Dolley Madison (1768–1849)

Dorothy or Dorothea Payne, known as "Dolley," was born at a Quaker settlement in North Carolina. In 1769, the family returned to Virginia, where Dolley grew up on a rural plantation. Following the American War of Independence, her father freed his slaves and moved the family to Philadelphia. In 1790, Dolley married John Todd, a Quaker lawyer, and the couple rapidly had two sons. John Todd and one of their sons died in a yellow fever epidemic in 1793. Dolley then met James Madison, a delegate to the Continental Congress that was convened in Philadelphia -- he was 17 years her senior. He proposed to Dolley, but as he was not a Quaker, she was expelled from the Society of Friends for marrying him in 1794. When Madison was elected the 4th President of the United States, Dolley became a popular hostess. She is perhaps most famous for saving valuable state treasures, including a Gilbert Stuart painting of George Washington, when the White House was burned by the British during the War of 1812.