiner Tyler, served as White House hostess.

Later years

The Tylers resided in Philadelphia for 16 years. Robert practiced law and was active in the Democratic Party. When the American Civil War broke out in 1861, Robert and Priscilla declared loyalty to the Confederacy. They moved to Richmond where Robert took a post as the register of the Confederate Treasury.

After the war, Robert became the editor of the Mail and Advertiser newspaper in Montgomery, Alabama. Priscilla remained in Montgomery after Robert's death in 1877. She spent the last twelve years of her life there. The personal papers of the Tyler family, including those of Priscilla Cooper Tyler, are held by the Special Collections Research Center at the College of William and Mary.