Bishop James Madison (392)

James Madison (27 August 1749–06 March 1812) was a clergyman, bishop, educator, enslaver, and a member of the American Philosophical Society, elected in 1780. Born into a wealthy Virginia planter family, James Madison shared a similarly privileged upbringing as his second cousin of the same name, fellow APS Member, and fourth President of the United States, James Madison Jr. (1751-1836). From his father’s plantation in Augusta County, Madison first studied in Maryland before attending William and Mary College (1768). Graduating four years later with a Botetort Medal, law became his initial post-graduate pursuit, and he gained admittance to the bar before he took up a professorship of natural philosophy and mathematics at his alma mater and abandoned law altogether (1773).

In 1775, Madison sailed to England where the Church of England ordained him. Now a priest, he returned to William and Mary and in 1777 became the institution’s president. However, despite his lofty office, being an Anglican priest at a crown-backed institution in the middle of the revolutionary zeal of his age proved a significant challenge. However, unlike his predecessor, Madison staunchly supported the colonial cause, and when the college lost its imperial funding, he began selling college land holdings as well as hiring out some of the people the college held in enslavement for additional funds. Under Thomas Jefferson’s charge, he also attempted to reform the college itself, with limited success (1776-1779). Things turned from bad to worse when British forces began encroaching closer and closer to campus and many students and faculty fled, which gave Madison no choice but to close the doors of William and Mary in June of 1781. Over the next year, the British, then the American and French forces occupied the campus until William and Mary finally became ready to reopen in July of 1782, and Madison held classes that following autumn. No longer a British citizen due to the outcome of the war, Madison took part in the process of establishing the Episcopal Church from the remains of the Anglican Church: in 1785 he helped lead the first convention of the Episcopal diocese of Virginia, and thereafter took a trip to England where the Archbishop of Canterbury ordained him a bishop (1790). Despite his high accolades, running a bishopric and keeping afloat a college both formally associated with the now much-hated British Crown proved near impossible. Nevertheless, his years at William and Mary saw him continuously publishing on his subjects of expertise, which helped net him job offers from Columbia College in New York, and Transylvania College in Kentucky. Still, Madison remained loyal to his post, if not entirely due to his dedication than at least in part due to failing health. His heart disease dramatically worsened in late 1811, and finally robbed him of his final breath the following year. One of his major legacies, William and Mary College, continued to hold people in enslavement up until the Civil War. (ANB, et al.)