Jennette Hart; Gennett Hart; Jeannette Hart

Female

1794

August 26, 1861

Saybrook, CT

Jeanette Margaret Hart was the fourth of seven daughters of Elisha and Jeannette McCurdy Hart of Saybrook, Connecticut. In 1819 Jeanette travelled to Litchfield, Connecticut where she spent the year studying at Sarah Pierce's Female Academy.

Numerous stories abound about Hart's supposed affair with Simon Bolivar. Her older sister Ann married commodore Isaac Hull and the couple frequently hosted Ann's sisters on journeys abroad. When they went to South America in 1823, they brought younger sister Augusta. The Hull's were also accompanied by Heman Allen, who married sister Elizabeth and brought her to Chile where he served as minister. At the same time, Jeanette was attempting to regain her health by traveling to Nassau.

1826 newspaper accounts reported of meetings and ...potential romance between Augusta Hart and Bolivar, but by September of that year, they were retracting the story and reporting that the family knew of no engagement.

A 1942 historical romance novel put Jeanette in the place of her sister, and is likely responsible for the persistence of this story. Although not engaged to Bolivar, another notable man was one of her suitors. Samuel F.B. Morse, wrote of his affection for her but later noted that the match was not to be.

Jeanette would go on to author her own works, including Letters from the Bahama Islands, Written in 1823-1824 which was published anonymously in 1827. Her novel Nahant: Or "The Floure of Souvenance" would later be made part of tour guides and local histories.

Jeanette converted to Catholicism following a trip to Washington in 1832. She also supported her sister Sarah through a public divorce in the 1830s.
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Primary sources for Jeanette Margaret Hart include an album of poetry, located in the Litchfield Female Academy collection, Series 2: Student Papers, Records, and Documents, Folder 55.

1819

Jeanette Hart kept an Album while attending the Litchfield Female Academy (Litchfield Historical Society - Litchfield Female Academy collection).

Hart, Jeanette M., Cora; or, The genius of America Philadelphia : E. Littell. 1828.

Hart, Jeanette M., Letters from the Bahama Islands, Philadelphia: H.C. Carey and I. Lea, 1827. Accessed at https://repository.library.northeastern.edu/downloads/neu:m044rd51b?datastream_id=content on November 7, 2023

Hart, Jannette M., Nahant : or "The floure of souvenance" Philadelphia: H.C. Carey and I. Lea, 1827. Accessed at https://ia600203.us.archive.org/cors_get.php?path=/35/items/nahantortheflour00hart/nahantortheflour00hart.pdf on November ...7, 2023.

Levy, Tedd Remarkable Women of Old Saybrook Arcadia Publishing, Mar 19, 2013.
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