Isaac Gouverneur (1757-1800)

He was for a long time the senior partner in the well-known mercantile firm of Gouverneur & Kemble that he founded with his brother-in-law, Peter Kemble. They were among the first to engage largely - and profitably - in the China trade. Isaac was married twice. June 15th, 1777, on the Caribbean island of St. Eustatius, he married Elizabeth Pickman, daughter of Mrs Cornelius Stevenson by her first husband. They had one daughter together but the marriage ended in divorce after it was discovered that Elizabeth had not only had an adulterous affair with a Mr Cadette, but also had a baby by him  - a boy who was later paid off with $1,000 when he made a claim on Gouverneur's estate. On July 7th, 1795, Isaac married a younger cousin, Alida Gouverneur, "who in personal appearance surpassed nearly all the females of her time".

In New York, he lived in a large house on Hanover Square with his second wife and their three children. His child (Susan) by his first marriage lived with her grandmother, Mrs Cornelius Stevenson. Susan's husband, Garrit Storm, later recalled: "When her father visited her, he never failed to say if she was in want of anything to tell him, and she should have every wish gratified: adding - as to money, it did rain but poured upon him. She, however, never had occasion to profit by his kind offers: being the idol of her grandmother who was always extremely liberal to her". Isaac's finances took a turn for the worse in 1800 when his firm was sued by a Frenchman after receiving a cargo from East India. They were ordered to pay out $120,000 and he died just weeks after the ruling.