Dolley Madison Manuscripts :: First Ladies’ Library

Where before America had been a cluster of competing British colonies—with differing origins, goals, and policies—by 1776 colonists had forged a separate identity flexible enough to support not just revolution but nation building. Images, runaway slave advertisements, trade maps, slave deeds, and legislative and county court petitions from the University of North Carolina Greensboro Digital Library on American Slavery. Transcriptions of significant primary source documents pertaining to the American Revolution.

In Montpelier 1817–1837

However, and perhaps more importantly, this project seeks to encourage conversation and engagement around the records, providing opportunities for a more grassroots and diverse narrative of the history of Virginia’s African American people. The family tree for Dolley Madison should not be considered exhaustive or authoritative. Oftentimes the family trees listed as still in progress have derived from research into famous people who have a kinship to this person. Research devoted solely to this person has either not yet taken place or it is currently in progress. As with all family trees on this website, the sources for each ancestor are listed on the family group pages so that you can personally judge the reliability of the information. In 1848, Jennings helped plan the largest slave escape in United States history, as 77 slaves from the Washington, DC area took to The Pearl, a schooner, intending to sail up the Chesapeake Bay to a free state.

On 17 July 1849, just five days after Madison’s death, the three wills were submitted to the Orphan’s Court for probate. In December James C. McGuire signed a collectors bond on Madison’s estate and began the process of taking an inventory and making a valuation of her property. In March of 1850, a jury empaneled by the Orphan’s Court ruled that the 9 July will was the true final will of Dolley Madison. That ruling was upheld and certified by the Circuit Court in May of 1850 (Dolley Madison’s Last Will and Testament, Decision, 31 May 1850). Four days later, on the day of her funeral, Pyne gave a copy of the will to Smith; on the 17th Smith filed it in probate court; Pyne and Smith then sent Todd a copy of the will and invited him to discuss it with the rest of the family. Cutts and his supporters had thrown down a gauntlet; they had challenged Todd to a fight over Dolley’s will and her intentions.

Court & Public Records

In 1845 Dolley drafted an emancipation document for Jennings, but in the end decided to rent him out to President Polk , thereby making a bit of money and earning the chip of a personal favor . Dolley Madison had an extensive social life in Washington, DC, where she had already become a fixture. Every year, on New Year’s day, the president opened the White House to visitors; concurrently, Dolley received guests in her own home. She filled her house—located across Lafayette Square from the Executive Mansion—with “a crowd of ladies and gentlemen, who had gathered to pay their respects to this very estimable old lady, the beloved widow of the late lamented ex-President Madison” . The presidents and their families, both Tyler and Polk , paid homage to her. On 4 July 1845 the president staged an Independence Day celebration party for the public, and “many of the same individuals also called and paid their respects to the venerable Mrs. Madison, at her residence” .

The two strategized together, or Todd instructed his mother on how to respond. Todd wrote Fry on 28 June, while Dolley was dying in Washington, that his mother had received Fry’s note, but was so indisposed that she simply “put in a pidgeon hole,” along with other dunning notices. Dolley called Fry’s claims “trifles” and asserted that congressional action had made her invulnerable. “This is my plea for indulging myself in a free translation of the law,” she averred (Dolley Payne Todd Madison to John B. Fry, 29 June 1849). Then, in late July her niece and companion, Annie Payne , fell deeply ill.

Dolley Madison Family Tree (Surname Index)

After James’s death in 1836, Dolley returned to Washington City, where she resumed her place at the head of society. Amazingly, Dolley’s fame seemed to increase after James’s death. If she was a significant presence in the capital before, she now became a personage for the ages, not merely an individual, but an icon. Attired in clothes that hearkened back to her own White House days, Dolley exuded serenity and a sense of history.

The Real Face of James Madison Postcard Based upon his Life Mask – Sepia B/W by Digital Yarbs Presidents Founding Fathers

Born in 1768 to Mary Coles and John Payne, Quakers in North Carolina, Dolley was raised on a plantation in Tidewater Virginia. Her father was a slave-owner who, after the War for Independence, manumitted his slaves, in part because of his Quaker affiliation and because of a groundswell of the ideals of liberty stemming from the war. In 1782, when the Virginia General Assembly legalized manumission of slaves, Virginia Quakers took the lead in the endeavor. In 1783, Payne moved his family to Philadelphia, the hub of the Quaker community, where he tried his hand unsuccessfully at being a merchant. Overnight, James Madison had gone from being a potentially impeachable president to a national hero, thanks to Gen. Andrew Jackson’s—and Dolley Madison’s—resolve.

Seven of her predecessors had moved in to the executive residence with enslaved servants. This panel discussion looked at how first ladies from Martha Washington to Michelle Obama interacted with the racial politics of their times — and the long history, dating back to Abigail Adams, of their efforts to promote civil rights for all. Founded in 1812 by Revolutionary War patriot and printer Isaiah Thomas, the American Antiquarian Society is both a learned society and a major independent research library. The modern definition of caricature is a pictorial how to remove Paktor account representation of a person or thing through the gross exaggeration of its most characteristic features. In times of social and political upheaval the caricaturist boldly, and satirically, portrays the world as they see it, and any text present is secondary to the meaning constructed by the portrait. The caricatures in this collection depict times of turbulence in American history and range in date from the Revolutionary War to the War of 1812 and to the presidential elections of 1860 and 1864 which brought Abraham Lincoln to the White House.

In addition to understanding foreign ministers, Dolley even influenced politicians to accept her husband’s position on certain issues pressing to the United States. Dolley was the first daughter of Mary Coles Payne and John Payne Jr., Virginian transplants to North Carolina. Her mother was a lifelong Quaker, and her father joined the faith upon marrying Mary in 1761. In 1769, the Paynes returned to Virginia, where they raised their children on the family plantation.

Her son had always been a gambler and an alcoholic, and throughout the Madisons’ years of retirement, John Payne Todd had continued to work his way through the family money. His debts had created financial pressure on the family that James Madison was hard put to support. That left Dolley alone at Montpelier with her brother, John Coles Payne, and his family, but Payne was himself concerned about what would happen there subsequent to James’s death, and determined to decamp for the West. Only Payne’s daughter Annie, Anna Coles Payne Causten, remained by Dolley’s side. She was sweet and loving, comforting and obedient, but young and innocent and a very slender reed.

She established the tradition that the mansion would reflect the first lady’s tastes and ideas about entertaining. With the help of Benjamin Latrobe, architect and surveyor of public buildings, she decorated and furnished the house so that it was both elegant and comfortable. Unfortunately, not many Americans had the chance to see it before the British burned the mansion in August 1814 during the War of 1812. Over time, Dolley Madison earned a reputation as skillful diplomat, humanitarian, style icon, and politically savvy hostess. She defined the role of the President’s wife and became, in effect, America’s first First Lady, and in the process changed the face of the American presidency. As the president’s wife, Dolley Madison created a uniquely American style – one that combined power with republican values.