Famous cousin couples who had White House weddings

On August 8th, the Davie County Enterprise-Record in North Carolina had an article about weddings in the White House:

There was not another wedding there until March 9, 1820, when Maria Hester Monroe, the daughter of President James Monroe and his wife, Elizabeth Kortwright Monroe, married her first cousin, Samuel L. Gouverneur.  The restoration of the White House had been completed in 1817 so the building was in good condition when Maria Monroe decided to have her wedding.  The wedding of the president’s daughter caused a bit of feud with the Diplomatic Corp because the Monroes did not follow the protocols which the previous First Ladies had established.  The Diplomatic Corp was not invited to the Monroe/Gouverneur wedding which was considered an insult. The diplomats and their wives were not even invited to a reception to congratulate the newlyweds.  Such treatment did not help the relationship between the Diplomatic Corp and the Monroe administration.

All of that did not have any effect on the wedding itself which is believed to have been held in the Blue Room though some writers believe that the wedding was held in the unfinished East Room. The Blue Room was decorated in the French style furniture with which the Monroes had come so enambured when he served as envoy to France.  President Monroe ordered great quantities of French furniture for the White House.

Maria and Samuel had four children, including a daughter who died in infancy and a son who was born a deaf mute.

The next White House wedding did not occur until 1828 when John Adams II married Mary Catherine Hellen in the Blue Room. John Adams II is the only son of a president to be wed in the White House.

The story of their marriage is tumultuous. John Quincy Adams and his wife, Louisa Catherine, had three sons, George, John and Charles Francis, and all three fell in love with the flirtatious Mary Catherine Hellen, their first cousin.  Mary Catherine was the orphaned daughter of Louisa Adams’ sister, Nancy Johnson Hellen. Louisa Catherine, the wife of John Quincy Adams, cared for Mary Catherine and her siblings.  The Hellen children lived at the White House throughout John Quincy Adams’ term.

George, the oldest Adams son, graduated from Harvard and was living in Boston and reading law in Daniel Webster’s office.   Mary Catherine was fascinated by the handsome older man who was taken with her delightful ways.  In the summer of 1923, George asked his father’s consent to become engaged. Mr. Adams asked some questions and then agreed.

Even after Mary Catherine was engaged to his older brother, Charles Francis could not shake off his infatuation for his cousin.  Mary Catherine seemed to enjoy her power over Charles Francis when he came home from Harvard, even though she was engaged to his brother.

To complicated matters, John, the second son who was living at the White House and studying law under the guidance of his father because he had been expelled from Harvard when he participated during a student rebellion in 1823, became infatuated with Mary Catherine.  As the romance between John II and Mary Catherine was going on in Washington, the two brothers who lived in Boston often got together, but Charles Francis could not bring himself to tell George what he thought was going on between John and Mary Catherine.

Mrs. Adams was aware of all that was going on, and she told the former president that John and Mary Catherine should get married right away. Mr. Adams couldn’t bring himself to approve such a marriage. The engagement was on-again, off again, and, then, Mrs. Adams announced the news of the wedding date, Feb. 25, 1828. On that date, John and Mary Catherine were married in the oval drawing room.

John and Mary were the parents of two daughters, but only one of them lived to adulthood.