James Jr Madison 
James Jr was born on March 16th, 1751 in Port Conway, Prince George, Va and his baptism took place on March 31st, 1750. James Jr's father was Col. James MADISON and his mother was Eleanor Rose Nellie CONWAY. His paternal grandparents were Ambrose MADISON and Frances TAYLOR; his maternal grandparents were Francis CONWAY and Rebecca Catlett. He had five brothers and four sisters, named Francis, Ambrose, Catlett, William Taylor, Reuben, Nellie Conway, Sarah, Elizabeth and Frances Taylor. He was the oldest of the ten children. He died at the age of 85 on June 28th, 1836 in Montpelier, Orange, Va. He was buried in 1836 in Montpelier Cem, Montpelier, Orange Co, Va.General Notes
Name Prefix:<NPFX> President
Ancestral File Number:<AFN> 8MR6-BH
James Madison
At his inauguration, James Madison, a small, wizened man, appeared old and worn; Washington Irving described him as "but a withered little apple-John." But whatever his deficiencies in charm, Madison's buxom wife Dolley compensated for them with her warmth and gaiety. She was the toast of Washington.
Born in 1751, Madison was brought up in Orange County, Virginia, and attended Princeton (then called the College of New Jersey). A student of history and government, well-read in law, he participated in the framing of the Virginia Constitution in 1776, served in the Continental Congress, and was a leader in the Virginia Assembly.
When delegates to the Constitutional Convention assembled at Philadelphia, the 36-year-old Madison took frequent and emphatic part in the debates.
Madison made a major contribution to the ratification of the Constitution by writing, with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay, the Federalist essays. In later years, when he was referred to as the "Father of the Constitution," Madison protested that the document was not "the off-spring of a single brain," but "the work of many heads and many hands."
In Congress, he helped frame the Bill of Rights and enact the first revenue legislation. Out of his leadership in opposition to Hamilton's financial proposals, which he felt would unduly bestow wealth and power upon northern financiers, came the development of the Republican, or Jeffersonian, Party.
As President Jefferson's Secretary of State, Madison protested to warring France and Britain that their seizure of American ships was contrary to international law. The protests, John Randolph acidly commented, had the effect of "a shilling pamphlet hurled against eight hundred ships of war."
Despite the unpopular Embargo Act of 1807, which did not make the belligerent nations change their ways but did cause a depression in the United States, Madison was elected President in 1808. Before he took office the Embargo Act was repealed.
During the first year of Madison's Administration, the United States prohibited trade with both Britain and France; then in May, 1810, Congress authorized trade with both, directing the President, if either would accept America's view of neutral rights, to forbid trade with the other nation.
Napoleon pretended to comply. Late in 1810, Madison proclaimed non-intercourse with Great Britain. In Congress a young group including Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun, the "War Hawks," pressed the President for a more militant policy.
The British impressment of American seamen and the seizure of cargoes impelled Madison to give in to the pressure. On June 1, 1812, he asked Congress to declare war.
The young Nation was not prepared to fight; its forces took a severe trouncing. The British entered Washington and set fire to the White House and the Capitol.
But a few notable naval and military victories, climaxed by Gen. Andrew Jackson's triumph at New Orleans, convinced Americans that the War of 1812 had been gloriously successful. An upsurge of nationalism resulted. The New England Federalists who had opposed the war--and who had even talked secession--were so thoroughly repudiated that Federalism disappeared as a national party.
In retirement at Montpelier, his estate in Orange County, Virginia, Madison spoke out against the disruptive states' rights influences that by the 1830's threatened to shatter the Federal Union. In a note opened after his death in 1836, he stated, "The advice nearest to my heart and deepest in my convictions is that the Union of the States be cherished and perpetuated."
-
Ancestor Pedigree Chart
-
*There are earlier generations for the ancestor(s) indicated. See their page(s) for details (click name)
- b.1590 in Probley, England d.1624 in Probley, , Virginia
- b.~ 1625 in Possibly, , Va d.<16 Apr 1683 in Stephen's Parish, King &queen Co., Virginia
- b.~ 1603 in <England>
- b.1660 in Of, St. Stephens, King & Queen, Virginia d.> 1728 in Of, King & Queen, Virginia
- b.~ 1632 in <Kent Co, Va>
- b.1700 in Of, Orange, Virginia d.27 Aug 1732 in Montpelier, Orange Co, Va
- b.~ 1589 in Of, Denton, Durham, England d.1637/1638 in Denton Parish, Co., Durham, England
- b.12 Sep 1619 in Denton, Durham, England d.30 May 1675 in At Sea
- b.~ 1593 in England d.Aft 1637/1638 in England
- b.1670 in Toddsbury, Gloucester, Va d.> 1706
- b.1609 in Of, Walkern, Hertfordshire, England d.1657 in , Walkern, Hrtfrdsh, Eng
- b.13 Mar 1638 in Walkern, Hertford, , England d.1694/1702 in Baltimore, Md
- b.1610 in Of, Lovelace, Kent, England d.1652/1657 in Va, , , Va
- b.27 Mar 1723 in Port Conway, King George Co, Virginia, No America d.27 Feb 1801 in Montpelier, Orange, Virginia
- b.10 Aug 1607 in Carlisle Cumberland England d.Jan 1651/1652 in Lancaster Va
- b.1635 in New Kent Co, VA d.30 Apr 1698 in King & Queen Co, Virginia
- b.1610 in Hadliegh, Suffok England d.28 Feb 1658/1659 in Lancaster Co., VA
- b.14 Mar 1673/1674 in King & Queen Co, Virginia? d.26 Jun 1729 in Locustville, Accomack Co., Virginia
- b.1640 in Virginia d.22 Sep 1680 in New Kent Co, Virginia
- b.30 Aug 1700 in Rapidan, Orange Co, Va d.25 Nov 1761 in Montpelier, Orange Co, Va
- b.1607 in Yorkshire, England
- b.1652 in Of, Orange, Va d.1701 in "blackwell Neck", Hanover Co, Va
- b.1679 in Carlisle, Cumberland, England, U.k. d.19 Nov 1762 in Greenfield, Orange, Va
- b.~ 1655 in Of, Orange, Va d.< 1740 in , , Virginia
- b.16 Mar 1751 in Port Conway, Prince George, Va d.28 Jun 1836 in Montpelier, Orange, Va
- b.(67-1631) 1564 in Of, Arrow, Warwickshire, England Or Ragley, Co. Warwickshire, England d.03 Jan 1630 in St. Martins Lane, Westminster, London, England
- b.1610 in England, , England d.1674/1675 in , Lancaster, Virginia
- b.1563 in Hailes Abbey, Toddington, Gloucester, England d.05 Mar 1612 in , Arrow, Warwick, Eng
- b.~ 1644 in , , Va d.Aug 1698 in Richmond Co., Va
- b.1582 in Eltonhead, Lancashire, England d.23 Sep 1664 in Eltonhead, Lancashire, England
- b.26 Sep 1608 in , Lancashire, England d. in , , Va.
- b.1589/1590 in Rushton, Spencer, Staffordshire, England
- b.15 Sep 1696 in , Richmond, Virginia d.12 Apr 1773 in , Caroline, Virginia
- b.1642 in <, Lancaster, Virginia> d. in ,King George, VA
- b.09 Jan 1731 in Port Conway, Prince George, Va. d.11 Feb 1829 in Montpelier, Orange, Virginia
- b.~ 1600 in Sittingbourne, Kent, England d.1624 in Bellersden, , Kent, England
- b.1622 in Sittingbourne, Kent, England d.1670 in Port Royal, Caroline, Va
- b.~ 1600 in Of, , England d. in Sittingbourne, , England
- b.1658 in Essex, Virginia d.1730 in , Essex, Virginia
- b.1606 in , , Kent, England d.1637 in , London, Middlesex, England
- b.1632 in Of, , England d.07 May 1673 in , Essex, Va
- b.1610 in , Of Rappahannock, Virginia d.~ 1637 in , Rappahannock, Virginia
- b.1702 in Possibly, , Va d.1760 in , , Virginia
- b.1584 in Of Aberbran, Brecon, Wales d.1626/1686 in Va?
- b.1614 in Of, , Va d.18 Aug 1682 in , Essex, Va
- b.~ 1588 in <, , Wales>
- b.~ 1659 in Rappahannock, , Virginia
- b.1556 in Of, Kingsthorpe, Northamptonshire, England d.21 Nov 1630 in Kingsthorpe, Northamptonshire, England
- b.1636 in England d.1690 in Virginia
- b.~ 1560 in Of, St Magnus Par, London Bridge, Middlesex, England
-
James Jr and Dorothy (Dorothea) (Dolly) were married in a religious ceremony on September 15th, 1794 in Harewood, Jefferson, Va.
Family Notes
_UID5C704BCEE66F654780B2973980676DF22E64