Samuel L. Gouverneur

Samuel Laurence Gouverneur (born 1799 in New York City; d. 1867) was the son of Nicholas Gouverneur and Hester Kortright (the sister of U.S. First Lady Elizabeth Kortright Monroe. Samuel married Monroe's daughter (his first cousin), Maria Hester Monroe on March 9, 1820 in the first wedding ever held in the White House. (NOTE: According to the official White House History web site, the first wedding ceremony held in the White House was when Dolley Madison, wife of President James Madison, arranged the wedding of her youngest sister, Lucy Payne Washington (widow of Major George Steptoe Washington, a nephew of President Washington,) to Supreme Court Justice Thomas Todd in 1812.

Samuel Laurence Gouverneur was a member of New York State Legislature and served as private secretary to his father-in-law, President James Monroe. He was Postmaster of New York City from 1828-1836.

Samuel and Maria had three children: James Monroe Gouverneur, a deaf-mute who died at the Spring Grove Asylum in Baltimore, Maryland; Elizabeth Kortright Gouverneur and Samuel Laurence Gouverneur, Jr., who became the first U.S. consul in Foo Chow, China.