The news that J.D. Vance and his wife Usha are expecting a baby in July spurred me to research previous cases of babies born to incumbent Vice-Presidents (four boys, to three Veeps) and Presidents (three, two girls and a boy, to two POTUSes).

It has been inaccurately stated in some sources that Floride Calhoun (1792-1866) was the only previous Second Lady to have a baby during the Vice-Presidential term of her husband, in this case John C. Calhoun (1782-1850, Veep 1825-1832). She was the first but not the last.

The Calhouns’ ninth and tenth children (of ten) were born during his term, James Edward Calhoun (1826-1861) and William Lowndes Calhoun (1829-1858). Both were born in South Carolina. James became a lawyer and went to California. He died aged 36 and is not known to have had children.

William stayed in South Carolina, married twice and had three sons with his second wife (incidentally she was the widow of one of their older brothers) before dying aged 29. I think he has living descendants.

Floride Calhoun outlived all but one of her ten children, including John and William.

Frank Hamlin (1862-1922), son of Hannibal Hamlin (1809-1891, Veep 1861-1865) and his second wife Ellen Hamlin née Emery (1835-1925), was the longest lived (so far) of the Vice-Presidential babies. He was born in Maine, became a lawyer and moved to Chicago. I don’t know that he had any children.

The most recent Veep baby was Schuyler Colfax III (1870-1925), only child of Schuyler Colfax (1823-1885) and his second wife Ellen née Wade (1836-1911). He became Mayor of South Bend, Indiana at 28, and then worked for Kodak. Two of his three children died young but the third has living descendants.

The three Presidential babies were all born more recently. Grover Cleveland (1837-1908, POTUS 1885-89 & 1893-97) married Frances Folsom (1864-1947) in 1886 during his first term and they had two of their five children during his second term.

Esther Cleveland (1893-1980) was the second of her parents’ five kids. She married a British army officer and had two daughters, one of whom was the philosopher Philippa Foot, the co-inventor of the Trolley Problem. (Her photo illustrates this post)

Marion Cleveland (1895-1977) married twice and had four children. Her second husband was John Harlan Amen, the chief interrogator at the Nuremberg tribunal.

Both Cleveland sisters have living descendants – indeed four of their six children lived into this century.

Last and saddest, the fourth child of John F. Kennedy (1917-1963, POTUS 1961-63) and his wife Jacqueline née Bouvier 1929-1994) was Patrick Bouvier Kennedy (1963-63), who was born prematurely and lived for only two days.

Coincidentally Marion Cleveland and Patrick Kennedy were born quite close to each other geographically (if 68 years apart), she in Buzzards Bay at the base of Cape Cod and he in the nearby Otis Air Force Base.

Of the seven babies on my list, only two were born in Washington DC were Schuyler Colfax in 1870, and Esther Cleveland in 1893. Perhaps the Vances will add a third.