Wards of Andrew Jackson


This is a list of people for whom Andrew Jackson, seventh U.S. president, acted as pater familias or served as a guardian, legal or otherwise. Andrew and Rachel Donelson Jackson had no biological children together. As Tennessee history writer Stanley Horn put it in 1938, "Jackson's friends had a habit of dying, and leaving their orphans to his care." As Jackson biographer Robert V. Remini wrote in 1977, "The list of Jackson's wards is almost endless...new names turn up with fresh examination." There was no comprehensive index of the wards until Rachel Meredith's 2013 master's thesis. Historian Harriet Chappell Owsley commented in 1982, "It would make an interesting study to follow each of Jackson's wards by means of their correspondence with him but this would require a book instead of an article as the correspondence is voluminous." Part of the reason the wards are such a presence in his correspondence, according to historian Mark R. Cheathem, is that "Much of Jackson's adult life was spent managing his nephews and adopted son."
Connections to blood relatives, extended periodically by marriage, were source of political and social power in the antebellum U.S. south. Jackson, through his kinship network, including the nephews and wards, led one of the major families competing for control over Tennessee politics in the 1810s through the 1830s. According to a study of Irish-American traders working in colonial-era Mississippi River valley, "...after this first wave of migrants established themselves along the Gulf Coast, it was not uncommon for them to send for extended kin to join their firms. Nephews...who would not have inherited family estates...were a specific target of such encouragement." To some extent Jackson created a household out of "self-selected kin...young men whom Jackson collected...whom he put to work promoting his and their careers at once." In some cases the ward-guardian relationship was informal, in other cases, Jackson had been designated executor and guardian of minor children by a deceased relative or compatriot; a 1979 study of slaveholding Natchez elites stated that "administration of estates was often an important adjunct to business activity."
Some of Jackson's wards would have lived at Hunter's Hill, and others would have grown up at what is now called the "Log Hermitage," which was originally a two-story blockhouse and was later converted for use as a slave cabin.

B

  • Anthony Wayne Butler - Son of Edward Butler, one of the Five Fighting Butlers of the American Revolutionary War, he attended Yale University, and died of illness while at sea. Edward Butler owned a plantation near Nashville and he and his brother Thomas "struck up a warm friendship" with neighbor Jackson. Edward Butler died in 1803 and Jackson became guardian to his children.
  • Caroline Swanwick Butler Bell - Daughter of Edward Butler, she married Robert Bell and moved to Louisiana.
  • Edward George Washington Butler - One of Edward Butler's children, West Point class of 1820, married a great-granddaughter of Martha Washington, became a major sugar planter in Iberville Parish, Louisiana; Butler was very attached to Jackson and they corresponded frequently
  • Eliza Eleanor Butler - A daughter of Edward Butler, she married John Donelson IV, a nephew of Rachel and Andrew Jackson.
  • Lydia Butler Hays - She was born in March 1788, and died 1852. Daughter of Thomas Butler, another of the Five Fighting Butlers, and thus niece of Edward Butler. Thomas Butler held a high rank in the U.S. Army and in 1797 "he was transferred to Tennessee, where he was charged with negotiating treaties and preventing squatters from encroaching on Indian lands." He was court-martialed for being out of regulation not once, but twice, and died of yellow fever in 1805 before his sentence could be carried out. Lydia Butler married Stockley Donelson Hays, who was a nephew of Andrew Jackson by Rachel's sister Jane Donelson Hays and worked closely with Andrew Jackson on various enterprises. The couple settled in Florence, Alabama. They had two children.
  • Robert Butler - Son of Thomas Butler, another of the Five Fighting Butlers, and thus nephew of Edward Butler, he married Rachel Hays According to a history of Louisiana plantation families, "Robert Butler was chief of staff to Gen. Andrew Jackson throughout the War of 1812." He was secretary for the 1818 Treaty of Tuscaloosa with the Chickasaw. He was later surveyor-general of Florida.
  • Thomas Butler Jr. - Son of Thomas Butler, nephew of Edward Butler, already a legal adult when Jackson was asked to look out for him File:William_Edward_Butler_"the_father_of_Jackson,_Tennessee".jpg|thumb|William Edward Butler, "the father of Jackson, Tennessee"
  • Dr. William Edward Butler - Son of Thomas Butler, nephew of Edward Butler, not properly a ward but part of the kinship network; he married Martha Thompson "Patsy" Hays, sister of Stockley Donelson Hays and Samuel Jackson Hays ; Butler was a power in the western part of Tennessee that opened up following the 1818 treaty with the Chickasaw

    C

  • Charley - Indigenous baby or child taken as a prisoner of war during the War of 1812 and sent to the Hermitage; there is no known documentary record indicating what became of Charley
  • William Ferdinand Claiborne - After Thomas Augustine Claiborne and Sarah Claiborne died, Jackson became W. F. Claiborne's guardian. Sarah Lewis, the oldest daughter of Jackson's business associate William T. Lewis, married T. A. Claiborne. T. A. Claiborne, served as secretary to the 1805 Treaty of the Chickasaw Nation. Thomas Augustine Claiborne died in the early 1830s.
  • Micajah Lewis Claiborne - After Thomas and Sarah Claiborne died, at least one source indicates that Jackson became Micajah Claiborne's guardian. Claiborne became an officer in the U.S. Navy and had duty in the Opium Wars and in the Mexican-American War. Micajah Lewis Claiborne was probably named for his mother's brother, Micajah Green Lewis, a graduate of Princeton University who went to work for his uncle Governor Claiborne and who was killed in a duel with political opponent Robert Sterry in 1805.

    D

  • Andrew Jackson Donelson - Biological son of Rachel's brother Samuel Donelson, who had died sometime in the first decade of the 1800s; family tradition had it that the dying Donelson asked Jackson to be guardian to his children. A. J. Donelson, one of "the three Andrews" who lived at Hermitage, attended Cumberland College, graduated from West Point class of 1820, and studied law at Transylvania University. He ultimately became one of Jackson's major political protégés, and his wife served as an Acting First Lady until the Eaton Affair got in the way.
  • John Samuel Donelson - Oldest biological son of Samuel Donelson. His mother remarried; and there is a suggestion of strife between both John Samuel Donelson and his new stepfather, James Sanders, and between the new stepfather and Andrew Jackson. The sons of Samuel Donelson lived at least part-time at the Hermitage and ultimately became estranged from their mother. John Samuel Donelson served in Jackson's militia in the Creek War and died of illness in 1817.
  • Daniel Smith Donelson - Youngest biological son of Samuel Donelson, and named for his maternal grandfather, U.S. Senator Daniel Smith, with whom he lived part-time. West Point class of 1825, married a daughter of Governor–Senator–Secretary of the Navy John Branch, was a Tennessee state legislator, served as an officer in the Confederate States Army and died of illness in 1863
  • Milberry M. Donelson - A niece of Rachel's via her brother William Donelson, she served as Rachel's "companion in the early 1820s," then got married and had six children before she died at age 30 in 1836.

    E

  • Mary Ann Eastin - A grand-niece by way of Rachel's brother John Donelson through his daughter Rachel Donelson Eastin, she married Lucius Junius Polk at the White House during Jackson's presidency, and later left Washington consequent to Jackson's stubborn defense of the chastity of Peggy Eaton.

    H

  • Andrew Hays - Son of Nashville pioneer Samuel Hays, "a signer of the Cumberland Compact, who was killed outside John Donelson's house by Indians in 1793." These children were most likely raised by their surviving mother Elizabeth, but Jackson did manage the estate's finances and as attorney won a judgement in favor of the estate in a lawsuit decided in 1805. Hays was named a captain of the Madison County militia in 1822. Andrew Hays was later the prosecutor in the case of the death of Gilbert, a slave owned by Andrew Jackson. In 1835 he participated in a Nashville committee supporting the nomination of Martin Van Buren to be president.
  • Campbell Hays - Son of Samuel Hays
  • Charles Hays - Son of Samuel Hays
  • Hugh Hays - Son of Samuel Hays
  • Jane Gillespie Hays - Daughter of another pioneer Hays, Nathaniel Hays. When her parents died, Jackson indicated a willingness to take her in. Jackson bought the Hermitage property from Nathaniel Hays.
  • Rachel Hays - Niece of the Jacksons, daughter of Robert Hays and Jane Hays. Married to Robert Butler ; the couple settled in the newly opened Florida Territory in 1824.
  • Narcissa Hays - Niece of the Jacksons, daughter of Robert and Jane Hays. Traveled with her sister Rachel and the Jacksons, never married.
  • Samuel Jackson Hays - Nephew of the Jacksons, son of Robert and Jane Hays. Robert Hays died in 1818. Jane Hays moved away leaving Jackson with legal guardianship of the three youngest of their children. Andrew Jackson already had a close relationship with one of the older sons, Stockley Donelson Hays, and he had worked to pry the father out of debt. Jackson brought Samuel Jackson Hays with him to the White House and then sent him away for misbehavior. He entered West Point in 1823, Hays eventually served as a general during the Mexican-American War and became exceedingly rich from plantation investments and inherited slaves. He died in 1866.
  • Andrew Jackson Hutchings - Son of Jackson's nephew-by-marriage and slave-trading business partner John Hutchings. He was taken to the Hermitage at age six, grew up there as one of the "three Andrews," and elaborately carved his initials into the side of a wooden desk drawer which is on occasional display for Hermitage tours. Hutchings was expelled from University of Nashville, became a planter in northern Alabama, married a daughter of Jackson's other slave-trading business partner and brother-in-arms John Coffee, got into some debt, and died of illness in 1841