Dolley Madison - Spelling of Name

Spelling of Name

In the past, biographers and others stated that her given name was Dorothea after her aunt, or Dorothy, and that Dolly was a nickname. But, her birth was registered with the New Garden Friends Meeting as Dolley, and her will of 1841 states "I, Dolly P. Madison". Based on manuscript evidence and the scholarship of recent biographers, Dollie, spelled with an "i", appears to have been her given name at birth. As spelling was more variable in those years, historians have settled on using Dolley as the spelling of her given name. On the other hand, the print press, especially newspapers,tended to spell it Dolly. This included many of the newspapers of her day: for example, in the Hallowell (Maine) Gazette, 8 February 1815, p. 4, it refers to how the congress had allowed "Madame Dolly Madison" an allowance of $14,000 to purchase new furniture; and the New Bedford (MA)of 3 March 1837, p. 2 referred to a number of important papers from her late husband, and said that "Mrs. Dolly Madison" would be paid by the Senate for these historical manuscripts. Several magazines of that time also used the "Dolly" spelling, such as The Knickerbocker, February 1837, p. 165. it should also be noted that numerous of the popular magazines of the 1860s-1890s preferred the "Dolly" spelling, and also noted that she was often called "Mistress Dolly," including an essay from Munsey's Magazine in 1896.