[2] Elizabeth Monroe's paternal second great grandfather, Cornelius Jansen Kortright, was born in Holland, Netherlands, in 1645, and immigrated to New York in the year of 1663.

His father, Jan Bastiaenson Van Kortrijk, was also born in Holland, Netherlands in 1618 and immigrated with his son to New York.

During the American Revolutionary War, he was part owner of several privateers fitted out at New York, and it has also been documented that he enslaved at least four Black people.

William Grayson, James Monroe's cousin and fellow Congressman from Virginia, described Elizabeth and her sisters as having "made so brilliant and lovely an appearance" at a theater one evening, "as to depopulate all the other boxes of all the genteel male people therein.

The Monroes also provided support and shelter to the American citizen Thomas Paine in Paris, after he was arrested for his opposition to the execution of Louis XVI.

While in France, the Monroes' daughter Eliza became a friend of Hortense de Beauharnais, step-daughter of Napoleon, and both girls received their education in the school of Madame Jeanne Campan.

During this time, Elizabeth suffered the first of a series of seizures and collapses that were possibly a product of epilepsy, which plagued her for the rest of her life and gradually caused her to restrict her social activities.

Elizabeth found the social climate in London less favorable than it had been in Paris, possibly because British society resented the United States' refusal to aid it in its conflict with France.

That same year, the Monroes were invited by Napoleon Bonaparte to attend his coronation in Paris, as part of the official American delegation.

James Monroe won election and returned to the Virginia House of Delegates, and also resumed his legal career.

Upon moving into the White House, the Monroes relocated several of the dozens of Black people they enslaved in order to continue their forced labor.

[14] Furthermore, Elizabeth and her eldest daughter may have sought to make access to the White House more socially exclusive, reflecting French practices, which were barely tolerated given American democratic values, although President Monroe's term was also known for good feelings and relations.

Elizabeth also drew favorable reviews as the couple briefly hosted General Lafayette during his return tour through America.

Since 1982 Siena College Research Institute has periodically conducted surveys asking historians to assess American first ladies according to a cumulative score on the independent criteria of their background, value to the country, intelligence, courage, accomplishments, integrity, leadership, being their own women, public image, and value to the president.