Dolley Madison
Dolley Madison (1768-1849), born Dolley Payne, was a prominent American First Lady, a function she held both during the presidency of her husband, James Madison, and for his predecessor, the widower Thomas Jefferson. Known for her elegance and charm, Madison acted as hostess of the White House, helping to define the role of the presidential spouse.
Early Life
Dolley Payne was born in the Quaker community of New Garden in Guilford County, North Carolina (present-day Greensboro), on 20 May 1768. She was one of eight children born to John Payne, a merchant, and his wife Mary Coles Payne, both of whom came from prominent Virginian families. Shortly after Dolley's birth, the family moved back to Virginia; although their reasons for moving are unclear, some historians have speculated that they had failed at business in North Carolina and wanted a fresh start, or that they were facing discrimination because of their Quaker religion. In any case, the family settled on a 176-acre farm in Hanover County, Virginia, where Dolley grew up. She spent her childhood working the land alongside her parents and siblings and was given a strict Quaker education.
Although John Payne had not been born into the Society of Friends – he had adopted the religion in 1765 to please his Quaker wife – he quickly proved a devoted Quaker himself. He stayed out of the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783) to adhere to the Quaker doctrine of pacifism, and his family was not much affected by the fighting. Prior to his conversion, Payne had been a slaveholder, but now became "doubtful and afterwards conscientiously scrupulous about…holding slaves as property" (quoted in Feldman, 384). He desperately wanted to emancipate his slaves, but, since Virginia forbade voluntary manumission, Payne was forced to pack up his family and move them yet again. This time, they went to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which was not only the second largest city in the newly independent United States but also a bastion of Quakerism. Here, Payne freed his slaves and moved his family into a house on North Third Street. Partnering with his oldest son, he opened a business to manufacture and sell starch.
In Philadelphia, 15-year-old Dolley continued her Quaker education. Her father forbade her studies from including music or dancing, which most young ladies of her status were expected to know; indeed, Dolley's niece would later write that the Payne daughters were denied "the acquirement of those graceful and ornamental accomplishments which are too generally considered the most important parts of the female education" (quoted in Feldman, 384). Still, the teenage Dolley had no lack of suitors, all of whom she rejected so as to not "relinquish her girlhood" (ibid). But Dolley could not expect to remain a spinster forever, especially not once her family began to fall on hard times. John Payne's starch manufacturing business had never taken off and finally failed in 1789. He then decided to put the money saved from the sale of the Virginia farm into speculative land investments but soon lost this money as well. Payne suddenly found that his family was "reduced to poverty", although the biggest blow of all was when he found himself ostracized from Quaker meetings for his poor financial management.
Distraught and desperate, John Payne arranged for Dolley to marry John Todd, a young lawyer and a Quaker. Dolley accepted – whether there was any love between her and Todd, or whether she was just playing the dutiful daughter, is unknown. In any case, they were married in January 1790, although the Paynes were unable to provide a dowry. John Payne lived long enough to see his daughter married off before dying in October 1792, having never recovered from the stresses of his failures. In the shadow of her father's death, Dolley Payne Todd gave birth to two children of her own: her oldest son, John Payne Todd (called Payne) was born on 29 February 1792, while a second son, William Todd, was born on 4 July 1793. As Dolley was settling into her new life as a mother, little could she have known that it all would soon be upended by death and tragedy.
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