Barbara Hambly - Patriot Hearts - A Novel of the Founding Mothers

James Madison, Jr. 1751–1836—[Jemmy] Virginia planter, father of the U.S. Constitution, U.S. Representative of Virginia, Secretary of State for Thomas Jefferson, fourth President of the United States.

Old Colonel Madison 1723–1801—[James Madison, Sr.] Virginia planter, father of President James Madison.

Mother Madison 1731–1829—[Nelly (Conway) Madison] President James Madison’s mother. She and the “Old Colonel” shared the house at Montpelier Plantation with James and Dolley.

John Payne 1740–1792—Dolley Madison’s father, formerly a small planter in Virginia, then a starch-maker in Philadelphia.

Molly (Coles) Payne 1745–1807—[Mary] Dolley Madison’s mother, a devout Quaker.

Anna (Payne) Cutts 1780–1832—Dolley’s favorite sister and lifelong companion. Her granddaughter Adele married Stephen Douglas.

Lucy (Payne) (Washington) Todd 1778–1846—Dolley’s younger sister, who married George Washington’s nephew (George) Steptoe Washington in 1793. After Steptoe’s death in 1809, she married Judge Thomas Todd.

“French John” (Jean-Pierre) Sioussat— Steward at the White House during Madison’s administration. Formerly steward to British Minister Anthony Merry; had studied for the priesthood, then been a sailor for a time.

Jamie Smith— James Madison’s free colored valet.

Sophie (Sparling) Hallam * b. 1765—Childhood friend of Dolley’s, daughter of a Virginia doctor and granddaughter of a Virginia planter, both Loyalists. During the final year of the Revolution she worked as a nurse, then fled with her mother to England and, later, France. Returned to Philadelphia, then to the newly built Federal City, as a dressmaker.

Sukey— Dolley’s enslaved maidservant.

John Todd, Jr. 1765–1793—Philadelphia lawyer and Quaker, first husband of Dolley Madison.

Payne Todd 1792–1852—Dolley Madison’s aptly named oldest son by John Todd: handsome, charming, much beloved, an alcoholic and a gambler.

Willie Todd 1793—Dolley Madison’s second child by John Todd, born during the yellow fever epidemic and died within a few weeks, on the same day as her husband.

James Todd— John Todd’s brother, who seems to have tried to push Dolley out of some or all of her inheritance from her husband and father-in-law. He eventually embezzled three thousand dollars from a Philadelphia bank and ran off to Georgia, never to be heard from again.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

It is of course impossible to list all the books (to say nothing of Internet sites) that went into the making of Patriot Hearts over the two-plus years of research, writing, rewriting, and editing. As a historian, one constantly picks up bits and pieces of information about how people lived—cooking, laundry, dances, what one did and didn’t do in company—and this information, some of it acquired decades ago, is virtually impossible to trace down. Similarly, a good deal of research is non-written: visits to Monticello and Mount Vernon and Williamsburg to see how far it actually is from the house to the river, the marvelous re-creations of slave quarters and kitchens, the invaluable expertise of docents and reenactors to whom the eighteenth century is as real as the twenty-first (and makes a good deal more sense). (My special thanks to Jefferson’s law teacher George Wythe, and to Williamsburg magnate Robert Carter, for taking the time to chat with me in the Apollo Room of the Raleigh Tavern in Williamsburg one afternoon.)

This is a partial list of the books I found most useful in the writing of Patriot Hearts. I’ve arranged them by lady, but there was, of course, considerable overlap. Any or all of these titles can probably be acquired over the Internet.

MARTHA

Bryan, Helen. Martha Washington, First Lady of Liberty. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2002.

Clinton, Catherine. The Plantation Mistress: Woman’s World in the Old South. New York: Pantheon, 1982.

Kitman, Marvin. George Washington’s Expense Account. New York: Grove Press, 1970.

Lewis, Nelly Custis and Patricia Brady Schmit (ed.). Nelly Custis Lewis’s Housekeeping Book. Historic New Orleans Collection, 1982.

George Washington’s Mount Vernon, Official Guidebook. New York: Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association.

Schwarz, Philip (ed.). Slavery at the Home of George Washington. New York: Mt. Vernon Ladies’ Association, 2001.

Thane, Elswyth. Washington’s Lady. Philadelphia, PA: Curtis, 1954.

Wiencek, Henry. An Imperfect God: George Washington, His Slaves, and the Creation of America. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003.

ABIGAIL

Adams, Abigail, and Charles Francis Adams (ed.). The Letters of Mrs. Adams, Wife of John Adams. Wilkins, Carter & Co., 1848.

Adams, John and Abigail, and Frank Shuffleton (ed.). The Letters of John and Abigail Adams. New York: Penguin Classics, 2004.

Cappon, Lester (ed.). The Adams-Jefferson Letters. University of North Carolina Press, 1959.

Forbes, Esther. Paul Revere and the World He Lived In. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1942.

Levin, Phyllis. Abigail Adams, A Biography. New York: Thomas Dunne, 2001.

McCullough, David. John Adams. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001.

Nagel, Paul. The Adams Women. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1987.

Withey, Lynne. Dearest Friend: A Life of Abigail Adams. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1981.

SALLY

Bernier, Olivier. Pleasure and Privilege. New York: Doubleday, 1981.

Brodie, Fawn. Thomas Jefferson, An Intimate Biography. New York: Norton, 1974.

Burstein, Andrew. Jefferson’s Secrets. New York: Basic Books, 2005.

Crawford, Alan. Unwise Passions. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000.

Erickson, Carolly. To the Scaffold: The Life of Marie Antoinette. New York: Robson Books, 1992.

Hall, Gordon. Mr. Jefferson’s Ladies. Boston: Beacon Press, 1966.

Jefferson, Thomas, and Edwin Morris Betts (ed.). Thomas Jefferson’s Farm Book. Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation, 1999.

Jefferson, Thomas, and Edwin Morris Betts (ed.). Thomas Jefferson’s Garden Book. Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation, 1999.

Kierner, Cynthia. Scandal at Bizarre: Rumor and Reputation in Jefferson’s America. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2004.

Kimball, Marie. Jefferson, the Scene of Europe, 1784–1789. New York: Coward, McCann, 1950.

Mercier, Louis Sebastien, and Jean-Claud Bonnet (ed.). Tableau de Paris. Mercure de France, 1994.

Poisson, Michel. Paris, Buildings and Monuments. New York: Harry Abrams, 1999.

Randall, Willard. Thomas Jefferson, A Life. New York: Henry Holt, 1993.

Robiquet, Jean. Daily Life in the French Revolution. New York: MacMillan, 1965.

Shackelford, George. Thomas Jefferson’s Travels in Europe 1784–1789. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995.

Stein, Susan. The Worlds of Thomas Jefferson at Monticello. New York: Harry Abrams, 1993.

DOLLEY

Allgor, Catherine. Parlor Politics. University of Virginia, 2000.

Côté, Richard. Strength and Honor: The Life of Dolley Madison. Mt. Pleasant, SC: Corinthian Books, 2005.

Ketcham, Ralph. James Madison: A Biography. University Press of Virginia, 1990.

Madison, Dolley, and David Mattern and Holly Shulman (eds.). Selected Letters of Dolley Payne Madison. University of Virginia Press, 2003.