Where was Alexander Hamilton born?
Alexander Hamilton was born in the West Indies island of Nevis to James Hamilton, a businessman from Scotland, and Rachel Fawcett Lavien of French Huguenot descent, who was then married to another man. (The couple lived apart from one another under an order of legal separation. Re-marriage was forbidden by law at the time.) There is some uncertainty as to the year of Hamilton’s birth. Throughout his life, Hamilton stated that it was 1757, and that year went unquestioned for centuries. More recent examinations of probate court records at St. Croix indicate the year was 1755 (though the year is not explicitly noted) and for several decades it has been the more commonly cited year. According to Hamilton biographer Ron Chernow, Hamilton may have misrepresented his age upon entering King’s College (now Columbia College) because he was relatively old for a university freshman, which may explain the discrepancy between the court records and Hamilton’s own statements about his birth year. The
