Dolley Madison

Tragedy struck her life when yellow fever epidemic broke out in Philadelphia in 1793 - that took more than 5000 lives - killed her husband and younger son.

Distraught by the incident which had left her a helpless widow at the age of twenty-five with a son to support, she took to residing at a rooming house where Aaron Burr, a friend and fellow student of James Madison resided.

Dolley Madison was born as Dolley Payne to John Payne Jr and Mary Coles Payne in New Garden, North Carolina. While her mother was a Quaker, her father was a non-Quaker. However, young Payne was raised in the Quaker faith.

One of the eight children born to the couple, she spent most of her childhood in Virginia, near her mother’s family where the couple along with their children shifted when she was merely a year old. She spent her growing years at the comfort of her parents’ plantation in rural eastern Virginia.

Her father owned slaves, which was against the Quaker faith which he had eventually adopted. As such, following the American Revolutionary War in 1783, he unfettered all his slaves.

The family relocated to Philadelphia where her father started off a business, which eventually failed. Despite being raised in a strict disciplinarian society, she had a bustling and happy personality with a warm heart.

She faced tragedy early in life, with the death of her first husband and second child in 1793. However, she did not let the emotional turmoil disrupt her usual happy personality and as such became famous in Philadelphia as a young, attractive and charming widow.

No sooner she caught the attention of Congressman, James Madison, who was bowled over her charming self and proposed marriage to her. The two eventually tied the knot in 1794. The marriage led her to give up on her Quaker faith as he was a non-Quaker and belonged to the Episcopalian background.

Post marriage, Madison retired from politics in 1797 after eight years of being in the House of Representatives. However, the hiatus taken from politics did not last long as in 1800, after the appointment of Thomas Jefferson as the third President of the United States, he was called upon to chair the position of Secretary of State under latter’s presidency.

The family relocated to Washington, where her husband served as the Secretary of State and she served as the de facto hostess at state dinners. Since Jefferson was a widower, she served as his First Lady in official functions during his Presidency.

Additionally, she contributed in the beautification and development of the white House, the official residence of the United States’ President. She worked closely with architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe in the process.

She was the first ‘First Lady’ to establish the idea that a First Lady should serve as the mother of the nation.