page_title: Nellie Grant
section_title: White House years
hierarchical_section_title: Nellie Grant / White House years
caption_attribution_description: Julia Grant with family. Library of Congress description: "Grant, Mrs. U.S. and son (Jesse) and daughter (Nellie) also her father Mr. Dent"
context_page_description: Ellen Wrenshall "Nellie" Grant was the third child and only daughter of U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant and First Lady Julia Grant. At the age of 16, Nellie was sent abroad to England by President Grant, and was received by Queen Victoria. She was also regarded, popularly, by girls, as a teenager growing up in the White House and so attracted much attention.
  In 1874, Nellie was one of a rare group of celebrated women who married at the White House. Her marriage to Englishman Algernon Sartoris produced children, but the couple later became estranged, and she was granted a divorce. She reclaimed her American roots in her second marriage to Frank Jones, but within a few months she became ill. She died an invalid in 1922.
context_section_description: At the age of 13, Nellie moved into the White House, after her father was elected to the Presidency in 1868. Grant was a successful Union War general and Commanding General of the U.S. Army during Reconstruction Era. Nellie made friends with everyone and she shared the national popularity of her father President Grant.  The nation was fascinated by Nellie, as she was the first teenage girl in the White House since Abby Fillmore.
  Because she was their only daughter, with three brothers, the Grants sent Nellie to Miss Porter's School, an elite boarding school for girls in Connecticut. The situation did not last long after Nellie sent three distressing telegrams to Grant, who relented, and sent an escort to bring Nellie back to the White House. Washington society was shocked when Nellie danced through the night at a society ball. President Grant, her father, however, did not rebuke her. When Nellie turned 16, President Grant was concerned when there were many young suitors who pursued his only daughter. To keep Nellie out of the limelight, Grant sent her on a trip abroad to England surrounded by trusted chaperones. In England, Nellie was received by Queen Victoria and she attended many garden parties. Victoria described Nellie as "rather stiff and off hand in her manner and spoke with a great twang.". On the voyage home she met her future husband Algernon Charles Frederick Sartoris (pronounced Sar-tress) [August 1, 1851 – February 3, 1893], an Englishman of "minor gentry", and potential heir to his family's fortune. Sartoris's mother was Adelaide Kemble, a former opera singer, and sister of the famous actress Fanny Kemble. Sartoris's father was a member of Parliament and served as a British European court minister. Grant had initially opposed Sartoris's courtship and engagement to his daughter, having learned from his parents that he was a "drinker". Grant, himself, had an unfair reputation of drinking and had battled false rumors of alcoholism throughout his life. Grant also did not want his daughter to live in England.
  When Grant invited Sartoris to the White House to play billiards, Sartoris told Grant he wanted to marry Nellie. Both Julia and President Grant had the premonition that there was something not quite right with Sartoris. Grant finally relented and on July 7, 1873, writing to Sartoris's father, he gave his daughter permission to marry Sartoris on condition that the wedding take place in a year.  Grant was concerned about Sartoris not having permanent employment and that he would have to support Nellie on his Presidential salary.
caption: Nellie as a child with her mother, grandfather Frederick, and brother Jesse
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