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Dorothy Payne Madison Biography

Dorothy Payne Madison Image

MADISON, Dorothy Payne, wife of President Madison, was born May 20, 1772, in North Carolina. During the war of 1812, when the capitol, white house and other public buildings were burned by the British, Mrs. Madison assisted in saving valuable national documents; and under her own supervision the magnificent portrait of General Washington was taken down and carried to a place of safety. She died July 12, 1849, in Washington, D. C.

Thomas William Herringshaw, Herringshaw's Encyclopedia of American Biography of the Nineteenth Century (Chicago: American Publishers' Association, 1901) 610.