Ann Low Cary Cooper (1783-1850)

Ann, the first doyenne of Hyde Hall, was the daughter of Colonel Richard Cary, aide-de-camp to General George Washington, and Ann Haley Low, daughter of Cornelius Low and member of the Roosevelt family. 

Ann was described as “beautiful, vivacious, high strung [and] unpredictable.” She married Richard Fenimore Cooper, eldest brother of the author, James Fenimore Cooper, in 1801 at age 18, and they had five children, three of whom lived to maturity. Following Cooper’s death, Ann married George Clarke in August 1814. They separated in 1817 but later reunited. Their son, George Clarke, Jr., was born in 1822.

Clarke died of a heart attack at Hyde Hall in 1835.

During the following years, Ann saw to the welfare and education of her sons, kept the Hall in a habitable condition, and oversaw the servants and the outlying tenant farms.

Ann passed away in 1850.