A Grim Day in MOTB History :February 25, 1828

Louisa Adams, only First Lady MOTG.

After digging up info on First Lady MOTBs last Presidents’ Day weekend, I stumbled upon mention of the only First Lady Mother of the Groom: Louisa Adams (wife of John Quincy, sixth POTUS).  

MOTGs traditionally have less say in wedding plans. Yet, in 1828, Mrs. John Q Adams' position was unique, since her youngest son John II (named after his grandfather, the 2^nd POTUS) was marrying  his first cousin (Louisa’s sister’s daughter Mary Catherine Hellen).  As if that wasn’t enough connection to pull off a 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue venue, Mary had actually become part of her future in-laws’ household when she lost her parents as a child.

Which made Louisa a surrogate MOTB as well as MOTG!

All of this had an almost storybook sound to it, until   the White House dirty linen surfaced.Mary, who grew up to be beautiful and flirtatious, started playing an 1800s version of The Bachelorette with all three of the President's' sons. A site as official and staid as whitehouseweddings.com puts it as politely as possible:

The winner -
Bachelor # 3

Charles was conquered first and then dropped for older brother, George Washington Adams. A bitter, rejected Charles described her as “one of the most capricious women that were ever formed in a capricious race.” She became engaged to George, who would postpone the wedding to please his parents and finish his education. It would prove to be fatal for their relationship. Mary, whatever her best intentions may have been, was not one to wait.

Ironically, John Adams II, who was expelled from Harvard, would be the winner in this bachelor derby. 

Neither Rejected Bachelor/Brother #1 nor Rejected Bachelor/Brother #2 attended the White House wedding.  Louisa Adams kept the list of invited guests short. Nine months and seven days after the nuptials, the bride gave birth to a baby girl. A year or so later, Brother #1 took his own life.