James Monroe (1758–1831) had served as a delegate from Virginia to the Continental Congress since 1783 but had recently resigned because no delegate was eligible to serve more than three out of six years. Writing from New York on 7 Oct. 1786, Monroe had suggested to James Madison, who was in Philadelphia on personal business after attending the convention in Annapolis, that they travel to Virginia together and stop over at Mount Vernon to visit GW (MADISON description begins William T. Hutchinson et al., eds. The Papers of James Madison, Congressional Series. 17 vols. Chicago and Charlottesville, Va., 1962–91. description ends , 9:121–22, 143). Monroe and his wife, Elizabeth Kortright Monroe (d. 1830), were on their way to Fredericksburg, Va., where they intended to reside in a house belonging to Monroe’s uncle, Joseph Jones. Madison was going to Richmond for the fall session of the General Assembly.