Country Vacations & Resorts

Portrait by Healey

Time in Office: 1841 to 1845
Terms: One
Birthday: March 29, 1790
Birth Place: Charles City County, Virginia
Date of Death: January 18, 1862
Place of Death: Richmond, Virginia
Buried: Hollywood Cemetery – Richmond,Virginia.

Notes:

~ John’s mother died of a stroke when he was 7
~ His father became Governor of Virginia in 1809
~ He was the father of at least 15 children
~ Last of the old Virginia aristocracy to be President
~ First unelected President
~ First impeachment proceedings against a US President
~ Known by the press as “His Accidency*”
~ The city of Tyler, Texas is named for him

John Tyler, Jr. was born into a upper class and landed family near Richmond, Virginia. With a father who was a lawyer, judge, and close personal friend of Thomas Jefferson, it is no surprise that John had attended and graduated from the College of William and Mary by the age of 17.

By 1809 John’s father was Governor of Virginia and John was practicing law in Charles City County, Virginia. Except for a brief stint in the War of 1812 during which he saw no action, John spent the first 25 or so years of his life in Virginia, venturing to the Virginia State Capitol during the first stages of his political career.

Young John Tyler

By 1825, at the age of 35, John Tyler was Governor of Virginia.

Tyler was never a very healthy man. His colds, coughs, and constant stomach problems often kept him close to home and made his time in Washington, DC rather unpleasant. If you remember that Henry Ford was not even born until 1863, then you will know that horse** and buggy or horse alone was still the main method of transportation. The mid-Atlantic area of the US East Coast has wet and humid summers and can have cold-snap winters with snows measured in feet, not inches.

Sanitation systems were not in place. Many, especially city-dwellers in this era, suffered and sometimes died from typhoid, dysentery, fevers, and even the common cold. Considering all this, it is surprising that John Tyler accomplished what he did where he did, and that he lived as long as he did.

Tyler was elected Speaker of the House in 1839 and was probably surprised to find himself Vice President of the United States by 1841. He had been a supporter of Henry Clay but ended up being VP to William Henry Harrison – his party’s eventual candidate. He again spent little time in Washington but returned to his home in Williamsburg, Virginia. It was there he received the news, just a month later, that Harrison had died in office, making John Tyler the 10th President of the United States.

Tyler was bullied by Clay but let it soon be known that he was assuming office and that it was his responsibility alone, a decision that although not challenged, was not “officially” accepted until the ratification of the Twenty-fifth Amendment in 1967.

John Tyler did not have an easy presidency. Party politics were not in his favor and he faced stiff opposition on many of his proposed plans, including the annexation of Texas. By March 1845, having pondered reelection but deciding not to continue, John decided to head back to Virginia. He had completed little travel during his time as US President although his representatives were sent on missions to locations as far away as China, Britain, and Hawaii.

Sherwood Forest

Tyler had purchased a plantation in 1842 named Walnut Grove which he renamed Sherwood Forest. He returned there after his presidency but came out of retirement just before the start of the Civil War in 1861. A strong supporter of state’s rights, Tyler felt individual states, not the federal government should make final decisions regarding slavery. He was sponsor and chair of the Virginia Peace Convention held in Washington, DC and also a delegate to the Provisional Confederate Congress (Richmond, VA.) It was during these sessions that Tyler collapsed. He died the next day, January 18, 1862.

John Tyler’s Sherwood Forest is available for tours by appointment and is located just west of Williamsburg, Virginia. The plantation is however private, and still owned by the Tyler family.

*The press and some of his peers did not let Tyler forget that his Presidency was an “accident” as they saw it – based only on Harrison’s death. Not much of a mandate on which to start such an important task.

** Tyler’s favorite horse named “The General” is buried at his Sherwood Forest Plantation with a gravestone which reads, “Here lies the body of my good horse ‘The General.’ For twenty years he bore me around the circuit of my practice and in all that time he never made a blunder. Would that his master could say the same.”

Recommended:

Next – America’s 11th President, James Knox Polk.

Traveling with American Presidents list