SCANDAL OF THE CENTURY!
Rachel Donelson Robards Jackson
Captain Lewis Robards was born in December 1758 in Goochland Co.,
Virginia. He was the son of William and Elizabeth Lewis Robards. William
Robards' father, John RoBards, planter, was born in Wales and immigrated
to Virginia in 1710, where he married Sarah Hill.
Lewis Robards came to Kentucky as one of the heirs to his father's land
grant in what was to become Bullitt Co. He was to become a player in one
of the most talked about scandals in U. S. history. Much more than can be
related here can be read in Thomas E. Watson's Life and Times of Andrew
Jackson, which was published in 1912. In my opinion, it contains a well
balanced account of the proceedings.
Lewis Robards' first marriage was the source of the conflict. He had married
Rachel Donelson of Nashville, and apparently the marriage was an unhappy
one. Rachel had at one point returned to Nashville to live with her then
widowed mother, Mrs. John Donelson. Mrs. Donelson ran a boarding house where
Andrew Jackson lived when he had moved to Nashville around 1790. There he
met and became infatuated with Rachel. When Robards moved from Kentucky
to Nashville to be with his wife, "disagreeable relations" ensued
between him and Jackson. One account had Jackson chasing Robards into a
canebreak with a butcher knife. Jackson was known for his temper and was
involved in several duels in his lifetime. At any rate, Robards did not
reconcile with Rachel, and upon returning to Kentucky sued her for divorce
on the basis of adultery.
After a while, Jackson apparently heard that the divorce had been granted,
and rushed into a marriage with Rachel Robards. In actuality, much to the
chagrin and later political liability of Jackson, the divorce was not to
actually be granted for two more years. Jackson then went through the form
of another marriage; he and Mrs. Robards never legally married, according
to a posthumous decision of the U. S. Supreme Court.
During the proceedings of Jackson's presidential campaign, much was made
of these events. Part of the job of clearing Jackson was to defame the unfortunate
Lewis Robards. Watson puts it this way: "The time has passed for fulsome
flatterers of Jackson to besmirch the name and memory of Captain Lewis Robards...
After his trouble with Jackson was all over, Capt. Robards married again,
had a happy home of his own, was blessed with a family of children, and
his descendents are to be found today in Kentucky, where their standing
is that of respectable middle class people..."(pp. 55-57).
After Lewis Robards was divorced from Rachel Donelson in 1793, he married
Hannah Winn of what was soon to become Bullitt Co., Kentucky, where he resided
for the rest of his life. The marriage was blessed with ten children. Lewis
Robards died in April 1814 in Bullitt Co. and was buried near Cedar Creek.
Many of his descendents still live in the area.