We have found only one eyewitness account of the potty-mouthed parrot mentioned in a letter decades after Jackson's funeral. No similar accounts have emerged to corroborate the claim.
Parrots can have foul temperaments. A long-viral internet rumor claimed that U.S. President Andrew Jackson's pet parrot got so rowdy and profane at Jackson's funeral that it had to be removed.
The funeral in 1845 drew thousands to his Tennessee home, known as The Hermitage, where he was buried. Jackson was suffering from a number of ailments, including malarial coughs and old wounds from duels that left bullets lodged in his lungs and arm.
But it was Poll, his beloved parrot, that allegedly drew unwanted attention at the funeral by swearing like a sailor. According to one post, "President Andrew Jackson taught his pet parrot to curse. The bird was later kicked out of the former president's funeral for swearing during the service, according to one Jackson biographer."
The claim has been repeated on the YouTube account connected to the official museum for Jackson's home, as well as by the cast of "Hamilton"—a musical about the founding fathers of the United States.
The Hermitage conducts tours for visitors around Jackson's historic home. A 2015 report in The Tennessean described a tour guide's account of the funeral: "The day of the funeral, almost as if his best friend had departed, he [the parrot] squawked and squeaked and chirped and yes, said a few bad words."
We found only one written account of the cursing parrot, detailed by a funeral attendee in a letter, decades after the event. A historian and The Hermitage's collections team also directed us to this same account. Given that we were unable to find more than one source recounting the incident, and that it was shared years after it allegedly occurred, we rate this claim as "Unproven" until more details come to light.
To determine the veracity of the claim, we looked closely at any firsthand accounts about Poll, the parrot. According to Dan Feller, professor of history at the University of Tennessee and editor at "The Papers of Andrew Jackson" project, Jackson bought the parrot for his wife, Rachel, for $25 through the Nashville firm of Decker & Dyer on June 5, 1827. Rachel died in 1828, however, and Poll remained at The Hermitage.
We found numerous examples of Jackson enquiring about the bird's health in letters to family members as collected in "The Papers of Andrew Jackson." In March 1829, he wrote to his nephew, William Donelson:
My Dr Sir write me on the recept of this and let me know how your dear little Elisabeth is, & whether poor poll the favorite bird of my dear wife is still living—present me affectionately to Elisabeth to your father & mother, and all our relations, say to them that we are all well & all send their love to them & believe me respectfully your friend.
In October 1829, he wrote to Donelson:
An evidence of my regard for Elisabeth, was my leaving with her poor poll the favorite of my Dear departed wife—whether this bird still lives you have not said—present my best love to Elisabeth, and ask her for my sake, to preserve her for me if she can, until I return, as I intend to foster the bird & prolong its life as long as I live for the fondness my Dear wife had for her—when you write say whether it lives.
Donelson wrote back in December 1830, "poor Poll too is doing well she is as fat and saucy as ever from her continued good health I think she will live to be an old Bird."
Poll is mentioned numerous times over Jackson's letters. Feller pointed out that Poll was referenced less after 1837 when Jackson moved home, possibly "because he was then himself living at home and had no need to write to enquire after her."
Poll's behavior at Jackson's funeral was described in a letter decades after the funeral in the 1921 book, "Andrew Jackson and Early Tennessee History" by S.G. Heiskell. The author endeavored to collect complete documents referencing the president, his state papers, and other miscellaneous items, and reproduce it in a series of volumes as a way to study that period of American history.
One letter, written by Reverend W. M. Norment to Heiskell in 1921, detailed Jackson's funeral, which Norment attended. Norment described being a young boy when he first met Jackson just a few weeks before his death, when Jackson gave him and his friends "a hearty, fatherly talk upon the responsibilities of life, of church and state, especially of the Christian life." After that meeting, they heard of his death (emphasis, ours):
This was about three weeks before his death. When hearing that he was dead, I, with others, decided to attend the burial. The funeral was preached by a Presbyterian Pastor from Nashville, standing on the front porch to a great concourse of people. His body was then taken by a military company and borne to the garden and placed beside his wife in a vault that he had prepared. A military salute was then fired and we left him there to rest in peace, to await the great resurrection morn.
Before the sermon and while the crowd was gathering, a wicked parrot that was a household pet, got excited and commenced swearing so loud and long as to disturb the people and had to be carried from the house.
And thus the man of nerve that won battles and guided the ship of State thru stormy scenes, had finished his work.
Experts we spoke to pointed to Norment's account as evidence of the incident occurring. The collections office at The Hermitage said in response to our query about the veracity of the account: "The Rev. Norment reference is the only one we know about Poll's actions at Jackson's funeral."
"The Papers of Andrew Jackson" also has a footnote under the 1827 account about Poll's purchase from Decker & Dyer: "Named 'Poll,' the parrot, bought for Rachel, was still living at the time of AJ's [Andrew Jackson's] death. According to an eyewitness account, 'Poll' had to be removed from the house during AJ's funeral because of its loud cursing." The eyewitness referenced in the footnote is not named but it is most likely Norment.
Feller concluded that he could find no other mentions of Poll from the funeral, other than the letter from Norment:
I've not found any mention of Poll at the funeral earlier than the Norment letter, which you'll note was written decades after the fact. It's not mentioned, for instance, in James Parton's three-volume 1860 Jackson biography. Note also that Norment is presenting the story as new information, not as something his correspondent Heiskell would already have known about. Many modern accounts, including for instance Arthur M. Schlesinger's "Age of Jackson," tell the story (sometimes with embellished imaginary details), but they all trace back directly or indirectly to the Norment letter as printed in S. G. Heiskell's book. On the other side, Norment's tale does jibe with some other information that we can corroborate: that Poll the parrot existed is well documented. So is his story true? As a historian, I'd say that the best we can say is that it's uncontroverted but also unauthenticated, and leave it at that.
A representative from the collections department of the Hermitage told us that after the funeral, Poll was likely cared for by remaining family members at The Hermitage, given that Jackson's adoptive grandchildren referenced the parrot in an 1850 letter.