The grave "elders" of the Friends' meeting had hesitated ere they drew up the letter of disownment against Lucy Payne,[45] now the wife of the nephew, namesake and ward of Washington. And now again, as was their custom, "Dolly" Madison[46] was "disowned because of her marriage" to one not a member of the Society. The many strangers drawn to Philadelphia by the establishment of the government there were causing sad havoc in their midst.
Returning to Philadelphia, Dolly threw herself into the gay life of the capital, of which she at once became one of the chief ornaments. John Adams wrote to his wife from Philadelphia: "I dined yesterday with Madison. Mrs Madison is a fine woman, her sisters equally so. One of them is married to George Washington. The ladies, whose name is Payne, are of a Quaker family, one of North Carolina."
Her marriage to Madison opened up to her a larger and broader life, one for which, by nature, she was well fitted. In the past she had felt that her membership in the Society of Friends ofttimes debarred her from many innocent pleasures and advantages as well, and "her undue fondness for the things of this world," for which she had once been chided, added zest to her new surroundings.
Her father had died the year before her marriage, and other changes followed in quick succession. January 5, 1795, Elizabeth Drinker writes: "I heard this evening of the death of two of Molly Payne's sons, Temple and Isaac. The latter offended a man in Virginia, who some time afterward shot him with a pistol."
James Madison Dolly Madison Portraits by Gilbert Stuart. Reproduced by permission of The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the owner of the paintings.
Her father's will was not proved until 1796. He left his wife, Mary Payne, sole executrix. His property consisted chiefly of lands in West Virginia and Kentucky, and it probably had little value. (De Chastellux tells of meeting a young emigrant who had bought one thousand acres in Kentucky for fifty guineas.) George Walker, John Todd and Dolly Todd were witnesses. The two former were no longer living, and the record reads:
"This day appeared Dolly P. Maddison, of the State of Virginia, Gentlewoman, late Dolley P. Todd, who being one of the People called Quakers, and conscientiously scrupulous of taking an oath, Doth Solemnly affirm and declare," etc.
Lucy Washington and Anna Payne likewise made affirmation to their belief in their father's signature to the will.