Henry F. Doyhar

Little is known of Henry Frances Doyhar’s early life. He was born in 1769, likely in France.¹ In the 1790s, Massachusetts politician and diplomat Eldridge Gerry hired Doyhar to be his personal chef while living in France. By 1805, Doyhar lived in New York City. There, he opened his own restaurant and pastry shop in 1808 and worked as a chef for merchant and politician Nicholas Low for eight years.² 

In 1813, Doyhar met Benjamin Latrobe, architect and confidante of President James Madison. The president was looking for new staff to support his household and asked Latrobe to find suitable people. Upon a recommendation from Gerry, Latrobe wrote to First Lady Dolly Madison and stated that Doyhar “seemed in every respect qualified” to work at the White House as steward - the person who purchased supplies for a household and managed the workers.³ Doyhar moved to Washington, D.C. and brought his four children with him. When he arrived in August, 1813, the president was out of town, prompting Doyhar to take his family temporarily to Philadelphia where he found work for a dollar a day. By the fall, Doyhar was at the White House working as a steward and chef for the Madisons.⁴ 

The employment did not go well. Troubles began during Doyhar’s first week when he burned cakes, for which he received a reprimand from President Madison. Animosity between the two men grew over Doyhar’s purchasing of groceries for the kitchen; Madison claimed Doyhar spent too much money while Doyhar asserted the money he received from Madison was inadequate to buy the ingredients needed.⁵ 

Doyhar also did not get along with the other White House staff members, especially fellow chef Baptiste. Doyhar claimed Baptiste was frequently late and intoxicated, which made Doyhar’s job harder. He also accused Baptiste of conspiring with the enslaved workers to mock Doyhar and undermine him.⁶ 

Doyhar’s frustrations prompted him to complain to Madison, though the president offered him little relief. Madison fired Doyhar in May 1814, after only six months of employment. According to Doyhar, when Madison fired him he used the pretense that his contract was only supposed to last six months, to which Doyhar replied that he had a letter from Latrobe stipulating the contract as a non-term position. Madison retorted that “he didn’t care if Doyhar had a hundred letters.” Soon after his termination, Doyhar wrote an angry letter to Madison detailing his supposed mistreatment and expressing his shock that the president had unfairly treated him like a “scoundrel.”⁷ 

After his brief and turbulent stint in the White House, Doyhar remained in Washington. In 1816, he opened a “Billiard Room” in the city.⁸ The following year he published an advertisement in the Daily National Intelligencer announcing the opening of his restaurant and pastry shop on Pennsylvania Avenue and offering his services as a private chef.⁹ He died on November 17, 1826 and is buried in St. Patrick’s Cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland.¹⁰ 

Thank you to the Papers of James Madison, to Hilarie M. Hicks, Senior Research Historian, James Madison's Montpelier, and to Holly Shulman, editor of the Dolley Madison Digital Edition, for providing research assistance with this biography.