An Exact Copy of Elizabeth Kortright Monroe's Wedding Dress at Ash Lawn - Highland

Elizabeth Kortright met James Monroe in 1785 while he was serving in the Continental Congress of the Confederation in New York City. William Grayson wrote Monroe that the Kortright sisters “made so brilliant and lovely an appearance” at the theatre that the “genteel” men all left their seats to go pay compliments to them. February 16, 1786 Elizabeth and James married in Trinity Episcopal Church. She was 17; he was 27. Stephen M. Mitchell wrote to his friend William S. Johnson that: “The night after you left us our friend Monro was married & next morning decamp’d for Long Island with the little smiling Venus in his Arms, where they have taken house, to avoid fulsome Complements during their first Transports.” 

President Monroe wrote many years later “[Elizabeth] left her state & her family, & became a good Virginian.” Their first daughter Eliza was born in December 1786. Their son, James Spence died when he was 18 months old in September 1800. Their younger daughter Maria Hester was born in April 1802. Elizabeth Monroe made a home for her family in Fredericksburg, Richmond, Philadelphia, Paris, London, and here at Highland in Albemarle County. 

When James Monroe became Secretary of State in Madison’s administration the Monroes moved to Washington, D.C. Mrs. Monroe entertained in their home on I Street NW. After having dinner with the Monroes in 1815, the Secretary of the Navy’s wife Mrs. Crowninshield praised the elegant table Mrs. Monroe presented:

The table wider than we have and in the middle a larger, perhaps silver, waiter, with images . . .and vases filled with flowers, which made a very showy appearance as the candles were lighted when we went to the table. The dishes were silver and set round this waiter, the plates were handsome china, the forks silver, and so heavy I could hardly lift them to my mouth, dessert knives silver, and spoons very heavy . . .

When Elizabeth Monroe became First Lady in March 1817, the Monroes furnished the President’s House which had recently been restored after it was torched by the British Royal Marines in 1814. President Monroe and his wife held a dinner or reception every fortnight. Among their guests was Rosalie Stier Calvert, a Belgian aristocrat married to a Maryland planter, George Calvert. They lived at Riversdale Plantation near Bladensburg, MD. Rosalie routinely requested that her sister Isabelle van Havre send dresses, shoes and hats from Paris for her daughters and herself. On March 25, 1819 she wrote to her sister describing an evening at the executive mansion and her hostess:

The other day we went to an extremely splendid state dinner at the President’s House. All the foreign ministers were there. I was seated between the English and Russian ambassadors. Mrs. Monroe gave me the most flattering reception; she does the honors with much grace and dignity. She is a charming woman, much superior to the last President’s wife. She is from one of the better families and received an excellent education. She spent several years in France and in England when Mr. Monroe was Ambassador. Her older daughter, who is married, was educated in Paris and couldn’t be nicer. The younger [daughter] was at School with Caroline [and] returned home last month. She was here [at Riversdale] yesterday to see Caroline. Mrs. Monroe, her daughters, and four or five other Washington women receive their clothes from Paris, but they are not in as good taste as ours.

Elizabeth Kortright Monroe passed away at her final home Oakhill near Leesburg, VA in September 1830 when she was 63 years old. Her husband wrote in his autobiography: “It is a remark, which it would be unpardonable to withold, that it was improbable for any female to have fulfilled all the duties of the partner of such cares, and of a wife and parent, with more attention, delicacy and propriety than she has done.”

Today, guests at Ash Lawn – Highland can see the miniature portrait of Elizabeth painted by Louis Sené in Paris when she was 28. The French people called her “la belle américaine.” Visitors today often comment that she was very pretty, even beautiful. As they exit the house museum they remark on the exact copies of two of her gowns; her pink wedding dress with its low cut bodice and generous pinked ruffles and the gold velvet empire dress which she wore to Napoleon’s coronation. Inevitably, someone says she was so slender, small or tiny and I think . . . “the little smiling venus in his arms.”

Quotes from: James Monroe: An Illustrated History by Daniel Preston

Monroe Family Recipes, Judith E. Kosik, Editor

 Mistress of Riversdale the Plantation Letters of Rosalie Stier Calvert 1795-1821, Margaret Law Callcott, Editor

NOW:  Ah, the scent of new mown hay wafts on the breeze and I see the tractor making ever smaller circles, the blade leaving even rows on the hillside.  After five days drying in the sun the hay is ready to be baled.  No rain this year while the hay is on the ground!  A huge baler rolls the hay into large round bales which can stay in stacks in the field or be sheltered in a barn until they are needed to feed the cattle in the winter.  Henry Smith wields each hay bale with the fork lift mounted on his tractor.  

THEN:  I remember when James Monroe lived here at Ashlawn-Highland enslaved field hands cut the clover with scythes and raked it into rows.  If it rained the hay rows had to be turned with pitchforks to enhance the drying process.  After the hay was cured part of the crop was stacked on ricks which looked like small pyramids of hay on legs.  The rest of the hay was tossed onto wagons with pitchforks.  Horses chomped peacefully on the stubble in the field, flicked their tails at flies and whinnied to greet other horse-drawn wagons that passed by carrying loose hay to the barn.  

THEN and NOW:  Farm machinery has changed dramatically in two hundred years but farmers still worry about the weather and haymaking is hot and thirsty work!  I’m glad I’m here to provide shade!

POST SCRIPT:  James Monroe wrote William Short in February, 1811:  “I can assure you that I had made some improvements in the product & appearance of my property in Albemarle.  I had sown much clover seed, & covered the ground with plaister of Paris, & derived considerable advantage from the crop of hay last summer & autumn.  I had undoubtedly the best clover in the county, & most ground appropriated to it.  My industry was a subject of mirth to the old planters & farmers at the commencement but they had ceased to laugh at my experiments before the end of the year.”

Quote from:   James Monroe An Illustrated History by Daniel Preston

Flag Day is June 14! Flags will line the brick walk under my green leafy boughs as I welcome Active Duty Personnel and Veterans of all branches of the United States Armed Forces as my guests (free admission) to Ash Lawn – Highland.

James Monroe volunteered to fight in the American Revolution in February, 1776.  He began his military career as a Lieutenant in the Continental Army’s 3rd Virginia Infantry and was wounded at the Battle of Trenton Christmas 1776.  He fought in the Battle of Brandywine on September 11, 1777 and wintered at Valley Forge.  Monroe was a Lt. Colonel in the Virginia Militia at the end of the war.

It was on June 14, 1777 that the Continental Congress unanimously approved the motion:

RESOLVED, that the flag of the United States be made of thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation. RED is for Hardiness and Courage – WHITE is for Purity and Innocence – BLUE is for Vigilance, Perseverance, and Justice –

On January 13, 1794 the U. S. Congress passed a second flag resolution that beginning May 1, 1795 the flag should be “fifteen stripes, alternate red and white,” with a union of fifteen stars, white in a blue field.  This second flag resolution was enacted as a result of the admission of Vermont (1791) and Kentucky (1792) into the union.

James Monroe was Minister Plenipotentiary to France from 1794–1797. Although new states were formed after 1795, the flag with fifteen stars and fifteen stripes did not change.  In 1814, at the peak of the War of 1812, when James Monroe was Secretary of State and Secretary of War and James Madison was President, Francis Scott Key immortalized this flag which waved over Fort McHenry in Baltimore, MD calling it “The Star Spangled Banner.”  Key’s poem became our national anthem.

By the end of 1817 five new states – Tennessee (1796), Ohio (1803), Louisiana (1812), Indiana (1816) and Mississippi (1817) – had been admitted into the Union.  To represent them  a third flag resolution was enacted on April 14, 1818 and signed by President Monroe:

An Act to Establish the Flag of the United States–

Sect. 1:  Be it enacted, That from and after the Fourth of July next, the flag of the United States be Thirteen horizontal stripes, alternate red and white; that the union have twenty stars, white in a blue field.

Sect. 2:  And be it further enacted, That on the admission of every new State into the Union, one star be added to the union of the flag; and that such addition shall take effect on the fourth of July next succeeding such admission.

This resolution is the flag legislation still in effect today.

On July 4, 1819 the twenty-first star was added to represent Illinois (1818).  Then July 4, 1820 a new flag was issued with twenty-three stars to include the new states Alabama (1819) and Maine (1820).

Missouri became the 24th State in August, 1821 the last state to enter the Union while James Monroe was President.  Four rows of six stars sparkled in the field of blue from July 4, 1822 until after his death July 4, 1831.

Post Script:  Alison Wood, a Guide at Ash Lawn – Highland, discusses with visiting school groups the many flags of James Monroe’s lifetime and their symbolism.  Her research  contributed to this “Post From Monroe’s Oak Tree.”  Marie Edwards, our Accountant, generously stitched the flags exhibited in the Ice House and pictured here!

VISITORS TO JAMES MONROE’S HOME “HIGHLAND” always ask, “How old is that huge tree?”  The guides reply, “That is a White Oak and it’s over 250 years old.  It was here when Monroe purchased this property in 1793″  This Spring we’ve had visitors from Toronto, Canada, the U.K., Mexico and from practically every state in the U.S.  I think James Monroe would be pleased that people from other countries and states are visiting his “cabin castle” in the 21st century, because he traveled from Virginia to Montreal, Canada, Niagara Falls, New York City and Paris, France during the 18th century and to France, Spain and England in the 19th century. 

WHEN MONROE WAS PRESIDENT he set out on June 1, 1817 to tour the northern states.  ”Monroe’s primary purpose for undertaking this journey was to examine the sites of existing and projected military installations along the northeast coast and the northern border.” states Dan Preston, Editor of The Papers of James Monroe: A Documentary History of the Presidential Tours of James Monroe, 1817, 1818, 1819   in his introduction.  (This is a fascinating collection and is available in our gift shop at Ash Lawn – Highland.)  It includes speeches delivered by the dignitaries in towns he visited and Monroe’s responses as well as nationwide newspaper accounts of and commentary on his progress.   He toured MD, DE, PA, NJ, NY, CT, MA, RI, NH, the district of Maine, VT and the Michigan Territory.  In Buffalo he boarded an early steamboat, crossed Lake Erie and disembarked in Detroit.  Monroe stopped in many towns in OH and western PA before he returned to Washington, DC 15 weeks later, in September.

IN THE SPRING AND SUMMER OF 1819 President Monroe traveled south along the coasts of VA, NC,  SC and GA, then proceeded to TN, Alabama Territory, KY, IN and VA stopping at Highland August 2 before returning to the “executive mansion” in Washington.  Fort Sumter was built in Charleston, SC as a result of this trip. 

THEN newspapers in every town along his route wrote articles about the nation’s ”Chief Magistrate.”

NOW this old oak tree with new green leaves is going to reminisce about the Monroe family and keep you up-to-date on activities that surround me today.

POST SCRIPT:  I learned about THEN & NOW from elementary students on field trips, who gather around my large trunk,  gaze up into my sweeping branches and learn how, “THEN one way for people to keep cool was to sit under a shade tree.  NOW houses have air conditioning.”  “THEN you had to wait for a breeze.  NOW porches have electric ceiling fans.”  “THEN people chopped down trees to burn as logs in fireplaces, to heat their homes.”  NOW I hope they don’t get any ideas!!!!!

About the Author:  “SOME of my famous contemporary trees around Charlottesville are now gone — You recall the “McGuffey Ash” which shaded Pavilion IX, home to the creator of the McGuffey Reader, on the Grounds of the University of Virginia and “Tarleton’s Oak” which witnessed Col. Banastre Tarleton’s attempt to capture members of the Virginia legislature at Albemarle Courthouse on June 4, 1781! But I’m still here.”