Early Life and Marriage
Born in New York in 1768, Elizabeth was the daughter of Lawrence Kortright, an officer in the British army who had made a fortune privateering during the French and Indian War, and Hannah Aspinwall. She acquired social grace and elegance at an early age. A gown in the collection of the James Monroe Museum indicates she was a petite woman, not taller than 5 feet. She first caught Monroe's attention in 1785 while he was in New York serving as a member of the Continental Congress. James, age twenty-seven, married Elizabeth, age seventeen, on February 16, 1786, in New York City. After a brief honeymoon on Long Island, the newlyweds returned to New York to live with her father until Congress adjourned.Their first child, Eliza, was born in December 1786 in Virginia.
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Famous quotes containing the words early life, early, life and/or marriage:
“... goodness is of a modest nature, easily discouraged, and when much elbowed in early life by unabashed vices, is apt to retire into extreme privacy, so that it is more easily believed in by those who construct a selfish old gentleman theoretically, than by those who form the narrower judgments based on his personal acquaintance.”
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“... goodness is of a modest nature, easily discouraged, and when much elbowed in early life by unabashed vices, is apt to retire into extreme privacy, so that it is more easily believed in by those who construct a selfish old gentleman theoretically, than by those who form the narrower judgments based on his personal acquaintance.”
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