James Monroe

Born April 28, 1758.  One of five children of Col. Spence Monroe (c. 1727 - 1774)

& Elizabeth Jones Wilson.

According to Spence Monroe's will, James and his brother Andrew shared ownership of the farm after their father's death.

Spence Monroe, will dated February 16, 1774, no known date of his actual death, or of his will being proven.  To sons James and Spence; son in law William Buckner;  to son James land on the south side of "Freeneck Gutt" and one negro boy named Ralph; sons Andrew and Joseph Jones; exor. brother in law Joseph Jones and James Bankhead, Snr., daughter Elizabeth Buckner.

James sold the property to Gawin Corbin of Caroline County, in October 1783.

James spent his childhood on the family farm after his father died.

Monroe's Birthplace, Monrovia, presently under a development proposal, has the possibility of the Monroe family gravesite being located on the property.  A 1976 dig unearthed remnants of a brick house with a cellar and fireplace, dependency buildings & artifacts.  According to local legend, after the Civil War the tombstones were used for weights in a harrow, then thrown into the creek.

Fragments of the Spence Monroe Tombstone, discovered near the property line, are stored at the James Monroe Law Office & Library.

 

In Maryland circa 1645 - 1647, Andrew Monroe was the master of a pinnace under Cuthbert Fenwick of the Maryland navy.  English mariner Richard Ingle, speaking seditiously against the Catholic King in St. Mary's City, managed to gather a small anti-catholic following.

Andrew threw his lot in with the sympathizers to overthrow Governor Baltimore, and the mostly Catholic government.  Ingle and his followers invaded Maryland, burnt, destroyed and pillaged anything owned by Catholics and placed what wasn't into Protestant hands.  Ingle was finally repelled by Lord Calvert, and Andrew fled to what would become his home along Monroe Creek on Doctor's Point in Westmoreland County.

Andrew's will is said to be located in King George County, Will Book A-1 (1721 - 1752).