#*firstlady

T H E  F I R S T  L A D I E S #5 // Elizabeth Monroe & Eliza Monroe Hay

One of six children, Elizabeth Jane Kortright was born into a wealthy New York merchant family in 1768. She was educated by her mother and paternal grandmother and was probably given lessons in French, dancing, music, and literature, subjects considered appropriate for a young lady of her class. Elizabeth was from an early age seen as elegant and gracious. Her mother died when she was just nine years old, and the family’s home partially burned down during the American Revolution the following year. After the war ended, Elizabeth caught the eye of a young Continental Army officer from Virginia named James Monroe. The two were married in February 1786; Elizabeth was just seventeen.

The Monroes’ first child, a daughter named after her mother but called “Eliza,” was born that December. The little family lived in Philadelphia and Virginia before moving to Paris in 1794 when Monroe was appointed Minister to France. Regarded as beautiful, fashionable, and well-mannered, Elizabeth was popular in France, where both she and her young daughter flourished. She famously intervened on behalf of Adrienne de Noailles, the wife of her husband’s friend and American hero Lafayette, who was imprisoned during the infamous Reign of Terror. Eliza meanwhile attended the school established by Henriette Campan, where she befriended Hortense de Beauharnais, Napoleon Bonaparte’s stepdaughter and the future queen of Holland. The Monroes returned to Virginia in 1796. Elizabeth then had two more children: a short-lived son and a second daughter, Maria.

Around this time Elizabeth also began suffering from seizures and other health problems which severely limited her social activities. In 1808, Eliza Monroe married prominent Virginia lawyer George Hay. When her father was elected president in 1817, she, her husband, and their daughter moved to Washington. Eliza began stepping into the role usually performed by the president’s wife due to her mother’s ill health. Unlike her mother, however, she was thought to be haughty and even rude by much of Washington society. She refused to call on the wives of foreign diplomats, and the presidential social circle grew much more exclusive than before under her influence. Her self-important behavior, influenced by her time in Paris living with daughters of the French aristocracy, was at odds with the warmer and less formal conventions in place during previous administrations.

T H E  F I R S T  L A D I E S #4 // Dolley Madison

Dolley Payne was born into a devout Quaker family in 1768. There is no evidence that she received any formal education. In 1790, she married a Philadelphia lawyer named John Todd, and within three years they had two sons together. Tragedy soon struck, however: the yellow fever epidemic of 1793 cost Dolley both her husband and her infant son William. She was left to raise her surviving child Payne alone. James Madison noticed and admired the beautiful young widow while he served in Philadelphia as a congressman from Virginia. Despite the difference in their ages (Dolley was 26 to his 43) and religions (Madison was Episcopalian), they were married in 1794. The seemingly mismatched newlyweds were very happy together. Dolley began dressing in fine fashions and earning a reputation as a charming hostess.

In 1800, Madison became Secretary of State. Dolley took Washington, the new capital city, by storm. An amiable hostess, she organized many social events for President Jefferson, a widower. She also befriended many wives of other politicians, diplomats, and foreign dignitaries. Through these relationships, she exerted quiet political influence in favor of her husband, who was himself elected president in 1809. That year, Dolley presided over the first Inaugural Ball. Her popularity, charm, and tact served Madison well politically throughout his term. When British troops arrived in Washington in the summer of 1814, Dolley was famously able to save a carriage-full of valuables and government documents, including a portrait of George Washington, before escaping to safety herself. She did more to shape the role of first lady than any of her predecessors.

T H E  F I R S T  L A D I E S #2 // Abigail Adams

Born in 1744 to a minister and his wife, Abigail Smith was a sickly child and was never formally educated, but she had an open, eager mind and access to several family libraries. Through her mother, she belonged to the prominent political Quincy family. She met a young lawyer named John Adams when she was fifteen. Despite mutual initial disinterest--and though Abigail's mother felt that John was not good enough for her--the couple fell hard for one another and were married four years later. Abigail went on to have five children with John between 1765 and 1772, four of whom lived to adulthood. During that time, John grew more and more involved in the burgeoning cause of American independence and when the Revolution broke out, Abigail became solely responsible not only for managing a farm in the middle of a war zone, but also for raising four young children. She maintained a frequent and faithful correspondence with her husband throughout his absence. Abigail often acted as John’s adviser, famously reminding him to "remember the ladies" in the new government. Such was her influence that some historians consider Abigail a founder of the United States in her own right.  

Following the war, Abigail sailed to Paris to join John, there on a diplomatic assignment, in 1784. She struggled to run a grand house full of servants but developed an interest in the opera while in Paris and also befriended John's colleague Thomas Jefferson. Upon returning to Massachusetts four years later, Abigail promptly set about renovating the new house she and John had purchased. She then moved to Philadelphia in 1797 when her husband was elected president. Unlike her predecessor, she became so deeply involved in politics that Adams opponents sometimes referred to her as "Mrs. President." Abigail was, as always, John's informal--but well-informed--adviser as well as his fiercest and most loyal supporter. He wrote at one point that he could “do nothing without” her. Even after his term ended, she continued to follow her son John Quincy's political career closely.

T H E  F I R S T  L A D I E S #3 // Martha Jefferson Randolph

Martha “Patsy” Jefferson, born in 1772, was the eldest child of Thomas Jefferson and his wife Martha Wayles Skelton. Just before her tenth birthday, Patsy’s mother died. Her father spent the next several months overcome with grief and with Patsy, in her words, as “his constant companion.” In 1784, she accompanied Jefferson to Paris where he served as a Minister to France for the fledgling United States. While there, she attended an exclusive and intensive convent school where she studied several languages, music, arithmetic, and history among other subjects. Three years later, she was joined there by her only surviving sister, Maria (“Polly”).

Not long after returning from France, Patsy married Thomas Mann Randolph; she was just seventeen. She gave birth to her first child the following year and went on to have a total of twelve children between 1791 and 1818, eleven of whom lived past infancy. A devoted mother, highly educated and intelligent, Patsy personally took charge of educating her brood. Though busy raising her growing family by 1800, she supported her father’s presidential campaign that year. President Jefferson, as a widower, technically had no “first lady”.* However, Patsy did make two extended visits to Washington in 1802 and 1805. During these trips, she occupied a role similar to that of the previous presidents’ wives: she made social calls and acted as the White House hostess. The eloquent, gregarious first daughter was well-liked in Washington society. Her presence and that of several of her children improved Jefferson's public image and also gave him a respite from politics. Even when she was absent, Patsy provided comfort and counsel to her "dearest Father" through a regular correspondence.

Patsy’s large family moved to Monticello from the nearby Randolph estate after Jefferson retired in 1809. She did her best to manage household affairs there despite Jefferson’s growing financial difficulties. Patsy, now estranged from her husband, was still at Monticello in June 1826 when her father grew gravely ill. A few days before his death, Jefferson expressed his gratitude for the lifelong devotion of his “lov'd daughter” in a brief poem and lamented that the “last pang of life is in parting from you.” A grief-stricken Patsy and her adult children were left to handle his many debts, ultimately selling Monticello and most of its slaves to do so. In her remaining years, Patsy and two of her daughters opened a small school in Virginia at which she sometimes taught. She died suddenly in late 1836 at the age of 64, leaving behind a will that freed several slaves. Her brief obituary stated that “the character of this distinguished lady must be drawn by an abler hand than ours.”

T H E  F I R S T  L A D I E S #1 // Martha Washington

Martha Dandridge was born in 1731 to a Virginia planter and his wife. At eighteen, she married Daniel Parke Custis, with whom she would have four children. Less than a decade after the marriage, however, Custis died. He left Martha a financially independent and very wealthy widow. She occupied a prestigious social position, had a shrewd head for business and domestic affairs, and was also considered attractive and amiable. In 1758, she met Colonel George Washington, and they married the following January. With Martha’s fortune--which included nearly one hundred “dower slaves” who had formerly been attached to the Custis estate--Washington became an affluent gentleman. Though Martha never had any more children, she raised her two surviving Custis children with Washington and, later, two grandchildren as well. When the Revolutionary War broke out and her husband was appointed commander of the Continental Army, Martha left her comfortable life at the Mount Vernon estate to live in army’s winter encampments with him. It was during this period that she first began to be addressed as “Lady Washington.”