Betsy

John Tyler mentioned Betsy in a letter from 1817 to his first wife, Letitia Christian Tyler: “I dined on yesterday at the President's…I had much rather dine at home in our plain way, notwithstanding you complain so much of Betsy, than to dine with them.” [1] Betsy was likely the enslaved cook for the Tylers. Her name also appears in Judge John Tyler’s 1813 Inventory, which suggests that John Tyler may have inherited Betsy from his father’s estate when he died in 1813.

[1] John Tyler to Letitia Christian Tyler, 1 Feb. 1817, in The Letters and Times of the Tylers, vol. 1, edited by Lyon G. Tyler, Whittet & Shepperson, 1884-96, p. 289.