Presidential Biographies | Tyler Administration - Early Life

Early Life

John Tyler was born on March 29, 1790, at Greenway Plantation in Charles City County, Virginia. He came from a family steeped in American tradition: his father, John Tyler, a governor of Virginia and a judge of the U.S. district court, had been a friend and associate of American revolutionaries Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Harrison (father and great grandfather to William Henry Harrison, ninth president of the United States, and Benjamin Harrison, 23d president of the United States).

Little is known of Tyler's boyhood. His mother, Mary Armistead Tyler, died when he was just seven years old, and the elder John Tyler took on the job of raising his son with great enthusiasm. As a boy, President Tyler was said to be gentler than his stern father, universally well behaved, and a good student. The Virginia Tylers were wealthy tobacco planters who owned plantations and slaves, and in the tradition of the...