Maria Hester Gouverneur

Maria Hester Monroe (daughter of James Monroe and Elizabeth Kortright) was born 1803 in Paris, France, and died 1850 in Oak Hill, Leesburg, Virginia. She married Samuel Laurence Gouverneur on March 02, 1820 in White House, Washington, DC, son of Nicholas Gouverneur, Esq. and Hester Kortrecht.

Includes NotesNotes for Maria Hester Monroe:

Maria was the first woman to be married in the White House who was a

daughter of a presiding President of the United States. Married in the

East Room, the marriage was performed by Dr. William Hawley, rector of

Old St. John's Church.

More About Maria Hester Monroe and Samuel Laurence Gouverneur:

Marriage: March 02, 1820, White House, Washington, DC.

Notes on her husband:

Samuel Laurence Gouverneur (1799 in New York City – 1867) was the son of Nicholas Gouverneur and Hester Kortright (the sister of U.S. First Lady Elizabeth Kortright Monroe). Samuel married Monroe's daughter (his first cousin), Maria Hester Monroe on March 9, 1820 in the first wedding ever held in the White House. (NOTE: According to the official White House History web site, the first wedding ceremony held in the White House was when Dolley Madison, wife of President James Madison, arranged the wedding of her youngest sister, Lucy Payne Washington (widow of Major George Steptoe Washington, a nephew of President Washington,) to Supreme Court Justice Thomas Todd in 1812.)

Samuel Laurence Gouverneur was a member of New York State Legislature and served as private secretary to his father-in-law, President James Monroe. He was Postmaster of New York City from 1828-1836.

Samuel and Maria had three children: James Monroe Gouverneur, a deaf-mute who died at the Spring Grove Asylum in Baltimore, Maryland; Elizabeth Kortright Gouverneur and Samuel Laurence Gouverneur, Jr., who became the first U.S. consul in Foo Chow, China.