By Page H. Gifford
Correspondent
The Friends of the Library will kick off the new year with local author Barbara VornDick, who will speak on Jan. 7 at 10 a.m. about her book, Eliza’s Story, A biography of James Monroe’s eldest daughter, Eliza Monroe.
VornDick, who was born and raised in Virginia, holds a Master’s Degree in Education and worked for three decades in private and public schools in Virginia, as well as at Germanna Community College as an adjunct professor.
After retiring, she accepted a part-time position as an interpreter of history at James Monroe’s Highland and was encouraged to continue her independent research.
“ I became interested in the Monroe women, particularly Eliza,” she said. What began as a project to find out more information about Eliza turned into five years of digging through primary sources on both sides of the Atlantic to discover the truth about Eliza’s life and the tragic circumstances of her death.
VornDick’s groundbreaking research turned up newly-discovered documents that changed the standard historical narrative of this American daughter, and led to a campaign to repatriate Eliza’s remains from Paris to Virginia. As the coordinator of the Bringing Eliza Home Project, VornDick has been actively planning and facilitating the repatriation process since August 2023.
“Very little had been written about her, and what had been written about her seemed unusually unkind. There were only a few sentences about her in the Monroe biographies through the past century, and those few sentences were always the same. I found that suspicious. It was too much like a script about Eliza, repeated for decades. I thought surely there was more to this woman, daughter of a president.”
The standard narrative that was repeated about Eliza stated that she was bossy and obstinate. John Quincy Adams had called her “an obstinate little firebrand!” Later in life she abandoned her family and country to go off to France to live out her life and die there. This didn’t make sense to VornDick. VornDick’s goal was not to write a biography, but the less that was known about Eliza made her more curious to investigate and learn more about her.
“It turned into a real detective story. “That’s when she realized she deserved her own biography. Five years of research revealed that the standard narrative about Eliza was false. New information came to light, and it became clear that she died under very tragic circumstances and had lain in an unmarked grave for almost two centuries. “Her true story needed to be told. She lived a life of devotion to family and country, and the record needed to be set straight.”
Growing up next door to Thomas Jefferson and having James and Dolly Madison as close friends of the family influenced Eliza in her younger years.
“Having a father who was writing to, and spending time with the movers and shakers forming our new system of government would certainly have made an impression upon Eliza.”
While her father was serving abroad as minister to France, Spain, and Great Britain, Monroe always had his family with him. During his two assignments to France, Eliza was enrolled in the prestigious Paris boarding school of Madam Campan where she received an excellent education.
“During Eliza’s years at this school, she received an education that I believe kept her well-grounded throughout her life, and gave her confidence. I found evidence indicating that during her life, Eliza demonstrated virtues such as having an extraordinary devotion to family, a sense of duty, as well as faith and fortitude,” she said. “In addition, Eliza was often nursing the sick, including family, friends, and strangers during two epidemics in Washington, D.C., during Monroe’s presidency.”
“After my research into both Eliza’s life and the expected norms of behavior for women in the 1800s, I came to the conclusion that Eliza was likely a woman ahead of her time. What I mean is, in a society that expected women to be quiet and demure, and to defer to men, Eliza was a woman who rose to the situations and tasks presented to her. I think people of that era did not know how to deal with that.” VornDick illustrates this by describing how she took charge of the social functions at the White House during the eight years of Monroe’s presidency because her mother was too ill to carry out many of the expected obligations of the first lady at that time. Eliza moved her family into the White House to manage the rigorous social agenda, which is an example of her devotion to both her family and her country. “Many people in Washington did not know how to deal with an assertive woman, and Eliza and her mother got a lot of bad press about changing the protocols in the White House to limit access to the presidential family.”
This was done to protect Mrs. Monroe’s declining health.
“She had two very significant medical conditions, which were debilitating arthritis and epilepsy. Of course, in that time, there was not much known about epilepsy, and it was not even called that at the time. It was called the falling sickness. and there was much misconception and superstition about the condition,” she said. “This is why the Monroe family would try to protect the mother from overexertion and to keep her illnesses hidden from the prying eyes of Washington gossips. It took fortitude to stand up to the negative press. The matter came up in at least two cabinet meetings, but Eliza and James Monroe held firm and would not relax the protocols. I believe this is a fine example of Monroe’s devotion to his wife.”
The primary source documents VornDick studied indicated that Eliza was caring, compassionate, no-nonsense, devoted to family and country, and was a woman who fearlessly took charge when needed. She found many virtuous examples of Eliza’s dedication to her family, including caring for her mother for the last 13 years of her life until she died two days after Eliza’s husband died She also too care of her father for nine months before he died of tuberculosis.
VornDick points to Eliza’s intelligence and fortitude, and her extraordinary nursing skills, as something relatable for modern women today who rarely knew much about women of Eliza’s time.
“She saved her mother’s life after she suffered a seizure and fell into a burning fireplace. Burned over third of her body, Eliza nursed her to health, and she survived.” Since Eliza took on the matriarchal role of the family, she was often maligned when she asserted herself as acting First Lady.
“Eliza was very contented to be out of the limelight, living as a wife and mother running her own home, which she did for eight years before she took on the role of an unofficial First Lady during her father’s presidency. “ Eliza may have been influenced by her mother, Elizabeth Kortright, about whom little is known.
“I do think Mrs. Monroe’s example of strength and fortitude, very well educated, and very savvy in financial affairs, influenced the way Eliza lived her life. She spoke fluent conversational French, and Monroe often consulted his wife about important affairs. For example, during Monroe’s first trip to France in 1794, Monroe and his wife were able to obtain the release of the Marquis de Lafayette’s wife from prison,” she said. “Other Americans had tried and failed, but Mrs. Monroe basically accomplished that single-handedly. Eliza was five or six years old at the time, but I’m sure she learned of that brave action of her mother, daring to visit Adrienne Lafayette in prison alone. Mrs. Monroe took an extraordinary risk.”
VornDick says the Monroe historical community knew little of these aspects of Eliza’s character.
“Everyone just knew those few sentences in the Monroe biographies and embellished, ridiculous versions of those, such as that Eliza became a nun, entered a convent, and died in a convent. My research turned up some new information in the form of never-before-seen documents, and these re-framed Eliza’s life and death in a different light.”
After all Eliza Kortright Monroe Hay had done for others, she was left penniless and in debt before her death. VornDick points out that Eliza’s story is also important for women’s history because if she met such a tragic end, we can be sure it happened to other women of that era who were at the mercy of those holding the purse. In Eliza’s case, that was the executor of her father’s will. As a widow, she waited nine years for her inheritance and hired lawyers to help her get it, but to no avail.
“Much of my time researching was to learn about this person and what they had been doing with the money instead of getting it to Eliza. I tracked 50 years of this person’s life, and the evidence was overwhelming and convincing. It sent shockwaves through the Monroe historical community.” The tragedy is of a woman who had come from wealth, connected to historic celebrity, well educated, experienced history in real time, and devoted her life to others. Poverty-stricken and forgotten, she died long after the shadows of greatness had dissipated.
“It was very rewarding to find the truth about Eliza’s life and death, and to be able to restore her reputation. The never-before-seen documents from the Paris embassy in 1840 indicated that Eliza had never set up a residence in Paris and did not intend to live out her life and die there, as had been reported for two centuries.” This led me to initiate the repatriation of her remains from Paris so she could be reinterred with her family in Virginia. It was the right thing to do. That process took two years to complete.”
On October 23, 2025, nearly 200 years after her death. The remains of Eliza Kortright Monroe Hay were reinterred in the Monroe family plot at Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia. She had been buried in an unmarked grave in Paris’s Père Lachaise Cemetery since 1840.
