Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. I.djvu/197

JAMES MADISON JAMES MADISON,, fourth president of the United States, born in Port Conway, Va., March 16, 1751; died at Montpelier, Orange County, Va., June 28, 1836. His earliest paternal ancestor in Virginia seems to have been John Madison, who, in 1653, took out a patent for land between the North and York rivers on Chesapeake bay. There was a Capt. Isaac Madison in Virginia in 1623- 5, but his re lationship to John Madison is matter of doubt. John s son, named also John, was father of Am brose Madison, who married, August 24, 1721, Frances, daughter of James Taylor, of Orange County, Va. Frances had four brothers, one of whom, Zachary, was grandfather of Zachary Tay lor, twelfth president of the United States. The eldest child of Ambrose and Frances was James Madison, born March 27, 1723, who married, Sep tember 15, 1749, Nelly Conway, of Port Conway. The eldest child of James and Nelly was James, the subject of this biography, who was the first of twelve children. His ancestors, as he says him self in a note furnished to Dr. Lyman C. Draper in 1834, "were not among the most wealthy/of the 159