Happy Birthday Dolley Madison

First lady Dolley Madison was born 243 years ago today!! McLean has a special relationship with Dolley Madison. Our library bears her name. Chain Bridge Road becomes Dolley Madison Boulevard through part of McLean.

Why this affection for Dolley? In 1814 when she fled Washington as the British approached to burn it, it is thought that she spent the night at a farm in McLean. President James Madison, who had left the White House earlier is thought to have stayed at Salona, one of McLean's oldest homes.

This is her biography from the National First Ladies Library:

DOLLEY PAYNE TODD MADISON

Physical Appearance:
5' 6 1/2" tall, black hair, blue eyes
 
Religious Affiliation:
Born into the Quaker faith, but expelled after her marriage to non-Quaker James Madison; attended Episcopalian services, and was confirmed in that faith July 15, 1845, at St. John's Church, Washington, D.C.
 
Education:
No record exists of any formal education; although Philadelphia's Pine Street Meeting, to which the Paynes belonged, did offer class instructions for girls as well as boys, Dolley Payne was 15 years old at the time she moved to Philadelphia and was past the usual age for school.

Marriage:
First:
21 years old, married Jan. 7, 1790, at Pine Street Meeting House, Philadelphia, to John Todd, lawyer (1763-1793); they lived in a modest three-story brick house at the corner of Fourth and Walnut Streets; Todd died in a yellow fever epidemic, 1793, October 14
 
Second:
26 years old, married Sept. 15, 1794, "Harewood" estate, Charlestown, WV, to James Madison (1751-1836), planter, U.S. congressman (Virginia); following their wedding, lived in Madison's elegant three-story Spruce Street brick house until his retirement in 1797, when they moved to the Madison family plantation, "Montpelier," in Orange, VA.
 
Children:
By First Marriage:
Two sons; John Payne Todd, (1792-1852), William Isaac Todd, (1793), died at three months old, the same day as his father
 
By Second Marriage:
None
 
Occupation after Marriage:
Although she assumed the traditional role of wife and housekeeper following her first marriage, Dolley Todd also had the assistance of her younger sister Anna, who lived with her and there is suggestion that she was of help to John Todd in his legal work. Following her second marriage and then her 1797 move to Madison's Virginia estate, Dolley Madison assumed not only household management of the plantation and slaves, but also cared for her elderly mother-in-law who lived there.
 
James Madison served as secretary of state in the administration of his friend, President Thomas Jefferson, from 1801 to 1809, and the Madisons moved to Washington.

At those receptions and dinners that the widowed president felt necessitated a female co-host, he asked Dolley Madison to aide him. While she was not a presidential wife or in any way given an official designation, her exposure to the political and diplomatic figures who were guests of the president, as well as to the general public who came to meet him, provided her with a lengthy experience as a White House hostess. Notably, she also took a large public role in the fundraising effort that supported the exploration of the Louisiana Territory by explorers Lewis and Clark. These eight years of fore-knowledge and opportunity to consciously create her own public persona were the crucial factor that enabled her to shape what was only a marital relationship to the president into a genuine public role that was soon called "Presidentress" by some chroniclers.
 
Presidential Campaign and Inauguration:
Dolley Madison's popularity as a hostess in Washington added greatly to the recognition of her husband by those members of congress whose electoral votes then chose the winner of presidential races. During the 1808 election, however, there was an attempt by Federalist newspapers in Baltimore and Boston that implied Mrs. Madison had been intimate with President Jefferson as a way of attacking her character. Her popularity prevailed during the 1812 election. In preparation for the inaugural ceremonies of James Madison on March 4, 1809, Capt. Tom Tingey, commandant of the Washington Navy Yard, had requested Dolley Madison's permission and sponsorship of a dance and dinner, and she readily agreed; thus, the first presidential "inaugural ball" took place that evening. Held at Long's Hotel, on Capitol Hill, there were four hundred guests in attendance. The event began at 7 p.m., opening with the playing of "Jefferson's March," followed by the entrance of the former president. Next, "Madison's March," was played and the new president and his wife entered. Dressed in a buff-colored velvet gown, wearing pearls and large plumes in a turban, Mrs. Madison made a dramatic impression. Although she did not join in the dancing, her sister Anna Cutts "opened" that portion of the program. A formal dinner followed, and Dolley Madison took her place at the crescent-shaped table, seated between the French minister, Gen. Louis-Marie Turreau de Garambouville and the British minister, David Montagu Erskine.
 
 
First Lady:
1809, March 4 - 1817, March 3
40 years old
 
With more conscious effort than either of her two predecessors, and with an enthusiasm for public life that neither of them had, Dolley Madison forged the highly public role as a president's wife, believing that the citizenry was her constituency as well as that of her husband's. This would establish her as the standard against which all her successors would be held, well into the mid-20th century. This persona was specifically created to serve the political fortunes of not only the president, but also of the United States. She would steer conversation with political figures, including their spouses, in a way that revealed their positions on issues facing the Madison Administration, or sought to convince them to consider the viewpoint of her husband. She fortified her role of hostess by the visual effect of both the executive mansion and her own person, redecorating the public rooms in a style grand enough to impress foreign diplomats and dressing in a regal, yet simple manner. Her ebullient personality, although often masking deep-seated worry, had the effect of relaxing her guests, regardless of their political views. Dolley Madison also exercised political influence by utilizing all the acceptable forms of behavior for women at the time, through correspondence, entertaining and cultivating personal alliances with the spouses of important political figures. On numerous occasions, she sought to place supporters, friends and family members into official government positions.
 
Dolley Madison was the first first lady to formally associate herself with a specific public project; as a fundraiser, supporter and board member, she helped to found a Washington home for young orphaned girls. She also befriended nuns from a local Catholic school and began a lifelong association with the organization.
 
Her legend was made lasting, however, by her conscious act of symbolic patriotism in the hours preceding the burning of Washington by British troops during the War of 1812. She famously refused to leave the White House before being assured that the large portrait of George Washington was removed from the walls and taken safely away from potential destruction or defacing by the encroaching enemy.
 
Undocumented legend contends that Dolley Madison sponsored an egg-rolling contest for children on or near the lawn of the nearly-completed Capitol, although it was at the time not yet landscaped. Another claim, which has persisted, but for which there is no documentation, credits Dolley Madison with convincing the president to permit Washingtonian Francis Scott Key to board a truce ship in an effort to seek the freedom of a captured friend. Moreover, that when he did so, he witnessed the firing on Fort McHenry and wrote the poem which became "The Star-Spangled Banner." Finally, there is the suggestion that it was Dolley Madison who urged both the president and Congress to keep Washington as the capitol city, rather than permit it to be returned to Philadelphia. Contemporary accounts do record her rage at the British for burning her favorite city and she did resume her entertaining as a symbol of rebirth in Washington, in the two buildings that she and the president occupied in the capital for the duration of his administration.
 
Post-Presidential Life:
Dolley Madison aided her husband in the organization and preparation for public release of the papers he used in drafting the U.S. Constitution. Following his 1836 death and the increasing burden of vast debt accumulated by her irresponsible son, she was forced to sell their Virginia properties, including her home, the plantation Montpelier. In 1844, she returned permanently to Washington, living across from the White House in a row house owned by her former husband. Her near-poverty was alleviated only when Congress agreed to purchase part of her husband's papers. She was also awarded an honorary seat in Congress, permitting her to watch congressional debates from the floor, where members sat at their desks. She was, in addition,  the first private citizen to transmit a message via telegraph, an honor given her by its inventor Samuel F. B. Morse. Incumbent First ladies Julia Tyler and Sarah Polk, as well as the hostess for the invalid first Mrs. Tyler, her daughter-in-law Priscilla Cooper Tyler, all drew upon Mrs. Madison's advice on how to conduct their public role. Her last public appearance was on the arm of President James K. Polk at his last White House reception. 
 
Death:
Her home, Washington, D.C.
July 12, 1849
81 years old

Source: National First Ladies Library.