He was the first son of Dolley Payne and John Todd Jr. His father and younger brother died in the 1793 Philadelphia yellow fever epidemic, which killed nearly 10 percent of the city's population.

[1] Madison sent Todd as a youth for eight years to St. Mary's Seminary, a Catholic boarding school in Baltimore, but he seemed unsuited for academic work.

Believed to be alcoholic, he was belligerent, and was repeatedly convicted of shooting incidents and sentenced to serve jail time for assaults and disruption of the peace.

During his second term, Madison assigned his stepson as secretary to an official delegation to Europe, but the 21-year-old Todd spent much of the time drinking, shooting and acquiring art.

Todd threatened to sue Cutts to gain more of his mother's estate, all that was left from money she received for selling Madison's papers to the Library of Congress.

His debts delayed their release, but the Taylor family petitioned for freedom from James C. McGuire, administrator of the estate, which they were granted in 1853.