Archives for April 2024

Changing Scholarship: Reconsidering Eliza Monroe's Birthplace A recent review of a previously unknown manuscript has prompted a reconsideration of earlier scholarship regarding the birthplace of Eliza Monroe Hay. Her birth in early December 1786 had originally been understood to have occurred in Fredericksburg, but evidence now supports that she was instead born in King George County, likely at the farm of James Monroe's maternal uncle, Judge Joseph Jones. James Monroe met Elizabeth Kortright in New York during his service in Congress in 1785. They married in February the following year. Following the completion of his third Congressional term, Monroe proposed to move to Virginia with the intent of establishing a law practice, but vacillated between Richmond or Fredericksburg.[1] He was aided in this decision by Joseph Jones, a paternalistic figure to him, who counseled him regarding the saturated nature of the legal field and high cost of living in Richmond.[2] Alternatively, and … [Read more...]