Early Years
Dolley Payne was born in Guilford County, North Carolina, on May 20, 1768, and moved to Hanover County while still a young child. She was the fourth of eight children born to the Quakers John Payne and Mary Coles Payne. Little is known about her father's background except that he came from an Anglican family of middling success. Her mother came from a more distinguished Virginia planter lineage, being a member of both the Coles family and the Winston family, connecting Dolley to many prominent Virginians, including Patrick Henry and Edward Coles.
When the American Revolution (1775–1783) ended and Virginians were legally allowed to manumit their slaves, John Payne did so and moved his family to Philadelphia, where he became a laundry-starch merchant. In the post-revolutionary environment of spiraling costs and contracting trade, Payne's business failed. He died a broken man on October 24, 1792. Mary Payne opened a boarding house, one of the few respectable businesses available for women at the time, but soon retired in 1793 after her daughter Lucy Payne married George Steptoe Washington, a nephew of George Washington, and she moved in with them.
Dolley Payne married twice in the 1790s. First she wed a young Quaker lawyer named John Todd, who provided her with Quaker respectability and financial security. With him she had two sons, John Payne and William Temple. In the autumn of 1793, however, Philadelphia was engulfed by a yellow fever epidemic, from which Dolley and her two sons fled to the nearby suburbs. Her baby died, her husband died, her in-laws died, and the life she had so recently carved out for herself perished as well.
By the turn of the century death had reshaped Dolley Madison's family, and marriage had altered her daily life. She lost not only her father and her first husband, but three of her four brothers: Walter Payne, who died at sea; William Temple Payne, who was court-martialed and discharged from the Army and died young; and Isaac Payne, who was shot to death with a pistol. Her mother, her brother John Coles Payne, and her sister Lucy lived with George Steptoe Washington. Her sister Mary wed John George Jackson, a member of Congress. And her sister Anna and her son John Payne Todd lived with her, now the wife of a wealthy planter in central Virginia.
The First Washington Years
During the secretary of state years (1801–1809) Dolley Madison had no official responsibilities. It is sometimes said that she served as Jefferson's hostess because he was a widower, but this was rarely true; Jefferson usually held dinners at round tables attended by men only and had daughters to help fill a wife's duties. Madison did, however, develop a reputation as the most important hostess in the city. She made people feel comfortable without effacing herself and she commanded attention without dominating it. During the eight years her husband was a key member in Jefferson's cabinet, Madison learned to navigate between worlds. She mixed with congressmen and townspeople, cabinet officials and diplomats, those who were her friends and those who were the administration's political enemies.
In 1809 James Madison became the fourth president of the United States and Dolley Madison his "queen," as she was often called. She was already well known around Washington, the popular wife of a powerful politician. Once in the White House she made her mark, especially through the way she entertained and dressed. Through her decoration, she also enhanced the presidential mansion in a new, ugly, and raw capital city.
And by May 1809, Dolley Madison had introduced weekly socials held on Wednesday nights and known as "squeezes." These drawing-room events were necessary because the president of a republic, unlike a monarch, had to be accessible to citizens who wanted to see him. But accessibility had to be scheduled so that visitors did not overwhelm the chief executive's time. Furthermore, the White House could not let those diplomatic missions established by the British and French in Washington become centers of entertainment and outshine the Americans. So Madison held her parties, and people flocked to them. As one observer noted in 1816: "Such a crowd I was never in. It took us ten minutes to push and shove ourselves through the dining room; at the upper part of it stood the President and his lady, all standing, and a continual moving in and out."
As in her entertaining, there was a method and a political strategy behind the way Madison outfitted herself. She dressed elegantly but simply, without the pretense of a European aristocrat. She often wore pearls, for example, rather than the diamonds worn by a British lady of court. Through her garb she signaled that the presidential mansion was not a court but the residence of an American executive.
Madison remains an icon for the perfect hostess, but she is best remembered for her conduct and actions during the War of 1812. Foreign affairs dominated the administration from the day James Madison took office. The fundamental problem was how to preserve American neutrality during the Napoleonic Wars. On June 1, 1812, President Madison sent a message to Congress listing American grievances; Congress declared war on June 18. Conflicts between the political parties had stirred Washington society since Madison took office. After the declaration of war it became worse, and Dolley Madison doubled her efforts to be gracious and charming enough to disarm even her enemies. Her drawing-room parties became increasingly charged with partisan debate, and eventually the rancor of war could not be kept out. But she remained publicly calm, no matter how inwardly enraged she felt.
Return to Montpelier
In March 1817 James Madison retired from office, and a month later the Madisons returned to Montpelier, in Orange County. It was a beautiful and gracious house that had steadily been improved upon over the past sixteen years and was filled with paintings, portraits, busts, and a library of more than 4,000 volumes. The estate was a cluster of four farms, with a village of slave cabins on each farm. Tobacco and wheat were the cash crops; corn and pork were the stapes of diet. Their slaves numbered more than 100.
James Madison never returned to Washington, and only once did he leave his estate: to participate in the Virginia constitutional convention of 1829. But if the Madisons stayed in place, visitors flocked to them. Dolley Madison's brother John Coles Payne, now sober and married, lived close by with his wife and eight children. Anna Payne Cutts and her children clustered there. Lucy Payne Washington Todd (by 1826 twice married and widowed) frequently stayed. And visitors of all sorts filled the home.
At the time of the Madisons' retirement, in 1817, they had held sizeable assets and substantial savings. But they suffered, like most Virginia farmers, when tobacco prices and exports declined in the 1820s and 1830s. The cost of their gracious lifestyle and constant generosity began to take its toll.
Entertaining and supporting a large enslaved population combined with dwindling agricultural prices, however, were not the only drains on their economy. Madison's son, John Payne Todd, continued to gamble and drink. His creditors sent dunning letters to James Madison. By the winter of 1827 Todd had become a definite burden. He had left his stepfather with a debt of $4,000. James Madison tried to sell land, but there were no takers. He wished to avoid selling slaves but ultimately could not, and in 1834, he shipped sixteen slaves to a relative in Louisiana. In all, James Madison spent about $40,000 to pay off Todd's debts, at least half of which he concealed from Dolley Madison, although he admitted to Edward Coles that "his mother has known eno' to make her wretched the whole time of his strange absence & misterious silence."
Increasingly Dolley Madison's time was taken up in tending to her husband, whose health was failing. She wrote her niece Dolley Cutts in 1834 that her days were "devoted to nursing and comforting my patient, who walks only from the bed in which he breakfasts, to one in the little chamber." On June 28, 1836, James Madison died. Dolley had been married to him for forty-two years. With him, she had found economic security and a public role to play. She had discovered great talents within herself, and she had been a faithful, supportive, and loving companion. Henceforth she was a widow.
Widowhood at Montpelier
She was forced to sell what remained of Montpelier: house, property, and slaves. As 1844 came to a close her property was gone. "No one," she wrote, "I think can appreciate my feeling of grief and dismay at the necessity of transferring to another a beloved home." Her job had become to remain the dignified and beloved relict of the fourth president of the United States, for which she continued to be honored.
Final Years in Washington
Madison remained an active hostess to the end, even in her poverty and without her husband. She socialized with President James K. Polk and became a good friend of his wife, Sarah Childress Polk. President Zachary Taylor was kin to her husband. Despite being an impoverished widow, she resided on the top rung of society.
When she moved permanently to Washington she divided her enslaved population. She brought some to Washington, sold some to the man who had purchased Montpelier, and gave the rest to her son. She did what she could to avoid breaking up families in the process, but the lives of her enslaved population were not her primary concern.
Madison's financial woes were eased slightly in 1848 when Congress agreed to purchase the rest of her husband's papers for $25,000, which this time was put in a trust to keep it from Madison's son. Todd was furious. He went around the city vaguely threatening vengeance against the trustees. Madison finally wrote to him on June 29: "Your mother would have no wish to live after her son issued such threats which would deprive her of her friends."
Her funeral was held at Saint John's Church on July 16, and it was a state occasion in keeping with her legacy. It was attended by the president, the cabinet, the diplomatic corps, members of the House and Senate, justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, officers of the Army and Navy, the mayor, and other leading citizens. At half-past five that afternoon this large and imposing funeral procession wound its way to what later came to be called the Congressional Cemetery, in Washington, D.C., where she was buried. Her remains were transferred in 1858, according to the dictates of her will, to rest next to her husband at Montpelier.
Time Line
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May 20, 1768 - Dolley Payne is born in Guilford County, North Carolina.
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ca. 1783 - John Payne moves his family, including daughter Dolley, to Philadelphia after manumitting his slaves.
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1790 - John Todd, a young Quaker lawyer, and Dolley Payne marry. They will have two children.
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October 24, 1792 - John Payne, Dolley Payne Todd's father, dies in Philadelphia, leaving his wife, Mary, to run a boarding house.
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Autumn 1793 - Philadelphia's yellow fever epidemic kills Dolley Payne Todd's first husband, John Payne Todd, a child, and her in-laws.
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1793 - Mary Payne, Dolley Payne Todd's mother, retires from running a boarding house in Philadelphia to move in with her daughter Lucy, recently married to George Steptoe Washington.
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September 15, 1794 - James Madison and Dolley Payne Todd marry.
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1797 - James and Dolley Madison move from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Montpelier.
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1801–1809 - James and Dolley Madison live in Washington, D.C., while James Madison serves as the secretary of state.
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1804 - Anna Payne, Dolley Madison's sister, and Richard Cutts, a congressman from Maine, marry.
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1805 - Dolley Madison spends several months in Philadelphia receiving treatment for an ulcerated knee.
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1807 - Mary Payne, Dolley Madison's mother, dies.
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1808 - Mary Payne Jackson, Dolley Madison's sister, dies of tuberculosis.
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March 4, 1809 - James Madison begins his first term as the fourth U.S. president.
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May 1809 - By this time, Dolley Madison is hosting weekly social gatherings to allow citizens access to the president, James Madison.
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August 23, 1814 - In a letter to her sister Lucy Todd, written from the White House, Dolley Madison describes her preparations to flee Washington, D.C., during the War of 1812.
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August 24, 1814 - As British troops march toward Washington, D.C., Dolley Madison and her domestic staff, including enslaved laborers. evacuate the White House.
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September 8, 1814 - The president's mansion having been burned by British troops, the household of President James Madison and Dolley Madison moves into the Octagon a few blocks away.
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April 1817 - James Madison, his wife, Dolley, and members of their household return to their plantation, Montpelier, after living in Washington, D.C.
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1827 - By this year, James and Dolley Madison face financial trouble from falling tobacco prices and from debts incurred by their son John Payne Todd.
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1834 - James Madison sells sixteen slaves to a relative in Louisiana in order to pay debts.
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June 28, 1836 - James Madison dies at Montpelier. His slave Paul Jennings will later write, "He ceased breathing as quietly as the snuff of a candle goes out."
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March 1837 - In order to pay debts left after James Madison's death, Dolley Madison sells a portion of his papers to Congress for $30,000.
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February 1, 1841 - In her will, Dolley Madison arranges for the disbursement of her property among family and friends.
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1843 - William Madison sues his sister-in-law Dolley Madison for an alleged debt left by the late James Madison.
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August 8, 1844 - Dolley Madison sells the Madison plantation, Montpelier, to Henry W. Moncure.
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1844 - As part of Dolley Madison's move to Washington, D.C., she separates the enslaved population at Montpelier, selling some, giving some to family, and bringing some to her new household.
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March 31, 1848 - In "Mrs. Madison and Her Slaves" and "Mrs. Madison's Slaves Again," the editors of the Liberator reprint two letters, signed Hampden, accusing Dolley Madison of selling her slave Paul Jennings and attempting to sell a fifteen-year-old enslaved girl.
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April 14, 1848 - The editors of the North Star condemn Dolley Madison for selling her slave, asking whether "she has a heart."
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1848 - Dolley Madison sells the rest of the late James Madison's papers to Congress for $25,000. The much-needed money is placed in a trust to protect it from John Payne Todd.
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July 12, 1849 - Dolley Madison dies in Washington, D.C. Her death draws national attention.
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July 16, 1849 - Dolley Madison's funeral is a state occasion, held at Saint John's Church in Washington, D.C., and attended by the president and many dignitaries. She is buried in what is later known as the Congressional Cemetery.
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1858 - Fulfilling the dictates of her will, Dolley Madison's remains are moved to Montpelier and placed beside those of her husband James Madison.
References
Further Reading
Cite This Entry
- APA Citation:
Shulman, H. C. Dolley Madison (1768–1849). (2018, January 29). In Encyclopedia Virginia. Retrieved from http://www.EncyclopediaVirginia.org/Madison_Dolley_1768-1849.
- MLA Citation:
Shulman, Holly Cowan. "Dolley Madison (1768–1849)." Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Humanities, 29 Jan. 2018. Web. READ_DATE.
First published: November 9, 2015 | Last modified: January 29, 2018
Contributed by Holly Cowan Shulman, editor of The Dolley Madison Digital Edition (University of Virginia Press), coeditor of The Selected Letters of Dolley Payne Madison, founding director of Documents Compass at the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, and a research professor at the University of Virginia.