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James Madison (bishop)

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The Right Reverend
James Madison
8th President of the
College of William & Mary
In office
1777–1812
Preceded byJohn Camm
Succeeded byJohn Bracken
Personal details
Born(1749-08-27)August 27, 1749
Port Republic, Virginia
DiedMarch 6, 1812(1812-03-06) (aged 62)
Williamsburg, Virginia
Alma materCollege of William & Mary
Signature
Ordination history of
James Madison
History
Diaconal ordination
Ordained byRichard Terrick, (London)
Date29 September 1775
PlaceFulham Palace, London
Priestly ordination
Ordained byRichard Terrick, (London)
Date1 October 1775
PlaceFulham Palace, London
Episcopal consecration
Principal consecratorJohn Moore, (Canterbury)
Co-consecrators
Date19 September 1790
PlaceLambeth Palace Chapel, London

James Madison (August 27, 1749 – March 6, 1812) was the first bishop of the Diocese of Virginia of the Episcopal Church in the United States and the eighth president of the College of William and Mary.[1][2] He held the latter office from 1777 until his death in 1812—a tenure encompassing the American Revolutionary War, the removal of the Virginian capital from Williamsburg to Richmond, the disestablishment of the Anglican Church, the founding of the Episcopal Church, and the first decades of the new republic. As a leader of both Virginia's religious community and its oldest college, he occupied an influential position in the commonwealth, which he used to agitate for an ideology that blended radical Republicanism, Christianity, and the ideals of the Enlightenment.[1] One historian described him as an "American Jacobin."[1]

Madison, a second cousin of President James Madison, was an active and well-known participant in the intellectual and political life of British America and the early United States.[1] A close associate of Thomas Jefferson and correspondent with prominent figures like astronomer David Rittenhouse and Yale College President Ezra Stiles, he oversaw a host of groundbreaking reforms at William & Mary, including the introduction of the United States' first elective system of study (1779), first honor system (1779), first school of modern languages (1779), first school of law (1779), and first school of modern history (1803).[3][4][5] He also ordered the construction of an observatory on campus in 1778 that surviving evidence suggests was meant to be a permanent structure before its untimely destruction (likely during the war-time French occupation of the college). According to one historian, Madison's installation "would almost certainly have been the first documented observatory of any kind associated with an American educational institution."[5]

Madison was also an accomplished scholar and teacher in his own right.[6] A graduate of William & Mary (where he was one of the first recipients of the Botetourt Medal), he taught natural history, mathematics, and political economy—he is credited as the first American professor to offer a course of instruction in the latter.[3] His students included James Monroe, Edmund Randolph, Edward Coles, and Winfield Scott.[7][8] Madison also experimented with magnetism and psychiatric treatment, made sophisticated meteorological and astronomical observations, and conducted archaeological research in the Kanawha Valley.[9][8] In 1780, he was elected to the American Philosophical Society.[10]

Early life and family

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Madison was born on August 27, 1749 in Barterbrook Augusta County, Virginia, and grew up near the present-day town of Port Republic at Madison Hall, an estate which his father acquired in 1751.[11] He was the son of John and Agatha (née Strother) Madison, prosperous Virginia planters. His mother Agatha was the daughter of William Strother of King George County. On John's side, he was second cousin to James Madison Jr. of Montpelier, who would later be the 4th President of the United States.[1][7] John Madison himself was a notable figure, serving as a member of House of Burgesses and later the Virginia House of Delegates, as well as the first Court Clerk of Augusta County, a frontier settlement.[12] During the French and Indian War, he constructed fortifications on the family estate.[11]

Madison grew up at Madison Hall with several siblings who went on to live noteworthy lives. His eldest brother, William Strother Madison, fought in the Revolutionary War and died of smallpox in 1782.[13] Another brother, Thomas Madison, married Patrick Henry's sister Susanna and was a soldier and member of the House of Delegates representing Botetourt County—he signed the Fincastle Resolutions in 1775.[14] His youngest brother, George Madison, fought in the Revolutionary War, Northwest Indian War, and the War of 1812, in which he was captured at the Battle of Frenchtown.[15] He was later elected the sixth Governor of Kentucky.[16]

Education

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Madison was educated at home and at a private school in Maryland before matriculating at the College of William and Mary in 1768.[17] His undergraduate years in Williamsburg coincided with the arrival of two notable British professors and clergymen, Reverend Samuel Henley (1740–1815) and Reverend Thomas Gwatkin (1741–1800).[6][18] Henley, chair of moral philosophy, was a daring intellectual whose Socinianism, deism, and republican theology embroiled him in controversy with the conservative members of the Virginia elite.[18] Gwatkin, a friend of Jeremy Bentham, held the chair of natural philosophy and mathematics and engaged extensively with Enlightenment thought.[19]

Madison was one of the first two recipients of the Botetourt Medal

Madison graduated from William & Mary with high honors in 1771. On July 29, 1772, he received the gold Botetourt Medal endowed as a prize for classical learning by the Governor of Virginia, Norborne Berkeley, 4th Baron Botetourt.[20][21] That same summer, in August 1772, he delivered an oration at the college that made plain his radical sympathies and support for legislative government.[1]

At this juncture, Madison opted for a legal career. He read law with George Wythe, and was admitted to the bar, though he blundered through the argument in his first trial, an admiralty case in Williamsburg.[22] Despite the encouragement of his father and his friends, he refused to practice further.[23]

Early career

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Professor of Natural History and Mathematics, Anglican Minister

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In 1773, Madison's former professor Thomas Gwatkin vacated William & Mary's chair of natural philosophy and mathematics to become master of the college's grammar school.[6][19] William & Mary President John Camm offered the position to Madison, who accepted, though he was now also dedicated to seeking ordination in the Anglican church.[6] This was no easy task in British America, however, as there was no bishop in the colonies. For this reason, in 1775, during the opening of the American Revolutionary War, Madison set sail for England to be consecrated by Richard Terrick, Bishop of London.[6] Despite the risks of the long journey in the midst of a war, Madison had little trouble achieving his objective, and in the fall of that year, he was ordained a deacon and then a priest by Bishop Terrick. Decades later, his famous second cousin U.S. President James Madison, would share with a biographer that while Madison was in England he also met with Scottish historian William Robertson. Robertson told his young patriotic visitor that whether the revolutionary war was right or not, he was baffled that the colonies believed they could actually resist the crown—he was unaware that almost at this exact time General John Burgoyne was surrendering at Saratoga.[24] For his part, Madison had no interest in staying longer than was necessary in Britain, which he found to be "degenerate" and "anti-American."[1] His mission fulfilled, he departed for Virginia.[6]

Much had changed in Williamsburg in his absence. His former teachers and current colleagues Henley and Gwatkin, both ardent loyalists, saw the growing popular support for the patriot cause and decided to return to Great Britain with Lady Dunmore, the wife of the royal governor, John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore.[7] Before departing, Henley entrusted his valuable personal library to Madison for safekeeping.[6] When it became clear after the war that Henley would never return to Virginia, part of the collection was sold to Thomas Jefferson. President Camm, also a loyalist who had once drawn the ire of Virginian elites in the "Parson's Cause," opted to stay in Williamsburg and lead the William & Mary in accordance with its royal charter.[7][19] In November 1776, however, his inflexibility led to a direct conflict with Madison when the young professor proposed that King George III's name be removed from the surveyors' licenses issued by the college.[19] Camm opposed the suggestion, holding that it violated the royal charter. In turn, in 1777, the college's patriotic Board of Visitors charged Camm with "neglect and misconduct" and had him removed. With loyalism snuffed out at the college, the Board sought a patriot for the now-vacant presidency.[6]

Madison, a republican clergyman and professor who had taken the initiative to organize his students into a militia company, was the clear choice.[6] Though only 27 years old, he was selected as the eighth president of the College of William and Mary. The Board evidently viewed this as a stop-gap measure, as his term was only supposed to last one year.[6]

President of William & Mary

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A College in Distress

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When Madison took office in 1777, William & Mary was barely a college at all. The revolutionary war had put an end to its revenues via royal grants, leaving it bankrupt.[6] Moreover, it hardly had a faculty: the Board had dismissed two other professors when it removed Camm, meaning that only Madison and the master of the grammar school, John Bracken, were left to teach. Madison sought to remedy the financial situation by selling some of the college's land and enslaved people, as well as raising fees and cutting costs. He filled the vacant chair in moral philosophy by appointing Reverend Robert Andrews, a graduate of the College of Philadelphia, to the post.[6]

Jefferson's Reforms

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In 1779, William & Mary's fortunes changed. For half a decade, Thomas Jefferson, then a member of the House of Delegates, had tried in vain to pass legislation that would sweep away any ecclesiastical or royal elements of the college and completely overhaul its structure, governance, and finances.[6] It was only when he became governor in 1779 and then a member of the college's Board of Visitors that he was able to pursue a streamlined version of his reforms.[6] Spurred by Jefferson, the Board abolished William & Mary's two divinity professorships and its grammar school (meaning that its master, Bracken, an opponent of the reforms whom Jefferson referred to as the "simpleton Bracken" was out of a job).[25] To replace these three positions, the Board announced new professorships in "Law & Police" (filled by George Wythe), "Modern Languages" (filled by Carlo Bellini), and "Chymistry & Medicine" (filled by James McClurg). It also modified Andrews' position, making him chair of "Ethics & the Belles Lettres." These were the United States' first professorships in law, modern languages, and fine arts.[3][26]

In a 1780 letter to Yale College president Ezra Stiles, Madison proudly described his new republican and secular "university," which afforded students unprecedented freedom to choose their courses:

"The Doors of the University are open to all, nor is even a knowledge in the Ant. Languages a previous Requisite for Entrance. The Students have the Liberty of attending whom they please, and in what order they please, or all the diffr Lectures in a Term if they think proper—"[4]

Jefferson's revolution would soon have to give way to the broader revolution unfolding in the colonies, however. With Benedict Arnold's British troops now on the Virginia Peninsula, the state legislature voted in April 1780 to permanently move the capital from Williamsburg to Richmond.[6] By June 1781, British forces had invested Williamsburg and General Cornwallis had evicted Madison from the President's House to set up his personal headquarters.[6] The French commandeered the campus a few months later and used it to treat their wounded during the Siege of Yorktown.[6] In November, the interior of the President's House was destroy by a fire.[6] The college would not open again until October 1782.[2]

The Republican university

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Though Jefferson had completely lost faith in his alma mater with the departure of Wythe, Madison' college was popularly viewed as a hotbed for the future president's Francophile Republicanism in the 1790s and 1800s.[1][6][8] Students called each other "citizen" and loathed the Federalists so much that some burned an effigy of President John Adams in 1798 and balked at Madison's proposal to don mourning crape following the death of George Washington.[22]

In 1805, theologian Samuel Miller of the Princeton Theological Seminary published an overview of American higher education, lingering on Madison's William & Mary to remark upon the unusual enthusiasm of its students for politics:

"There is probably no college in the United States in which political science is studied with so much ardour, and in which it is considered so preeminently a favourite subject, as in this."[27]

The 1807 map of Virginia, commissioned by Madison

Madison sought to step down from his duties as bishop in 1805; whether an assistant bishop was chosen, as he appears to have wished, is somewhat unclear.[28] He remained as President of the College of William and Mary for 35 years, serving until his death, although quite infirm in his last years and unable to attend the General Convention. Bishop Madison died in Williamsburg on March 6, 1812, about a year after he ordained future bishop William Meade as a deacon.[29]

The Reverend Dr. Madison also presided over the first convention of the newly formed Diocese of Virginia of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America in 1785 and was consecrated as a bishop on September 19, 1790, in the Lambeth Palace in London.[30]

Death

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Madison's health began to falter in late middle-age as he suffered from heart disease. As early as 1805, he had proposed that the Episcopal Church elect an assistant bishop to aid him with his duties—he was afraid that he lacked the stamina to keep up.[22] His condition took a significant turn for the worse in late 1811 and on February 1, 1812, he wrote a letter to his second cousin, then-President James Madison. "My Health, I fear, is gone," Madison wrote. "I am now labouring under Dropsy."[31] Just over a month later, on March 6, 1812, he died.[32]

Madison, who had served William & Mary as a professor and president for nearly 40 years, was interred in the college chapel—an honor given to only a select few, including popular colonial governor Norborne Berkeley, 4th Barton Botetourt and Founding Father Peyton Randolph.[33] Immediately after his death, students founded the Bishop James Madison Society, a secret society that remains active more than 200 years later.[34][35]

Madison was succeeded as president of William & Mary by Reverend John Bracken, his longtime colleague and master of the William and Mary grammar school. By then, Bracken was himself in poor health and unprepared to steer the college through the War of 1812.[6][8] His tenure would only last until 1814, when the Board forced his resignation.[25] The subsequent decades witnessed a reactionary turn away from Madison's republicanism at the college, reaching its apex with the ascension of proslavery ideologist Thomas Roderick Dew to the presidency in 1836.[8]

Consecrators

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See also

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References

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  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Crowe, Charles. "Bishop James Madison and the Republic of Virtue". The Journal of Southern History. 30 (1): 58–70. doi:10.2307/2205374. JSTOR 2205374.
  2. 1 2 "James Madison (1749-1812)". Special Collections Knowledgebase. September 9, 2019. Retrieved June 12, 2026.
  3. 1 2 3 "Priorities of the College of William and Mary Historical Marker". www.hmdb.org. Retrieved June 10, 2026.
  4. 1 2 Stiles, Ezra; Madison, James (1927). "Correspondence of Ezra Stiles, President of Yale College, and James Madison, President of William and Mary College, 1780". William and Mary Quarterly. 7 (4): 292–296. doi:10.2307/1921259. JSTOR 1921259.
  5. 1 2 Shy, Jeffrey R (2002). "Early Astronomy in America: The Role of the College of William and Mary". Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage. 5 (1): 41–64. doi:10.3724/SP.J.1440-2807.2002.01.05.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Godson, Susan H.; Johnson, Ludwell h.; Sherman, Richard B.; Tate, Thad W.; Walker, Helen C. (1993). The College of William & Mary: A History, Vol. I (1693–1888). Williamsburg, VA: William & Mary Press.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Tyler, Lyon G. (1892). "Early Presidents of William and Mary". The William and Mary College Quarterly Historical Papers. 1 (2): 63–75. doi:10.2307/1939793. JSTOR 1939793.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 Morris, Scott Taylor (2014). Southern Enlightenment: Reform and Progress in Jefferson's Virginia (PhD Dissertation). Washington University in St. Louis.
  9. ↑ Mucher, Christen (2022). "Removal in the Antiquarian Archive". Before American History. University of Virginia Press. ISBN 9780813948263. LCCN 2021054548. Retrieved June 10, 2026 – via open.upress.virginia.edu.
  10. ↑ "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved March 31, 2021.
  11. 1 2 "Madison Hall Historical Marker". www.hmdb.org. Retrieved June 13, 2026.
  12. ↑ Dewey, Frank L. (1982). "The Waterson-Madison Episode: An Incident in Thomas Jefferson's Law Practice". The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. 90 (2): 165–176. ISSN 0042-6636. JSTOR 4248542.
  13. ↑ Coleman, Abbie (June 8, 2026). "Patchwork 250: A love story from Virginia's Revolutionary Past". WSLS. Retrieved June 13, 2026.
  14. ↑ Treesh, Catherine (2025). "The Fincastle Resolutions". Encyclopedia Virginia.
  15. ↑ Blair, Frank P. (1903). "BRIEF SKETCH. of Governor George Madison. Elected August 16th; Died October 14th, 1816". Register of Kentucky State Historical Society. 1 (3): 19–23. ISSN 2328-8183. JSTOR 23366089.
  16. ↑ "Gov. George Madison (1763-1816)". KY Historical Society. Retrieved June 13, 2026.
  17. ↑ McVety, Amanda Kay (2002). Bishop Madison and the Guardian Angels of Science (Masters Thesis). College of William and Mary.
  18. 1 2 "Samuel Henley". Special Collections Knowledgebase. September 9, 2019. Retrieved June 12, 2026.
  19. 1 2 3 4 Morpurgo, J. E. (1976). Their Majesties' Royall Colledge: William and Mary in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. College of William & Mary.
  20. ↑ Tyler, Lyon Gardiner (1915). Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography. Lewis Historical Publishing Company.
  21. ↑ "Botetourt Medal". Special Collections Research Center Knowledgebase. Williamsburg, VA: Earl Gregg Swem Library, College of William & Mary. September 9, 2019. Retrieved February 11, 2025.
  22. 1 2 3 Osborne, Ruby Orders (1981). The College of William and Mary in Virginia, 1800-1827 (PhD Dissertation). College of William and Mary.
  23. ↑ Colonial Williamsburg, biography of Bishop James Madison Archived April 16, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  24. ↑ "James Madison to Robert Walsh, 22 Aug. 1831". rotunda.upress.virginia.edu. Retrieved June 13, 2026.
  25. 1 2 "John Bracken (c. 1745 - 1818)". Special Collections Knowledgebase. September 9, 2019. Retrieved June 14, 2026.
  26. ↑ Dworkin, Ira Bernard (1951). "America's First Law School: The College of William and Mary". American Bar Association Journal. 37: 348–350.
  27. ↑ Miller, Samuel (1805). A brief retrospect of the eighteenth century. Part the first in three volumes, containing a sketch of the revolutions and improvements in science, arts, and literature during that period. Vol. III. Ellerton & Byworth.
  28. ↑ Dashiell, T. Grayson (1883). A digest of the proceedings of the conventions and councils in the Diocese of Virginia.
  29. ↑ Johnson, Rossiter; Brown, John Howard, eds. (1904). The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans. Vol. VII. Boston: The Biographical Society. Retrieved May 14, 2022 – via Internet Archive.
  30. ↑ Registrum Sacrum Anglicanum II, 1897, pg. 146
  31. ↑ Madison, James (1812). "Right Reverend James Madison to James Madison, 1 February 1812". Founders Online, National Archives.
  32. ↑ "Right Reverend James Madison to James Madison, 1 February 1812". founders.archives.gov. Retrieved June 12, 2026.
  33. ↑ "Burial Vaults Under the Chapel at the Wren Building the College of William and Mary Architectural Report Block 16 Building 3 | Colonial Williamsburg Digital Library". research.colonialwilliamsburg.org. Retrieved June 13, 2026.
  34. ↑ "Bishop James Madison Society". Special Collections Knowledgebase. September 9, 2019. Retrieved June 13, 2026.
  35. ↑ "Campus Secret Societies". Flat Hat Magazine. Retrieved June 13, 2026.
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