VIRGINIA PATRIOT

For most of his life, James Monroe lived a life of public service. That dedication to the future of the United States began when Monroe was a teenager.

- Andrew Matthews

Monroe was born on April 28, 1758. He spent his childhood in Westmoreland County, Virginia, near the southern banks of the Potomac River. His parents-Spence Monroe and Elizabeth Jones Monroe-owned a 500-acre plantation they called Monroe Hall.

James was one of five children. He had an older sister and three younger brothers. Both his father and his mother's brother, Joseph Jones, were friendly with other Virginia patriots. They joined together to resist growing British oppression in the 1760s and early 1770s.

The Monroes owned a modest but comfortable home and provided their children with an education. By 1774, when James was 16 years old, both his parents had died. Jones took in the Monroe boys (their sister, Elizabeth, was married by then). He became a father figure and role model for James. Jones enrolled his nephew at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. He encouraged James to study law and consider politics.

Williamsburg was the capital of colonial Virginia. It was an interesting place and time to be a student. News of the Boston Tea Party, which had taken place the year before, had reached Virginia. During the Boston Tea Party, patriots had destroyed three shiploads of British tea to avoid paying a tax on it.