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Biographical Directory of the Inited States Congress 1774-Present.
JEFFERSON, Thomas, (1743 - 1826)
JEFFERSON, Thomas, (father-in-law of Thomas Mann Randolph and John Wayles Eppes), a Delegate from Virginia, a Vice President and 3d President of the United States; born at “Shadwell,” Va., in present-day Albemarle County, Va., on April 13, 1743; attended a preparatory school; graduated from William and Mary College, Williamsburg, Va., in 1762; studied law; admitted to the bar and commenced practice in 1767; member, colonial House of Burgesses, 1769-1775; Member of the Continental Congress, 1775 and 1776; chairman of the committee that drew up, primary author of, and signer of the Declaration of Independence 1776; Governor of Virginia, 1779-1781; member, State house of delegates 1782; again a Member of the Continental Congress, 1783-1784; appointed a Minister Plenipotentiary to France in 1784, and then sole Minister to the King of France in 1785, for three years; Secretary of State of the United States in the Cabinet of President George Washington, 1789-1793; elected Vice President of the United States and served under President John Adams, 1797-1801; elected President of the United States in 1801 by the House of Representatives on the thirty-sixth ballot; reelected in 1804 and served from March 4, 1801, to March 3, 1809; retired to his estate, “Monticello,” in Virginia; active in founding the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Va.; died at Monticello, Albemarle County, Va., July 4, 1826; interment in family cemetery at Monticello.
Bibliography

American National Biography; Dictionary of American Biography; Jefferson, Thomas. The Papers of Thomas Jefferson. Edited by Julian P. Boyd, et al. 27 vols. to date. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1950-. Malone, Dumas. Jefferson and the Ordeal of Liberty. Boston: Little, Brown, Co., 1962.
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Timeline of Jefferson's Life

PUBLIC PRIVATE
1735 Peter Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson's father, patented 1,000-acre tract which became Monticello.
1743 Thomas Jefferson born at Shadwell.
1757 Peter Jefferson died.
1760-62 Thomas Jefferson attended the College of William and Mary.
1762 Began study of law with George Wythe.
1764 Came into inheritance at age of 21.
1767 Admitted to practice law before General Court.
1768 Elected to House of Burgesses. Leveling of Monticello mountaintop begun.
1770 Construction begun at Monticello. Shadwell burned. Moved to South Pavilion at Monticello.
1772 Married Martha Wayles Skelton. Daughter Martha born.
1773 Graveyard at Monticello established with the interment of Jefferson's friend and brother-in-law Dabney Carr.
1774 Wrote A Summary View of the Rights of British America. Retired from legal practice. Inherited 11,000 acres of land and 135 slaves from his father-in-law. Laid off ground for kitchen garden. Daughter Jane Randolph born.
1775 Elected to Continental Congress. Daughter Jane Randolph died.
1776 Drafted Declaration of Independence. Elected to Virginia House of Delegates. Appointed to revise Virginia laws.
(Get an .mp3 of the Declaration.) Mother Jane Randolph Jefferson died.
1777 Drafted Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, passed by General Assembly in 1786. Unnamed son born and died.
1778 Drafted Bill for the More General Diffusion of Knowledge. Daughter Mary (Maria) born. Brickwork of first home (Monticello) completed.
1779-81 Served as Governor of Virginia.
1780 Daughter Lucy Elizabeth born. Began Notes on the State of Virginia.
1781 British troops at Monticello. Daughter Lucy Elizabeth died.
1782 Second Lucy Elizabeth born. Wife Martha died. First house substantially completed.
1783 Elected delegate to Congress.
1784-89 In France as Commissioner and Minister.
1784 Daughter Lucy Elizabeth died.
1787 Published Notes on the State of Virginia.
1790-93 Served as first United States Secretary of State.
1794 Began commercial manufacture of nails on Mulberry Row. Manumitted slave Robert Hemings.
1796 Remodeling and enlarging of Monticello begun. Manumitted slave James Hemings.
1797-1801 Served as United States Vice President.
1797-1815 Served as president of the American Philosophical Society.
1800 Dome constructed on Monticello.
1801-09 Served as United States President.
1803 Louisiana Purchase concluded. Lewis and Clark expedition launche
1804 Daughter Maria Jefferson Eppes died.
1806 Lewis and Clark expedition concluded. House at Poplar Forest begun.
1807 Oval flower beds near Monticello laid out. Shadwell merchant mill completed.
1808 At Monticello, North Pavilion completed and South Pavilion remodeled. Winding walk and flower beds on West Lawn laid out.
1809 Retired from presidency and public life. Remodeling of Monticello and construction of dependencies largely completed. Vegetable garden platform completed.
1812 Garden Pavilion constructed.
1815 Sold 6,700-volume library to Congress.
1817 Cornerstone of Central College (later University of Virginia) laid.
1822-25 Monticello roof recovered with tin shingles.
1824 Historic reunion with the Marquis de Lafayette at Monticello.
1825 University of Virginia opened.
1826 Died at Monticello, July 4.
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Brief Biography of Thomas Jefferson
(1743-1826)
(Born April 13, 1743, at Shadwell, Virginia; died July 4, 1826, Monticello)

Thomas Jefferson -- author of the Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom, third president of the United States, and founder of the University of Virginia -- voiced the aspirations of a new America as no other individual of his era. As public official, historian, philosopher, and plantation owner, he served his country for over five decades.
His father Peter Jefferson was a successful planter and surveyor and his mother Jane Randolph a member of one of Virginia's most distinguished families. Having inherited a considerable landed estate from his father, Jefferson began building Monticello when he was twenty-six years old. Three years later, he married Martha Wayles Skelton, with whom he lived happily for ten years until her death. Their marriage produced six children, but only two survived to adulthood. Jefferson, who never remarried, maintained Monticello as his home throughout his life, always expanding and changing the house.
Jefferson inherited slaves from both his father and father-in-law. In a typical year, he owned about 200, almost half of them under the age of sixteen. About eighty of these lived at Monticello; the others lived on adjacent Albemarle County plantations, and on his Poplar Forest estate in Bedford County, Virginia. Jefferson freed two slaves in his lifetime and five in his will and chose not to pursue two others who ran away. All were members of the Hemings family; the seven he eventually freed were skilled tradesmen.
Having attended the College of William and Mary, Jefferson practiced law and served in local government as a magistrate, county lieutenant, and member of the House of Burgesses in his early professional life. As a member of the Continental Congress, he was chosen in 1776 to draft the Declaration of Independence, which has been regarded ever since as a charter of American and universal liberties. The document proclaims that all men are equal in rights, regardless of birth, wealth, or status, and that the government is the servant, not the master, of the people.
After Jefferson left Congress in 1776, he returned to Virginia and served in the legislature. Elected governor from 1779 to 1781, he suffered an inquiry into his conduct during his last year in office that, although finally fully repudiated, left him with a life-long pricklishness in the face of criticism.
During the brief private interval in his life following his governorship, Jefferson wrote Notes on the State of Virginia. In 1784, he entered public service again, in France, first as trade commissioner and then as Benjamin Franklin's successor as minister. During this period, he avidly studied European culture, sending home to Monticello, books, seeds and plants, statues and architectural drawings, scientific instruments, and information.
In 1790 he accepted the post of secretary of state under his friend George Washington. His tenure was marked by his opposition to the pro-British policies of Alexander Hamilton. In 1796, as the presidential candidate of the Democratic Republicans, he became vice-president after losing to John Adams by three electoral votes.
Four years later, he defeated Adams and became president, the first peaceful transfer of authority from one party to another in the history of the young nation. Perhaps the most notable achievements of his first term were the purchase of the Louisiana Territory in 1803 and his support of the Lewis and Clark expedition. His second term, a time when he encountered more difficulties on both the domestic and foreign fronts, is most remembered for his efforts to maintain neutrality in the midst of the conflict between Britain and France; his efforts did not avert war with Britain in 1812.
Jefferson was succeeded as president in 1809 by his friend James Madison, and during the last seventeen years of his life, he remained at Monticello. During this period, he sold his collection of books to the government to form the nucleus of the Library of Congress. Jefferson embarked on his last great public service at the age of seventy-six, with the founding of the University of Virginia. He spearheaded the legislative campaign for its charter, secured its location, designed its buildings, planned its curriculum, and served as the first rector.
Jefferson died on July 4, 1826, just hours before his close friend John Adams, on the fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. He was eighty-three years old, the holder of large debts, but according to all evidence a very optimistic man.
It was Jefferson's wish that his tomb stone reflect the things that he had given the people, not the things that the people had given to him. It is for this reason that Thomas Jefferson's epitaph reads:
HERE WAS BURIED
THOMAS JEFFERSON
AUTHOR OF THE
DECLARATION
OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE
OF THE
STATUTE OF VIRGINIA
FOR
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
AND FATHER OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
BORN APRIL 2, 1743 O.S.
DIED JULY 4. 1826
Many good biographies of Jefferson are available. Perhaps the single most respected Jefferson scholar was Dumas Malone, who wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning six-volume biography, Jefferson and His Time. In 1993 the Thomas Jefferson Foundation published Thomas Jefferson: A Brief Biography, an essay written by Malone. Titles are available from the Monticello Museum Shops at (434) 984-9840.
Pictured: miniature portrait of Jefferson (1788) by John Trumbull; based of Jefferson's grave marker at the Monticello Graveyard.

When Jefferson inherited about twenty slaves from his father in 1764, Virginians had been working their plantations primarily with black slave labor since the beginning of the century. In 1774, Jefferson inherited 135 more slaves from his father-in-law, John Wayles, who had been directly involved in the importation of enslaved Africans into Virginia. This practice was not prohibited until 1778, by an act drafted by Jefferson himself.
By 1796, Jefferson owned about 170 slaves -- 50 living on his land in Bedford County and 120 in Albemarle County. The seventy adult slaves on the Monticello plantation were the foundation of Jefferson's labor system, performing the farming and household tasks, driving the wagons, constructing the buildings, and making items of wood and iron necessary for plantation and house.
Monticello was a working plantation -- a center of agriculture and industry -- home not only to the Jefferson family, but to an extended community of workers, black and white, enslaved and free. On the quarter farms of Shadwell, Tufton, and Lego -- as well as the home farm on Monticello mountain -- 130 enslaved African Americans raised crops and tended livestock, made nails and barrels, cloth and carriages. They helped to build the house, crafted many of its furnishings, and cultivated the gardens.
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Brief Biographies of Members of the Hemings Family
Because of the detailed records Jefferson kept, scholars today know much about individual slaves at Monticello. Biographies of some African Americans at Monticello are presented below and in other sections of "A Day In the Life."
John Hemmings (1776-1830+)
John Hemmings was the son of the slave Betty Hemings and, it was said, Joseph Neilson, one of the white housejoiners hired by Jefferson in the 1770s. Hemmings started his working life as an "out-carpenter," felling trees and hewing logs, building fences and barns, and helping to construct the log slave dwellings on Mulberry Row.
John Hemmings must have demonstrated his ability early, for at the age of seventeen he was put to work under a succession of skilled white woodworkers hired by Jefferson to enlarge the main house. Hemmings learned to make wheels and fine mahogany furniture (including the campeachy chair shown at left), and to use an elaborate set of planes to create decorative interior moldings. He was principal assistant to James Dinsmore, the Irish joiner responsible for most of the elegant woodwork in the Monticello house, and Hemmings alone crafted much of the interior woodwork of Jefferson's house at Poplar Forest in Bedford County, Virginia. He also made all the wooden parts of a large landau carriage Jefferson designed in 1814. He thus became far more than a carpenter -- he was a highly skilled joiner and cabinetmaker.
John Hemmings was a great favorite with Jefferson's grandchildren, who told of his making toys and furniture for them. His wife Priscilla was their "mammy." Jefferson freed John Hemmings in his will, allowing him the tools from the joinery as well as the work of his two assistants. He continued to live at Monticello after 1826, probably until his death.
The Hemings Sisters
Living in cabins on Mulberry Row in the 1790s were several of the daughters of Elizabeth (Betty) Hemings (c1735-1807), a slave who came to Monticello as part of the inheritance of Jefferson's wife, Martha, from her father, John Wayles. Betty and her twelve children and numerous grandchildren occupied most of the important household and artisan positions at Monticello.
Her daughter Nance (1761-1827+) was a Monticello weaver, who received her training under a white weaver during the Revolution. Nance's sister Bett (1759-1830+), also known as Betty Brown, was personal servant to Jefferson's wife, while Critta (1769-1850) served in a number of domestic capacities. In 1793, Jefferson specified that she should live in the nearest of the new 12'x14' log cabins on Mulberry Row, "as oftenest wanted about the house." Critta Hemings was briefly nurse to Jefferson's grandson Francis Eppes, who later bought her freedom so that she could join her husband, Zachariah Bowles, a member of the local free black community.
The youngest Hemings sister, Sally (1773-1835), traveled from Virginia to France at the age of fourteen, accompanying Jefferson's young daughter Mary. In Paris Sally was taught the skills of a lady's maid, learning to dress hair, stitch decorative hems, and launder fine silks. Thereafter she was personal servant to Jefferson's daughters and granddaughters. She was given her "time" (informally emancipated) by Jefferson's daughter Martha Randolph after his death. Shown at right is Martha Wayles Jefferson's bell, which, according to Hemings family tradition, was given to Sally Hemings by Martha Jefferson.
Sally Hemings' name became linked to Jefferson's in 1802, when a Richmond newspaper published the allegation that she was Jefferson's mistress and had borne him a number of children. Jefferson's Randolph grandchildren denied the existence of such a relationship, while Sally Hemings' descendants considered their connection to Jefferson an important family truth. Jefferson himself made neither a public response nor any explicit reference to this issue.
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Historical and Genealogical Notes

William and Mary College Quarterly Historical Magazine, Vol. 6, No. 1.
(Jul., 1897), pp. 57-70.

Page 64.

"THE FOREST". - Thomas Jefferson married Martha Wayles of "The Forest",in Charles City. This place, so Mr. Talman, of Newport's News, who owned it during the war, informs me, was burned by the Federal troops in the late war. The Virginia Gazette for July 15, 1773, shows that Henry Skipwith married Tabitha Wayles [Randall's Jefferson says Fulwar Skipwith-a mistake]; she was Martha Jefferson's half-sister. John Wayles, the lawyer, had, it seems, three wives - the fist I do not know; the second was Martha Epes, mother of Martha Wayles, widow of Bathurst Skelton, and wife of Thomas Jefferson. As shown by marriage bond at Goochland court-house, dated January 23, 1760, his last wife was Elizabeth, widow of Reuben Skelton - wrongly presumed to have died a bachelor. (See "Jones Family", p. 156; QUARTERLY, Vol. II., p. 273; Virginia Historical Magazine, III., p. 396). Bathurst Skelton made his will in Charles City,September 30, 1768; proved September ?1, 1771; gives his wife Martha "his Faton and horses" and all the slaves provided in the marriage settlement between her father and mother; names John Wayles and his wife guardiansof his son John. Witnesses, Jos. Harris, Chris. Mantow, Francis Epes.John Wayles made his will April 15, 1760; proved July 7, 1773; gives wife Elizabeth all the slaves devised to her by Reuben Skelton; states that his daughter, Martha, is amply provided for by marriage settlement with her mother, and devises all his lands and slaves to his wife for life and then to his daughters, Elizabeth, Tabitha and Anne; appoints Francis Eppes and
his children, as fast as they come to age, guardians of those under age. February 12, 1773; gives to Robert Skipwith, Esq., 250L; directs a girl slave to be purchased for each of my 3 grandchildren, Richard Eppes, John Wayles Eppes and Patty Jefferson. Witnesses, Anderson Bryan and Henry Skipwith.
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.............. BIOGRAPHY ..............
Jefferson was born at Shadwell Plantation in Albemarle County, Virginia. His father was a well-to-do Virginian tobacco farmer who died when Thomas was 14, leaving him heir to the family's 14,000 acre plantation. Jefferson attended William and Mary College then went on to study law. He was admitted to the Virginia bar in 1767.

From 1769 to 1774, Jefferson served in the Virginia House of Burgesses. He was a leading spokesman for those who opposed continued British rule. In 1775-1776 Jefferson was a delegate to the Continental Congress. There he headed the committee charged with writing the Declaration of Independence.

In 1779, Jefferson became governor of Virginia. From 1783-1784, he served as a member of the Continental Congress. He then became Foreign Minister to France. Jefferson developed a strong attachment to all things French. From 1790-93, Jefferson served as Secretary of State in Washington's cabinet, during which time, he advocated stronger ties with France.

In addition, he favored a strict interpretation of the Constitution. In his view, the power of the federal government should be limited. When it became clear that George Washington supported Hamilton on the question of federal jurisdiction as well as regarding relations with France, Jefferson resigned. Jefferson returned to governmental office from 1797-1801 to serve as Vice President to John Adams.

From the moment that Jefferson was inaugurated, he began what he described as the Revolution of 1800. This was his attempt to repeal major actions that he felt the Federalists had taken to needlessly strengthen the hand of the Federal government. This included allowing the Alien and Sedition Act to lapse and the repeal of the federal whiskey tax. For all Jefferson's changes, his presidency was more one of stability than of change.

Jefferson was a leading advocate of strict interpretation of the Constitution. Despite this fact, he took two major actions in his first term that, under a strict interpretation of the Constitution, he lacked the power to do. The first was to send forces against the Barbary Pirates. His orders to the force commander instructed him to take military action to end forced payment of ransom. The policy was successful, but Jefferson did not consult Congress before instructing this use of force.
Second, in secret negotiations, Jefferson agreed to purchase the LouisianaTerritory from France. This purchase, for $15 million, doubled the size of the United States. There was, however, no provision in the constitution that provided for the purchase of land.

During his second term, Jefferson insisted on maintaining American neutrality in the expanding European War. He felt compelled to pass an extremely unpopular embargo act banning all trade with the European belligerents. The high point of this second term was the return of Lewis and Clark from the American West. Their visit was the first organized exploration of much of what was to become part of the United States.
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ALBEMARLE COUNTY, VA --- THE MONTICELLO GRAVEYARD

Plaque:

This graveyard had its beginning in an agreement between two young men.
Thomas Jefferson and Dabney Carr, who were school-mated and friends. They
agreed that they would be buried under a great oak which stood here.
Carr, who married Jefferson’s sister, died in 1773. His was the first
grave on this site which Jefferson laid out as a family curying ground.
Jefferson was buried here in 1826.
The present monument is not the original designed by Jefferson, but a
larger one erected by the United States in 1883. Its base covers the graves of
Jefferson, his wife, his two daughters, and of Governor Thomas Mann Randolph,
his Son-In-Law.
The graveyard remains the property of Jefferson’s descendants and continues
to be a family burying ground.

Cemetery Plaque:

The chart beleow shows the location of the burials in the front of the
graveyard. Descendants and their families continue to be buried in the back
portion of the graveyard.

*map*

The graveyard is owned and maintained by the Monticello Association, an
organization of Thomas Jefferson’s lineal descendants. O.S. on Jefferson’s
obelisk means ‘Old Style’, a date calculated before the calendar was put forward
eleven days in 1752.

1. Anne Cary Bankhead (1791-1826), Granddaughter
2. George Wythe Randolph (1818-1867), Grandson
3. Mary Adams Randolph (1830-1871), Grandson's wife
4. Martha Jefferson Randolph (1772-1836), Daughter
5. Maria Jefferson Eppes (1778-1804), Daughter
6. Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)
7. Martha Wayles Jefferson (1748-1782), Wife
8. Thomas Mann Randolph (1768-1828), Son-in-law
9. Mary Buchanan Randolph (1818-1821) Great-granddaughter
10. Mary Jefferson Randolph (1803-1876), Granddaughter
11. Cornelia Jefferson Randolph (1799-1871), Granddaughter
12. James Madison Randolph (1806-1834), Grandson
13. Martha Jefferson Carr (1746-1811), Sister
14. Dabney Carr (1743-1773), Friend, Brother-in-law
15. Samuel Carr (1771-1855), Nephew
16. Jane Randolph Jefferson (1720-1776), Mother
17. Wilson Jefferson Cary (1784-1823), Great-nephew
18. William Mortimer Harrison (1802-1812), Cousin, drowned
19. Wilson Cary Nicholas (1761-1820), Grandson's Father-in-law

Located near Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson. This gravesite is along
the row near the gardens, and is much closer to the house than the graveyard
where the former President and family is buried.

Monticello and the Levy Family

To the
memory of
RACHEL PHILLIPS LEVY
Born in New York
23 of May 1769.
Married 1787.
Died 7 of IYAR
(May) 5591 A.B. (1839)
At Monticello, Va.
Erected August 15, 1859 by her Son, JPL

This is the grave of Rachel Phillips Levy (1769-1839), daughter of Jonas and
Rebecca Machado Phillips of Philadelphia, and mother of Commodore Uriah P. Levy,
USN (1792-1862), who purchased Monticello in 1836. An ardent admirer of Thomas
Jefferson, Commodore Levy believed that the houses of great men shou
preserved as "monuments to their glory," and he bequeathed Monticello in his
will to the "People of the United States." The governement relinquished its
claim to the estate, however, and litigation over the will deprived Monticello
for seventeen years of an owner to care for it.

In 1879, Jefferson Monroe Levy (1852-1924), who shared his uncle Uriah's
admiration for Jefferson, gained clear title to Monticello and began to make
badly needed repairs. After adding considerable land from the original
Monticello tract, he sold the house and 662 acres to the Thomas Jeffers
Memorial Foundation in 1923.

At two crucial periods in the history of Monticello, the preservation efforts
and stewardship of Uriah P. and Jefferson M. Levy successfully maintained the
property for future generations.