#(also I have...so many memp characters I love and write)

[phantomarchive]

Post ME2: Arrival + NPCs

After the events of the Arrival DLC when the truth of the Reapers comes to light, the Council strips Shepard of her status and rank and puts her under essentially house arrest, not letting her leave Earth space at all. This is due in part to the destruction of Batarian colonies, but that’s a cover for the fact that they refuse to listen to her about the coming of the Reapers.

During this six month period (until the events of ME3), she is confined to her living quarters on her home military base. People still seek her out for some training or to have a drink or two with her, maybe get lunch or dinner. She becomes acquainted with a small squad that’s progressing quickly through their ranks and proving themselves a force to be reckoned with. This squad* includes Skylar (vanguard, their leader), Emma (soldier, weapons expert), Gary (nickname, Krogan warlord), and Bethany (Engineer, tech specialist).

They all become good friends with Samantha and she comes to rely on them throughout the events of ME3, finding them to be among her most trusted allies.

*These squad members were character my friend and I played in the multiplayer and ended up fleshing out into OCs. There’s several others, all of whom I love, but these are the ones that might be referenced post Arrival.

[runawayforthesummer]

I'm unsure if this has been asked before, and I'm sorry if it has, but it's the strangest little detail that I'm finding myself caught up on... Did Eliza attend Alexander's funeral? Do you have any details on her in the immediate after of Alexander's death?

She did not attend.  From my understanding, it was generally uncommon for women to attend funerals.  I don’t believe she was at Philip’s either.

She was with Alexander until he died (having arrived around noon the day he was shot).  He died around 2 p.m. on July 12th.

When her family in Albany heard of Hamilton’s passing, Kitty Malcolm (Eliza’s youngest sister) encouraged their brother Philip to hurry to Eliza’s side, in part because their father was unable.

On July 13, David Ogden wrote:

Uponopening his will there was found enclosed in it a letter to his wife written onthe 4th. Instant, in which he tells her he had endeavored by allpossible means to avoid this Duel, but that he found it impossible, unless heacted in a manner which would justly make him forfeit her esteem.  That he should certainly fall, and thatshe would receive that letter after his death, he begs her forgiveness forbeing the cause of so much pain to her, & earnestly entreats her to bearherself up under that load of grief with which she will be overwhelmed, placinga firm reliance upon a kind providence, who will never desert her.

Thepoor woman was almost distracted, begged Uncle Gouveneur Morris might come intoher room.  She burst into tearstold him he was the best friend her husband had, begged him to join her inprayers for her own death, & then to be a father for her children.  Mr. Morris had been already almostovercome with grief at witnessing the last moments of the man whom of allothers he loved most on Earth. This last scene with the bereaved widow was too much for him to bear,and the big tears that flowed down his cheek bespoke the anguish of his soul.

source: Four Letters on the Death of Alexander Hamilton by David B.Ogden

So that was Eliza on her first day as a widow. 

The four oldest boys attended their father’s funeral (Alex Jr., James A., John, and William). 

On July 19th, in another letter by David Ogden, he noted Eliza was still “almost frantic.”

Philip Schuyler, upon hearing the news, wrote to Eliza almost daily, and wrote to his other children in NYC asking them to look over her.  He also assured her that she would be taken care of.  Because, of course, immediately it was discovered Hamilton died in debt. This added stress to Eliza who was now worried about losing her home.  Near immediately, Hamilton’s friends start to put together a fund for the family.

By August 4th, though, she and the children escaped to her father’s house in Albany.

Philip Schuyler to Angelica Church

Albany Sunday 4th August

My Dearly Beloved Child

Last evening I received yours ofWednesday last.

If ought would console us for theunspeakable loss we have sustained, it would be the honor paid to the memory ofour dearly beloved friend.  Buttime must intervene before our tears case to flow.  I strive to conceal my sorrows, but how can I take on yourunfortunate dear Sister and her Children without the deepest anguish.  Oh, Philosophy how vain to haverecourse to you, when the heart is so deeply wounded, to the divine being onlymust recourse be had, for he only can heal the broken heart, and I pray hewill. 

A divine of so energetic a ____, and onewho so highly loved & respected his friend, as Mr. Mason, has I believedelivered the various ____ of our beloved Hamilton in the most stricken to___.  I shall read his oration withthe mixed emotions of grief and pleasure.

I hope my Dear Child your health will besufficiently restored by the time this reaches you to commence yourJourney.  Your presence here mayhave a beneficial effect on your dear Sister.  It certainly will one me.  She feels the tender solicitude and affectionate attentionof her sister Kitty.  She willexperience this also from you, from Mr. Church, and your Eliza, and it willsooth her some.  Adieu.  We all send our love to you &yours. God bless you my Dearly Beloved Child

I am evermost tenderly yours.

Ph. Schuyler

source: University of Virginia

Our first letter from Eliza that we have is dated August 11th from Albany. She was clearly in the throes of grief and only wrote because the Society of Cincinnati wanted to honor Hamilton.

On August 14th, Philip Schuyler wrote up a document that gfited Eliza extra land upon his passing.

Also on August 14th, Oliver Wolcott wrote to Rufus King about the fund for the family and mentions:

Mrs. Hamilton’s attachment to thiscountry seat you well know.  Thenecessity of selling it would excessively distress her.  I am now assured that he suggestionswhich some persons have made that the family would be offended are utterlywithout foundation: that on the contrary they will consider pecuniaryassistance under their present circumstances as in justice they ought, merelyas a manifestation of the gratitude and respect the contributors to the characterof the Deed.

source: Rufus King, vol. 4

Eliza during this time was also concerned about Alexander Jr., whose graduation from Columbia was on August 1st (he did not attend). 

Throughout late August and September, she was trying to arrange a spot for him in Boston.  Hamilton’s friends aid her in this.

She says on September 17th:

The Grievous Affliction I am under will be addedthe trembling mother’s anxiety for her child least he should fall in to evil. 

On September 20th, in a letter to Nathaniel Pendleton, we also see the other burdens she’s under: a sick family, Alex Jr., and her other children, along with her own uncompromising grief:

I follow the Exampleof my beloved Sainted Husband and my Guardian Angel.  While here he madeyou his confident and so I confide in you and you have humbly given me thepermission.  Therefore I am enclose you the copy of the feeble dictates ofmy mind to Mr. Cabbot.  I do this that you may know in what situation weare both respect to Mr. Higginson and why I devise a change, but I have putonly I am under your direction to assure for him in Now your adding to the wishof him being with a Man of the ____.  He may have energy of Character forwith you I think it essential that there should be close application on thepart of Alexander and that will in some measure depend on the person he iswith, but you will do for him what is best and I shall be satisfied.  Withrespect to my two other sons.  James I will to have entirely under thecare of _____ and also my Son John accept his diet and sleeping.  I willthank you should you meet Mr. Memp (?) to make my acknowledgments for the veryhandsome manner in which he has requested to take both of them.  I shouldhave Answered his letter but the confinement of My Sister and the ill news ofher child and that of My Father has pushed my head on my Afflicted Mind. I have remarked to you that I have had a double share of blessings and I mustnow look forward to Grief.  My friend Grief, for such a husband, hisspirit is in heaven and his form in the Earth, and I am nowhere any part of himis.  Adieu.  I suffer many thanks for your Letter.

However, by September 29th, she has changed her mind about Alex Jr. going to Boston and cannot dare to part with him. In a letter to Nathaniel Pendleton:

Remember my childrenare like all others with their difference that having lost so truly amiable afather all the weakness and Error’s will be more attended to than in otherchildren, and placed at such a distance he will not have even the watchfullnessof so feable and broken down a being as I am.

And do I not owe it to the memory of my beloved Husband to keep hischildren together? It was a plan he made in his last arrangement of his familythat they should not be with out a parents care at all times. A plan in which Imade the greatest sacrifice in my Life, it was that of being one half the weekabsent from him to take care of the younger while he took care of theElder.  The More I reflect the more I suffer that my feelings should be inopposition with such good and amiable friends as yourself and General Clarksonare but a sorrowing Mother in all necessity it is also the wish of my fatherthat Alexander should be with Mr Gracy and Wolcott.

By early October, she has returned home from Albany. On October 18th, Philip Schuyler wrote to her:

From the state of thewinds for two days after you left Tues, I concluded that you had a shortpassage, I hope you and my dear grandchildren arrived safe and in health.

Now that Eliza is back home, her father’s constant writing to her picked up again. That is, until his death on November 18th. 

In late November, the fund by Hamilton’s friends was made known to the Executors of his will.  It’s almost $40,000.00.  However, now controversy was arising over Eliza’s father’s will and the gift he made her of extra lands back in August.

Thomas Cooper writes to Stephen van Rensselaer on December 28, 1804:

I find the Current of Public opinion here pretty strongabout the executors of genl Schuyler for making any question about the deed toMrs. Hamilton.  Her friends have advised her I am told to take no legalopinions on the subject but to demand the Deed and take possession of theproperty.  In this case such of the heirs of genl Schuyler as choose tocontest the validity of the Deed may bring this action of Ejectment to try thetitle. Mister King, Hoffman & the Lawyers here I am told are generally ofopinion the Deed is good.  I think I carefully examined theQuestion.  At any Rate she is entitled to have the Deed good or bad. If ___ possessing it will not give it validity.  I think therefore theExecutors ought to send it to her.

Much fault is also found with your Brother’s in Laws Philip& Rensselaer Schuyler for not subscribing the papers in possession of theChief Justice,  It is said that ina case where strangers have interested themselves and subscribed considerablesums to free the Estate of genl Hamilton fro Embarrassment that Something of itmay be saved for his children it was a sort of sacred Duty of the relations &near connections of the deceased to set a liberal Example.  Before theChief Justice parts with the Papers I think you ought to write to Phil &Rensselaer to know ho many shares they will authorise you to subscribe forthem. As to yourself I do not see how you can well subscribe less than tenshares.  Some of the Subscribes are ___ informed have put down that ___under all the circumstances of ____ Situation Public Expectation will begreatly disappointed if you are not at least equal to the highest of the List. Indeed it is generally expected that you will exceed the highest.  It isnot considered the in the Light of a Donation.  It is in fact notone.  It is not believed that he loss will exceed twenty five percent.  Present my best Regards to your wife & Daughter.

source: NYSL

So that gets us through 1804.  That’s a little bit more than the immediate after, I know, but it gives insight into all that she had to deal with following Alexander’s death in July, and her movements throughout that time.  Things weren’t easier in 1805 either, and her letter to her brother dated February 9, 1805 gives us an indication she was still deep in mourning.

For more, I’d look at letters from that time on theelizapapers.tumblr.com/tagged/1804.  There’s also a lot more to say about the fund put together by Hamilton’s friends, but that belongs in a different post.