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Dolly Payne Madison was born in Guilford County, North Carolina on May 20, 1768. Dolly was born the first girl in a family of several children to Quaker parents, John Payne and Mary Coles. She spent her childhood in Scotchtown, Virginia. "The Paynes were well conn ....

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.... her willingness to do so. His father was an eminent Quaker schoolteacher; John was a prominent young lawyer, twenty-seven years old. She did not contend against John Todd. "Dolly had the ability to accept whatever fate might have to offer and make the very best of it."2 They were married on January 7, 1790, at the Friends' Meeting House on Pine Street. In the summer of 1793 there came the yellow plague. Dolly was struggling with her children along the crowded road to Gray's Ferry, one of the panic driven throngs escaping from the stricken city. John Todd stayed behind to give his able bodied and courageous help, and before the winter was over Doll ....