John Payne
(1736-1792)
BIRTH
1736
PLACE
DEATH
October 24, 1792
PLACE
FAMILY
WIFE
Mary Coles Payne
(1745–1807; death day uncertain)
CHILDREN
Dolley Madison
(1768-1849)
HOMES
RELIGIOUS VIEWS
CHRISTIAN
QUAKER
MEMBERSHIPS
AWARDS
John Payne, Dolley Madison’s father, was a Virginia planter who joined the Society of Friends. After freeing enslaved people, he moved his family to Philadelphia in 1783 and opened a starch business. Its failure left him bankrupt and led to his exclusion from the meeting for unpaid debts. Mary Coles Payne took boarders to support the family. He died in October 1792. His birth year remains uncertain: the master gives 1736, while Park Service research suggests 1740.
EARLY LIFE
John Payne was born 1736. The external genealogical record identifies Josias Payne and Mary Anna Payne 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 John Payne 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. John Payne died Oct 24, 1792. Additional claims about employment, officeholding, military service, or accomplishments have been omitted where the consulted record did not support them.
CAREER
DEATH
John Payne died on Oct 24, 1792. John Payne, Dolley Madison’s father, was a Virginia planter who joined the Society of Friends. After freeing enslaved people, he moved his family to Philadelphia in 1783 and opened a starch business. Its failure left him bankrupt and led to his exclusion from the meeting for unpaid debts. Mary Coles Payne took boarders to support the family. He died in October 1792. His birth year remains uncertain: the master gives 1736, while Park Service research suggests 1740. The available account does not establish a medical cause or a dependable sequence of final symptoms and care.
POPULAR BIOGRAPHIES
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