John Prevaux

Cite this Page

"John Prevaux," White House Workers History Project, White House Historical Association, 2026, https://whha.whirlihost.com/Detail/workers/228.

Position: Cook
Years in President's House: circa 1832 – 1833
Legal Status: Free Person
Gender: Male
Presidency: Andrew Jackson
Biography: Details about John Prevaux’s birth and early life remain scarce. An article in the Daily National Intelligencer lists Preveaux as a “French Restaurateur and Confectioner” working on Pennsylvania Avenue in 1826. (1) He married a woman named Marian Easton on March 13, 1827. (2)
Prevaux signed a contract on December 22, 1832, with President Andrew Jackson to live in the White House and work exclusively as Jackson’s cook for $40.00 per month. The contract also required Preveaux to give two months’ notice before leaving his position and dictated that he would not work when Congress was out of session. These stipulations were likely the result of Jackson’s troubles with his previous White House cook, whose name is unknown at this time. That individual had been running a boarding house in Washington, D.C. and neglecting his duties in the White House kitchens, likely prompting Jackson to ask for Prevaux’s exclusive service. (3)
A letter sent to Jackson from his friend, William Berkley Lewis, on August 13, 1833, may indicate Prevaux’s dismissal by White House Steward Joseph Boulanger: “Mr. Belongey informed me on my return that he had discharged one of the under cooks–indeed he has but one now, as the Cook is at present in Philadelphia.” Editors of the Andrew Jackson Papers posit that this fired cook was Prevaux. (4)
Following this time at the White House, Prevaux appeared in newspapers running a restaurant located in Washington, D.C., on Sixth Street, opposite of The National Hotel during the late 1830s. (5)
: (1) “John Prevaux,” Daily National Intelligencer, November 22, 1826, https://www.newspapers.com/image/1043340389/?match=1&terms=John%20Prevaux.
(2) John H. Prevaux in the District of Columbia, U.S., Marriage Records, 1810-1953,” Ancestry, accessed April 6, 2026, https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/61404/records/326259?tid=&pid=&queryId=a565b261-d40b-4eb6-83dd-5f9b62cb887c&_phsrc=OuO858&_phstart=successSource.
(3) “John Pemberton to Andrew Jackson,” The Papers of Andrew Jackson Edited by Daniel Feller, Thomas Coens, and Laura-Eve Moss, Vol X, 1832, 725, https://trace.tennessee.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1008&context=utk_jackson
(4) The Papers of Andrew Jackson Edited by Daniel Feller, Thomas Coens, and Laura-Eve Moss, Vol XI, 1833, 544-545, https://trace.tennessee.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1010&context=utk_jackson.
(5)“John Prevaux, Restaurateur," Daily National Intelligencer and Washington Express, January 24, 1840, https://www.newspapers.com/image/1039187959/?match=1&terms=John%20Prevaux.
Birthplace: Unclear from Context

Related Workers: Unidentified Andrew Jackson Cook 4; Joseph Boulanger
Ushers, Stewards, and Doorkeepers, 1833 – 1837