Although James Madison served two terms as president of the United States, he is historically better known for his role at the Constitutional Convention of 1787, for drafting the Bill of Rights, and for helping to form and lead the Democratic-Republican Party. Born in Port Conway, Virginia, in 1751, James Madison, Jr., was the eldest of twelve children, seven of whom survived into adulthood. His parents were James Madison, Sr., and Eleanor Rose Conway, prominent slaveholding landowners in Orange County, where Madison, Sr., was a justice of the peace.