James Madison, Senior was a prominent Virginia planter, who served as a colonel in the militia during the American Revolutionary War.
Background
James Madison, Senior, was the son of Ambrose Madison and his wife Frances Taylor, and was born in 1723 in Orange County, Virginia. His father had hired slaves and an overseer to clear it, work that had been going on for five years to establish cultivation.
Career
He inherited Mount Pleasant, later known as Montpelier, a large tobacco plantation in Orange County, Virginia and, with the acquisition of more property, had 5,000 acres and became the largest landowner in the county. When he was nine, his family moved to their new plantation of Mount Pleasant in 1732. That summer (1732) his father died at age 36 in August after a short illness.
The family or the sheriff believed he was poisoned by slaves, and three were charged in the case and convicted by justices of the Commission of Peace.
Unusually, only one slave was executed. Dido and Turk, owned by the widow Frances Taylor Madison, were returned to her to serve as laborers after being punished by whipping.
As the eldest son, James Madison Senior inherited Mount Pleasant when he came of age in 1744. He called the plantation Home House.
Acquiring more land, he eventually owned 5,000 acres, making him the largest landowner in Orange County.
By the time of his death, he owned 108 slaves. Marriage and family American Revolutionary War During the American Revolution, Madison served as chairman of the Orange County Committee of Safety. He was commissioned as a colonel in the Virginia militia.
Membership
James was tutored and trained to be a planter and slaveholder, and member of the landed gentry.