A.J. Donelson was an American diplomat and a candidate for Vice President of the United States. A.J. was one of three sons of Samuel and Mary Donelson. His father died when he was five years old and when his mother remarried, he moved to the Hermitage, the home of his aunt Rachel Donelson and uncle Andrew Jackson, future President of the United States. He married his first cousin, Emily Tennessee Donelson, who served as the White House hostess and unofficial First Lady after the death of their aunt Rachel. A.J. Donelson was the president's private secretary throughout his administration. A.J. and Emily had four children before her death in 1836 of tuberculosis. In 1841 he married another cousin, Elizabeth (Martin) Randolph. He would have eight children with Elizabeth. Elizabeth Martin Randolph was a widow of Meriwether Lewis Randolph, a son of Martha Jefferson Randolph, and a grandson of Thomas Jefferson.