Nelly Madison
(1731-1829)
BIRTH
1731
PLACE
Port Conway, King George, Colony of Virginia
DEATH
1829
PLACE
Orange, Virginia, United States
FAMILY
HOMES
RELIGIOUS VIEWS
RELIGION NOT DOCUMENTED
DENOMINATION NOT DOCUMENTED
MEMBERSHIPS
AWARDS
Eleanor “Nelly” Conway Madison (1731–1829) married James Madison Sr. in 1749 and became the mother of President James Madison. She spent decades at Montpelier, where enslaved people sustained the plantation household. After her husband’s death in 1801 she retained property and enslaved workers. Her will allowed those she enslaved to choose which of her heirs would inherit them, without granting freedom. Estate papers record these decisions after her death at ninety-eight.
EARLY LIFE
Eleanor Rose Conway was born 1731. The external genealogical record identifies Francis Conway and Rebecca Catlett as the parents. Surviving structured biographical sources provide limited detail about childhood, education, household routines, or the economic circumstances in which this person grew up.
No distinct public profession or office for Eleanor Rose Conway is established by the structured external record used for this entry. The surviving information is primarily genealogical and documents family identity rather than an independently recorded public career. Eleanor Rose Conway died 1829. Additional claims about employment, officeholding, military service, or accomplishments have been omitted where the consulted record did not support them.
CAREER
DEATH
Eleanor Rose Conway died in 1829, in Orange, Virginia, United States. Eleanor “Nelly” Conway Madison married James Madison Sr. in 1749 and became the mother of President James Madison. She spent decades at Montpelier, where enslaved people sustained the plantation household. After her husband’s death in 1801 she retained property and enslaved workers. Her will allowed those she enslaved to choose which of her heirs would inherit them, without granting freedom. Estate papers record these decisions after her death at ninety-eight. The available account does not establish a medical cause or a dependable sequence of final symptoms and care.
James Madison's Montpelier
11350 Constitution Hwy, Montpelier Station, VA 22957
GRAVE
POPULAR BIOGRAPHIES
101719