Colonel Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge o ...

James Madison Sr. (March 27, 1723 – February 27, 1801) was a prominent Virginia planter and politician who served as a colonel in the militia during the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

. He inherited Mount Pleasant, later known as Montpelier, a large

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...

Orange County, Virginia Orange County is a county located in the Central Piedmont region of the Commonwealth of Virginia. At the 2020 census, the population was 36,254. Its county seat is Orange. Orange County includes Montpelier, the estate of James Madison, the ...

and, with the acquisition of more property, had 5,000 acres and became the largest landowner in the county. He was the father of James Madison Jr., the 4th

president of the United States The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States ...

, who inherited what he called Montpelier, and Lieutenant General William Taylor Madison, and great-grandfather of Confederate Brigadier General James Edwin Slaughter.

Early life

Madison's parents were planter and politician Ambrose Madison and his wife Frances Taylor (aunt of Richard Taylor), and was born in 1723 in

. When he was nine, his family moved to their new plantation of Mount Pleasant in 1732. His father had hired slaves and an overseer to clear it, work that had been going on for five years to establish cultivation. That summer (1732) his father died at age 36 in August after a short illness. The family or the sheriff believed he was poisoned by slaves, and three were charged in the case and convicted by justices of the Commission of Peace. Unusually, only one slave was executed; Dido and Turk, owned by the widow Frances Taylor Madison, were returned to her to serve as laborers after being punished by whipping.Chambers, Douglas B., ''Murder at Montpelier: Igbo Africans in Virginia''
Oxford, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi, 2005, pp. 5-9 James was tutored and trained to be a planter and slaveholder, and member of the landed gentry. His widowed mother never remarried, which was unusual at that time for a woman her age; she had extensive Taylor family in the county. As the eldest son, James Madison Sr. inherited Mount Pleasant when he came of age in 1744. He called the plantation Home House. Acquiring more land, he eventually owned 5,000 acres, making him the largest landowner in Orange County. By the time of his death, he owned 108 slaves.

Marriage and family

Madison married Eleanor Rose "Nelly" Conway (Port Conway, King George, Virginiahttps://www.bellegroveplantation.com/), Virginia, January 9, 1731 – Montpelier,

Orange County Orange County most commonly refers to: *Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area Orange County may also refer to: U.S. counties *Orange County, Florida, containing Orlando *Orange County, Indiana *Orange County, New ...

, Virginia, February 11, 1829), also of the planter class (her birthplace was named after her family). They had twelve children: *

James Madison James Madison Jr. (March 16, 1751June 28, 1836) was an American statesman, diplomat, and Founding Father. He served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. Madison is hailed as the "Father of the Constitution" for h ...

(March 16, 1751 – June 28, 1836) * Francis Taylor Madison (June 18, 1753 – April 5, 1800) * Ambrose Madison (January 27, 1755 – October 3, 1793); married Mary Willis Lee (27 May 1755 – 14 March 1798), daughter of Hancock Lee II & Mary Willis * Catlett Madison (February 10, 1758 – March 18, 1758) * Nelly Conway Madison (February 14, 1760 – December 24, 1802) * William Taylor Madison (May 5, 1762 – July 20, 1843) * Sarah Catlett Madison (August 17, 1764 – October 17, 1843) * unnamed son (1766–1766), died one day after birth * Elizabeth Madison (February 6, 1768 – May 17, 1775) * unnamed stillborn son (July 12, 1770 – July 12, 1770) * Reuben Madison (September 19, 1771 – June 5, 1775) * Frances Taylor Madison (October 4, 1774 – October 4, 1823)

American Revolutionary War

During the

American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revoluti ...

, Madison served as chairman of the Orange County Committee of Safety. He was commissioned as a colonel in the Virginia militia.

References

External links

Montpelier
home of James Madison {{DEFAULTSORT:Madison, James Sr. 1723 births 1801 deaths American slave owners Madison family Fathers of presidents of the United States Virginia colonial people Virginia militiamen in the American Revolution People from Orange County, Virginia