Page "James Madison" Paragraph 35

Madison was 43 when he married for the first time, which was considered late in that era.

On September 15, 1794, James Madison married Dolley Payne Todd, a young widow, at Harewood, in what is now Jefferson County, West Virginia.

Madison adopted Todd's one surviving son, John Payne Todd ( known as Payne ), after the marriage.

Dolley Payne was born May 20, 1768, at the New Garden Quaker settlement in North Carolina, where her parents, John Payne and Mary Coles Payne, lived briefly.

Dolley's sister, Lucy Payne, had recently married George Steptoe Washington, a nephew of President Washington.