White House Historical Association

Alexander Williamson

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"Alexander Williamson," White House Workers History Project, White House Historical Association, 2026, https://whha.whirlihost.com/Detail/workers/363.
Position
Tutor
Years in President's House
1861 – 1865
Legal Status
Free Person
Gender
Male
Race/Ethnicity
White
Presidency
Abraham Lincoln
Biography
Alexander Williamson was born sometime around 1813 in Scotland. Little is known about his early life. However, he immigrated to the United States in 1855.1 Williamson worked in Washington, D.C., as a schoolteacher before the Lincolns hired him in 1861 to tutor their young sons, Willie and Tad.2 He remained on staff as tutor until January 1865, when he left for a clerk position in the Treasury Department.3 After Williamson heard that Lincoln had been shot on April 14, 1865, he claimed to have run straight to the Peterson House, where Lincoln was being treated. After Williamson heard that President Lincoln was shot at Ford’s Theatre on April 14, 1865, he claimed to have run to the Petersen House, where Lincoln was being treated. He recalled: “Immediately on entering the room I stepped to the foot of the bed on which the President lay. There was a trunk there, and on that trunk I sat from 10 p.m. until he breathed his last.”4 After Lincoln’s death, Williamson remained close to the family, acting as an agent for Mary Lincoln’s finances.5 He retired from the Treasury around 1885 and relocated to New York City. Williamson died there in 1903 and was buried at Glenwood Cemetery in Washington, D.C.6
  1. New York, New York, U.S., Index to Death Certificates, 1862–1948, entry for Alexander Williamson, 2 June 1903; database with images, Ancestry, accessed September 12, 2025, https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/61778/records/1379308?tid=&pid=&queryId=fe520007-c0c2-4623-bb2a-e06ec38eff50&_phsrc=fQN189&_phstart=successSource; “New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820–1957,” entry for Alexander Williamson, age 40, arrived New York on the Glance, 15 June 1855; database with images, Ancestry, accessed September 12, 2025, https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/7488/records/1882278.
  2. “1860 United States Federal Census,” entry for Alexander Williamson, Washington, D.C.; database with images, Ancestry, accessed September 12, 2025, https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/7667/records/10484596; “Saw President Die,” Evening Star, June 5, 1903, 12, https://www.newspapers.com/image/87247540/?match=1&terms=“Saw President Die,” .
  3. Alexander Williamson to Abraham Lincoln, January 24, 1865, Abraham Lincoln Papers: Series 1, General Correspondence, 1833–1916, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., https://www.loc.gov/resource/mal.4021300/?sp=1&st=image&r=-0.437,0.089,1.77,0.965,0; Official Register of the United States: Persons in the Civil, Military, and Naval Service of the United States, and List of Vessels, September 30, 1869 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1869), 34; https://www.google.com/books/edition/Official_Register/CQM3AQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq="Alexander Williamson"\.
  4. Williamson claimed he was at Petersen House because his son, William, a messenger in the War Department, had been at Ford’s Theatre when President Lincoln was shot. He said his son ran home with the news, prompting him to go to the White House to inform Captain Robert Lincoln. Williamson further claimed that he delivered the message and accompanied the captain to see his slain father, though no evidence has been found to substantiate this account. See…“Saw President Die,” Evening Star, June 5, 1903, 12, https://www.newspapers.com/image/87247540/?match=1&terms=“Saw President Die,” .
  5. Justin G. Turner and Linda Levitt Turner, Mary Todd Lincoln: Her Life and Letters (New York: Knopf, 1972), 248–52, https://archive.org/details/marytoddlincolnh0000turn/page/252/mode/2up?q="Alexander+Williamson".
  6. Official Register of the United States: Persons in the Civil, Military, and Naval Service of the United States, and List of Vessels, July 1, 1885 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1885), 70; https://www.google.com/books/edition/Official_Register_of_the_United_States/trBDAQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq="Alexander Williamson"; “Saw President Die,” Evening Star, June 5, 1903, 12, https://www.newspapers.com/image/87247540/?match=1&terms=“Saw President Die,” .
Birthplace
Scotland
Glenwood Cemetery
Related Worker
Mary Ann Cuthbert
Housekeeping and Laundry, Ushers, Stewards, and Doorkeepers, 1861 – 1865