Meet Priscilla Cooper Tyler, the American first lady who grew up in Bucks County

“Here I am actually living in and what is more, presiding at the White House. I look at myself like the little old woman and exclaim, ‘Can this be I?’ ”

That’s Priscilla Cooper expressing surprise in becoming the first lady of the United States at age 25. Not being married to the president, she was a rarity. She also was a vision of grace and beauty while serving with distinction as the Jacqueline Kennedy of her time.

Priscilla’s story intrigued me after visiting the white Victorian mansion where she grew up on Radcliffe Street in Bristol. Her father won the property in a card game in Paris. A consummate gambler, Thomas A. Cooper was an esteemed English actor and producer known today as “Father of the American Stage.”

He was touring Europe in 1819 when he engaged a stranger in a Parisian hotel. The Philadelphia visitor blurted, “Cooper, if you win, I will deed over to you a house n a quiet little town on the bank of the Delaware River called Bristol.” Cooper won and later visited the site which he loved. He purchased adjacent property, added it to his own, built a mansion and relocated his wife and three children including 3-year-old Priscilla from New York City.

Cooper began touring the country with his daughter after she turned 17, performing alongside him. Her life would take a dramatic turn while playing Desdemona in “Othello” in Richmond, Va. In the audience was Robert Tyler, eldest son of U.S. Sen. John Tyler, a Virginia plantation owner. When the audience stood and applauded Priscilla, Robert remained standing. He went backstage to meet her. Smitten, he proposed six times over the next few years before she finally accepted. The couple married in Bristol in 1839 when she was 23.

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Two years later, Sen. Tyler was elected president. Tyler turned to daughter-in-law Priscilla to become first lady after his wife Letitia suffered a stroke and died. Priscilla’s youth, levity and vivacious personality made her a celebrity. She organized many White House events, entertaining 1,000 guests every month. The highlight was a party attended by 3,000 for literary giants Washington Irving and Charles Dickens. She also started the tradition of Marine Band concerts on the White House lawn.

Secretary of State Daniel Webster, a notorious womanizer, cornered Priscilla at one reception and whisked her to a secluded place. Her irate husband followed with a pitcher of water he dumped on Webster.

Priscilla’s role was meteoric but brief, ending after two years with the president about to remarry. Priscilla and her husband moved to Bristol after he became clerk of the state Supreme Court in Philadelphia. There he was a vocal critic of the North on the eve of the Civil War. He was aboard a steamboat en route from Bristol to Philadelphia when Fort Sumpter was attacked, triggering the war. Neighbor John Dorrance sidled up to Tyler and wondered aloud if the South would try to destroy the national government. Tyler predicted a long war with grave consequences if Congress failed to protect Southern rights to own and recapture runaway slaves. Dorrance scoffed. The rebellion, he said, would be crushed in 90 days. An agitated Tyler replied cryptically, “Why John, if a battle between the Northern and Southern troops was to take place on your farm, the blood would run to the bits of the horses’ bridles.”

Robert’s opinions got the best of him. Warned to flee Philadelphia, he boarded a train to Bristol, gathered his family and left for the South. There he became Confederate Register of the Treasury in Montgomery, Ala. The Tylers resided in the capital the rest of their lives. After the war they visited Bristol where acquaintances welcomed them. “Finding myself as it were, an outlaw,” Robert told them, “I had no other alternative but to leave the North and take a position that was repugnant to my feelings and against my best interests.”

In her lifetime, Priscilla gave birth to nine children. She would live to age 73 as a staunch believer and activist in the Confederate cause.

Sources include “A History of Bristol Borough” by Doron Green published in 1911. The Grundy Foundation recently purchased the Tyler Mansion. The foundation's board of trustees has yet to finalize plans for the use of the building.

Carl LaVO can be reached at carallavo0@gmail.com

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This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Priscilla Cooper served a most unusual role in U.S. history