I wrote earlier about Philip Hamilton’s untimely death at age 19 in a duel at the Weehawken Dueling Grounds.  I came across this letter from Hamilton to his friend Richard Kidder Meade, dated August 27, 1782, describing his seven month old son.

“You reproach me with not having said enough about our little stranger.  When I wrote last I was not sufficiently acquainted with him to give you his character…He is truly a very fine young gentleman, the most agreeable in his conversation and manners of any I ever knew–nor less remarkable for his intelligence and sweetness of temper.  You are not to imagine by my beginning with his mental qualifications that he is defective in personal.  It is agreed on all hands, that he is handsome, his features are good, his eye is not only sprightly and expressive but it is fully of benignity.  His attitude in sitting is by connoisseurs esteemed graceful and he has a method of waving his hands that announces the future orator.  He stands however rather awkwardly and his legs have not all the delicate slimness of his fathers.  It is feared He may never excel as much in dancing which is probably the only accomplishment in which he will not be a model.  If he has any fault in manners, he laughs too much.  He has now passed his Seventh Month.”

And here’s an illustration of Hamilton and his son from Tumblr