Portrayed by Jasmine Cephas Jones, Peggy Schuyler mostly stays in the background of Hamilton on Disney+. In fact, the character disappears in Act II, with the actress taking on a new role as Alexander Hamilton's mistress, Maria Reynolds. Here's what happened to Peggy in real life, and why an American founding father was at her side when she passed away.
Hamilton introduces Peggy during the musical number "The Schuyler Sisters." Angelica (Renée Elise Goldsberry) and Eliza (Phillipa Soo) carry the song, while Peggy tags along as the youngest of the group. For extra narrative clarity, the character identifies herself as "And Peggy" in one of the lyrics. Based on Jones' demeanor and facial expressions, Peggy clearly feels like an outsider and balances out the overall mood. In 2016, when the Hamilton movie was filmed, Jones was primarily known for portraying Nicolette in Mistress America. From a 2020 perspective, she's best known as Ashley from Blindspotting. In Hamilton, Jones plays a minor role in the Act I storyline, but receives some bigger moments in the second half. Curiously, Angelica and Eliza begin Act II without acknowledging their missing sister.
Why Eliza Gasps At The End Of Hamilton
Based on various online sources, Hamilton doesn't quite capture Peggy's real-life personality. She was known as a "quick-witted" and "sarcastic" woman, and was even recently described as "basically the Khloe Kardashian of the 1700s." [via Distractify] But did a Kardashian ever survive a tomahawk attack? In August 1781, a group of Native Americans entered the Schuyler's Albany residence and tried to capture Peggy's brother, Philip. The legend goes that Peggy chatted with her "guests" (both Angelica and Eliza were pregnant) and then went upstairs while carrying Philip's daughter, just as a tomahawk sliced into a banister. At the time, Peggy was 22 years old. Hamilton was then a member of Congress.
Peggy married her 19-year-old cousin, Stephen Van Rensselaer III, less than two years after the alleged tomahawk incident. She gave birth to three children over the next decade, but only one of the them survived to be an adult, Stephen Van Rensselaer IV - otherwise known as "the last of the patroons" - whose great-grandson Henry Sturgis Crosby would become famous for publishing up-and-coming authors like Ernest Hemingway and James Joyce. Crosby, the descendant of Peggy Schuyler, took his own life at age 31 in a murder-suicide pact with his mistress.
In March 1801, Peggy died at age 42 in Albany, New York. In Ron Chernow's 2004 novel Alexander Hamilton - the source material for Lin-Manuel Miranda's play Hamilton - the author reveals that Peggy was visited by her famous brother-in-law before dying. Hamilton then wrote a letter to Eliza, stating "your sister took leave of her sufferings and friends, I trust, to find repose and happiness in a better country." Just over three years later, Aaron Burr killed Hamilton in a duel.