The Madison Cemetery

"The remains of Mr. Madison lie in the adjacent family cemetery with those of his father and his mother by his right side, and room on his left for those who may follow him. Many relatives are interred within the same enclosure, which is covered with box and ornamental trees, and the whole surrounded by a neat brick wall."

– Letters of a Convalescent 1839

If the Montpelier mansion is the heart of the museum property, the focal point of the celebration and interpretation of James Madison's life, then the Madison Family Cemetery must be regarded as the soul of the property. Within its walls lie the final resting places of not only the President, but all of his family, ancestors and descendants who called Montpelier home. Contained within the cemetery, marked by two obelisks, are the graves of James and Dolley Madison. Every year on James Madison's birthday (March 16), a ceremony is held to commemorate his contributions to the nation and the U.S. Marines lay a Presidential wreath on his grave. Admission to the property is free on Madison’s birthday.

Who Started the Madison Family Cemetery?

Today the Madison family cemetery is a rectangular plot surrounded by a brick wall, covering an area roughly 95 feet by 70 feet. Archaeological and historical research, along with the presence of existing gravestones, indicates that at as many as 100 individuals were buried within the cemetery between 1732 and 1938. Twenty-six gravestones are found in the cemetery, commemorating the burials of 31 individuals. All of the gravestones commemorate Madison family members except one, that of Frank Carson, who owned Montpelier between 1857 and 1881.

The cemetery's proximity to Mount Pleasant, the original home on the property, indicates the first burials occurred during the early settlement period. The first Madison family member to be buried in the cemetery was the president's grandfather, Ambrose Madison, who died August 1732. Historical documentation does not indicate where Ambrose Madison was buried. The archaeological work done in the cemetery has not definitively proved his grave is present, but the practice of placing family burial grounds on private plantations was such a prevalent tradition in Virginia at the time of his death that it is widely accepted that he is buried in the cemetery in an unmarked grave. Ambrose's wife, Frances Taylor Madison, would have made the decision, on a hot summer day in August, to place her husband's burial in the yard behind the Mount Pleasant plantation house. Frances also probably understood that, in choosing the spot for her husband's burial, she was creating what would later, with additional family burials, come to be known as the Madison Family Cemetery.

Who is Buried in the Madison Family Cemetery?

The seven earliest burials in the Madison Family Cemetery occurred between 1732 and 1775. All of these early graves were unmarked and were of family members directly related to President Madison: his grandfather Ambrose Madison; his grandmother, Frances Taylor Madison, who continued to reside at Mount Pleasant after her husband's death, and who died on November 25, 1761; and five siblings of James Madison, who died as infants or young children—a poignant reminder of the high mortality rate among children in the 18th century.

The first of these infant children of James, Sr., and Nelly Conway Madison was Catlett Madison, born "Saturday 18th of March 1758 at 3 o'Clock in the morning. Aged 36 days." In the ensuing years an unnamed male infant, who was born and died on the same day sometime in 1766 and a stillborn child were added to the burials in the cemetery. The family Bible describes the stillborn event in stark terms: "Mrs. Madison Deliver'd of a Still born Child July 12th 1770." In the summer of 1775, the lives of Elizabeth (age 7) and Reuben (age 3) were cut short by a dysentry epidemic that swept through Orange County.

Even though the gravestones mark fewer than half of the burials and only represent later burials, the presence of a gravestone above a member of a nuclear family is a good indicator that other members of the same family are also buried in the cemetery in unmarked graves. The only direct family member of James Madison, Jr., marked with a gravestone is his sister, Sarah Madison Macon, who died in 1843. Seven other brothers and sisters of the president, along with his parents and grandparents are buried in the cemetery, but all of their graves are unmarked. The 22 other gravestones found in the cemetery commemorate the family and descendants of Sarah Madison Macon and two brothers of the president, Ambrose and William. The earliest gravestone in the cemetery dates from 1811, but the style of the marker indicates it may have been placed in the cemetery as late as the 1840s. The latest gravestone from 1938 marks the burial of Susan Daniel Madison, the 3rd great-granddaughter of Ambrose Madison.

The locations of gravestones associated with the families and descendants of three of James Madison, Sr.'s offspring—Sarah Madison Macon, William Madison, and Ambrose Madison—also reveal a pattern of burial in the family cemetery. Gravestones associated with William Madison are found in the southern part of the cemetery. Sarah Madison Macon's gravestone stands in the center of her family's area directly to the north of her brother William's. Ambrose Madison's direct descendants, along with the descendants of both Ambrose and William through intermarriage, are buried in the northern section of the cemetery near President Madison's grave. The presence of these three sub-family sections within the Madison family cemetery shows the important role these nuclear families played in the history of the cemetery.

James Madison's Burial

James Madison, Jr., was buried in the family cemetery on June 30, 1836. A large assembly of family, friends, and slaves gathered for his burial at Montpelier and accompanied the body as it was carried to the cemetery by his pallbearers: ex-Governor of Virginia James Barbour; U.S. Supreme Court Justice Philip Pendleton Barbour; Charles P. Howard; and Reuben Conway. Gov. Barbour provides a description of the burial scene in a eulogy read some months afterward:

"...He was a devoted husband, a kind brother, a warm friend, a good neighbor and an indulgent master. Many of you were at his funeral; you must have seen his slaves decently attired in attendance, and their orderly deployment; the profound silence was now and then broken by their sobs - they attended the procession to the grave."

– Barbour (1836)

After the burial of President James Madison in the small family cemetery at Montpelier, countless visitors traveled to see his final resting place. In 1839, one of these visitors, in describing the location of the president's grave, also mentions the location of James Madison, Sr., and his wife Nelly Conway Madison in the cemetery. The visitor's account states, "The remains of Mr. Madison lie in the adjacent family cemetery with those of his father and his mother by his right side." The president's burial lay unmarked until September 1857. At that time the existing granite obelisk was placed above his grave.

For the Madison family, the placement of a monument above the burial of James Madison, Jr., marked a turning point in the cemetery’s history. No longer was the cemetery simply for the family, it was inextricably tied to the nation that looked to the graveyard as a shrine—as a visible and physical connection to the almost mythical history of Madison as the last of the Founding Fathers.

"MADISON'S MONUMENT AND REMAINS. -- Since his death and burial in 1836, the mortal remains of Ex-President Madison have been quietly reposing at Montpelier, in Orange county – a locality distant some nine miles from Gordonsville, on the line of the Virginia Central Railroad. During all this time no mural record with high-sounding eulogy disclosed the place of his final rest; only neighborhood tradition and historic record serving to point the way to it. The neglect in attesting his worth by some suitable monument attracted attention, and some few years since a number of gentlemen of Orange county set about the task of procuring one. Having been procured, it was conveyed to Montpelier on the 15th inst., and placed in position... In digging for a suitable foundation, it became necessary to go below the coffin, which was consequently exposed to view. The boards placed above the coffin had decayed, but no earth had fallen in upon it, and everything appeared to be as when the coffin was deposited there, except that the coffin-lid was slightly out of place, allowing a partial view of the interior. As there were no fastenings to prevent, the part of the lid covering the superior portion of the body was raised, and the several gentlemen present looked in upon the remains of the great Virginian..."

– Fredericksburg News, 6 October 1857

Dolley Madison's Burial

When Dolley Madison sold Montpelier she moved to Washington, D.C., where she died on July 12, 1849. She was initially buried in the public vault at Congressional Cemetery and then moved, in 1852, by her niece Annie Payne Causten, to the Causten family vault. Dolley's wish, found in her will, was to be buried by the side of her husband in the family cemetery. Her family members wanted to wait till the railroad line reached the Town of Orange before they removed her remains to Montpelier. The railroad was completed to Orange by 1854, but unfortunately those who were responsible for her reburial died before this date. She was not buried at Montpelier until 1858. A newspaper article found in the January 26, 1858, issue of the Richmond Enquirer describes the circumstances of her final journey home:

"We learn that the remains of Mrs. Madison were brought from Washington by her newphew, Mr. Cutts, on Wednesday, the 13th inst., and deposited in the cemetery at Montpelier, near the monument recently placed by the citizens of this country over the grave of her husband. This, we understand, was in compliance with a wish expressed by Mrs. Madison herself. Circumstances unavoidable heretofore delayed it."

– Richmond Enquirer, January 26, 1858

The most noticeable aspect of Dolley Madison's burial is the location of her gravestone. Sometime after her burial at Montpelier a gravestone was procured from J. W. Davies, the same stone carver who had constructed President Madison's obelisk, and the stone was placed above her grave located behind that of her husband. The 1839 newspaper account that describes the cemetery indicates that there was "room on his [James Madison, Jr.'s] left for those who may follow him". One can assume that this 'room' is in reference to Dolley, but after President Madison's monument was put in place in September 1857 no space was left for the burial of Dolley between the obelisk and the brick wall. To be as close as possible to her husband, Dolley was buried behind him.