In 1721, Ambrose Madison (James Madison's grandfather) married Frances Taylor, who came from a prominent landowning family in Virginia. Frances was the daughter of James Taylor and an ancestor of future President Zachary Taylor.

Taylor worked on building a 13,500-acre estate. In 1723, Taylor probably pointed out some of the best 4,675 acres of land for his two sons-in-law, Thomas Chew and Ambrose Madison, to patent jointly. This land would be part of the Madison estate originally called Mount Pleasant.

In 1732, Ambrose and Frances, now with three children, moved onto their plantation, Mount Pleasant. About six months later, however, Ambrose died suddenly. Frances was left, at the age of thirty-two, with three small children, an estate of about 2,337 and a half acres, much of which still needed to be developed, and twenty-nine slaves, fourteen of them being children. She was not entirely on her own, however, since members of her family surrounded her on nearby plantations, offering her protection, advice, and help with the estate. Frances took over the responsibilities of running the plantation and within a few years, had begun marketing tobacco in England.

James Madison, our fourth President, was born on March 16th, 1751 to James Madison, Sr. (Ambrose and Frances’ son) and Nelly Conway Madison.

Around 1760, James Madison, Sr. built the main house that became known as Montpelier, nearby on the Mount Pleasant plantation property. The family moved from the Mount Pleasant home to the new structure. James, Jr. recalled that he had helped to move some of the lighter furniture from the old house to the new one.

Madison often lived away from Montpelier, sometimes for years at a time, while getting his education and during his political career. He attended The College of New Jersey at Princeton from 1769-1771. Madison also spent time during his political life in Philadelphia, New York, and Washington, DC.

He retired to Montpelier after his second term as president in 1817. He died there on June 28th, 1836. James and Dolley are buried beside each other in the Madison family cemetery, located one half mile from Montpelier, adjacent to the original Mount Pleasant site.

Dolley moved back to Washington D.C. after her husband’s death and sold Montpelier in 1844. There have been a number of owners since the sale of the property. The current owner is the National Trust for Historic Preservation.