James Hurley
Cite this Page
"James Hurley," White House Workers History Project, White House Historical Association, 2026, https://whha.whirlihost.com/Detail/workers/35.
- Positions
- Footman
- Porter
- Stables
- Years in President's House
- 1789 – circa 1793
- Legal Status
- Free Person
- Gender
- Male
- Race/Ethnicity
- White
- Presidency
- George Washington
- Biography
- There is little known information about James Hurley’s life outside of the President’s House. However, a service record from 1778 indicates that a man named James Hurley served as a private in New York’s Second Regiment during the American Revolution.1 A man named James Hurley also appears in a 1780 document, serving in the New York First Regiment with the word “fife” next to his name, indicating he may have been a fife player. It is also possible this is a different individual.2 Hurley worked for President George Washington at both presidential residences in New York as well as the President’s House in Philadelphia. Originally, he joined the household as a porter, or person that assisted the first family with travel and luggage, but shifted into the role of footman with the departure of footman James Howard in December 1789. The job of footman entailed working in the home, assisting during meal service, delivering messages, answering the door, carrying luggage, and traveling with the carriage. Hurley also served as postilion, or person who rides a harnessed horse that also pulls the coach, during Washington’s tour of the southern states from March to June 1791. While working for the president, he dressed in livery, a uniform including a woolen coat, vest, and breeches in the colors of Washington’s coat of arms, white and red. He typically earned $7.00 per month.3 In 1790, Hurley married Fanny Paris, who also worked in the household as a washerwoman. She left the staff shortly after their marriage, but returned to work as needed.4 Hurley remained a part of the staff until May 1793, when he was last recorded in household records.5 Further information about his life is scarce.
- “James Hurley in the U.S. Compiled Revolutionary War Military Service Records, 1775-1783,” Ancestry, accessed October 23, 2025, https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/1309/records/108201?tid=&pid=&queryId=d771ab3d-04e0-4a20-a755-157e8ab40e63&_phsrc=OuO681&_phstart=successSource.
- It is also possible these are different individuals with the same name. “James Hurley in the U.S. Revolutionary War Rolls, 1775-1783,” Ancestry, accessed October 22, 2025, https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/4282/records/1168725?tid=&pid=&queryId=78847411-22a3-4518-ae31-d6b6cdff88e2&_phsrc=OuO685&_phstart=successSource.
- Stephen Decatur, Jr., Private Affairs of George Washington, from the records and accounts of Tobias Lear, Esquire, his secretary, (New York: De Capo Press, 1969), 12-13, 102, 197, 210, https://archive.org/details/privateaffairsof0000deca/page/124/mode/2up; “George Washington to Tobias Lear, 7 November 1790,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-06-02-0300. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Presidential Series, vol. 6, 1 July 1790 – 30 November 1790, ed. Mark A. Mastromarino. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1996, pp. 633–636.]; Jessie Macleod, “Giles,” George Washington’s Mount Vernon, accessed October 22, 2025, https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/giles.
- Stephen Decatur, Jr., Private Affairs of George Washington, from the records and accounts of Tobias Lear, Esquire, his secretary, (New York: De Capo Press, 1969),165, https://archive.org/details/privateaffairsof0000deca/page/124/mode/2up; “Washington’s Household Account Book, 1793-1797,” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 29, No. 4 (1905), 395, https://www-jstor-org.mutex.gmu.edu/stable/pdf/20085306.pdf?refreqid=fastly-default:1a1a99de40908600f170fd7090362ceb&ab_segments=&initiator=&acceptTC=1.
- Birthplace
- Unclear from Context
- Unclear from Context
- Related Workers
- James HowardKitchen, Dining Room, Pantry, and Storeroom, 1789
- Fanny Paris HurleyHousekeeping and Laundry, circa 1789 – 1790, circa 1793
- John MauldTransportation, 1789 – 1792