Part of a Series on Vincentian Heritage Places

Lower Manhattan, New York City – Married Years II (Stone Street)

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After her father-in-law’s death in 1798, she and her husband William took in William’s six younger siblings, which necessitated a move to a larger house at 61 Stone Street (from 1798 to 1801), in the same general neighborhood where she had lived as a child.

“…Elizabeth turned to the more immediate problem of preparing the house on Stone Street for fall occupancy. The house was practically empty. William Magee Seton, on the advice of his friends, and with the consent of the family, had sold most of his father’s furnishings. The greater part had been in use since the elder Seton’s first marriage, and further, family disputes might have arisen if one son had kept the furniture. Elizabeth and William had an abundance of their own at Wall Street which would be moved to the family house, after papering, painting, and whitewashing had removed all danger of fever. The energetic little Mrs. Seton attacked pantries, closets, store-rooms, and cellar like a commanding general. Soon the place was ready to receive the family… and life at Stone Street settled down into its winter pattern.”

(Elizabeth Bayley Seton 1774-1821 by Annabelle M. Melville)

Their proximity to the Seton family business office, headquartered at 8 Stone Street, reveals a life that intertwined faith, family, and finance in the heart of early America.

But soon Britain’s blockades of France, and the loss of several of Seton’s ships at sea, resulted in William having to declare bankruptcy. The Setons lost their home at 61 Stone Street in lower Manhattan. In 1800 they celebrated their last Christmas at Stone Street, for in May 1801 the Setons were to move to the Battery.

View of Stone Street as it looks today.

All Vincentian Places in this Series

Red = Vincent de Paul, Blue = Frederic Ozanam, Teal = Elizabeth Seton

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