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 1743 - 1826 (83 years)
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| Name |
Thomas Jefferson |
| Title |
President |
| Birth |
2 Apr 1743 |
Shadwell, Albemarle County, Virginia, USA  [1] |
| Gender |
Male |
| Death |
4 Jul 1826 |
Monticello, Albemarle County, Virginia, USA [1] |
| Burial |
Monticello, Albemarle County, Virginia, USA |
| Person ID |
I13378 |
Bob Juch's Tree |
| Last Modified |
31 Dec 2022 |
| Father |
Peter Jefferson, b. 29 Feb 1707/08, Osborne's, Chesterfield County, VA d. 17 Aug 1757, Shadwell, Albemarle County, VA (Age 49 years) |
| Relationship |
natural |
| Mother |
Jane Randolph, b. 5 Feb 1719/20, Shadwell, London, England d. 31 Mar 1776, Monticello, Albemarle County, VA (Age 56 years) |
| Relationship |
natural |
| Marriage |
30 Oct 1739 |
Dungeness, Goochland County, VA [1, 2] |
| Family ID |
F3775 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
| Family 1 |
Martha Wayles, b. 30 Oct 1748, Charles City County, VA d. 6 Sep 1782, Monticello, Albemarle County, VA (Age 33 years) |
| Marriage |
1 Jan 1772 |
The Forest, Charles City County, Virginia, USA [1, 2] |
| Children |
|
| Family ID |
F5176 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
| Last Modified |
31 Dec 2022 |
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| Event Map |
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 | Marriage - - Virginia, USA |
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| Notes |
- THOMAS JEFFERSON
Religion: No formal affiliation
Education: Graduated from College of William and Mary (1762)
Occupation: Lawyer, planter
Political Party: Democratic-Republican
Other Government Positions:
Member of Virginia House of Burgesses, 1769-74
Member of Continental Congress, 1775-76
Governor of Virginia, 1779-81 Member of Continental Congress, 1783-85
Minister to France, 1785-89
Secretary of State, 1790-93 (under Washington)
Vice President, 1797-1801 (under J. Adams)
CF
Thomas Jefferson, Son of Virginia
http://www.history.org/other/journal/jeffart.htm
by Dennis Montgomery
JEFFERSON ON HIS CHILDHOOD & YOUTH
"When I consider that at fourteen years of age the whole care and direction of myself was thrown on myself entirely, without a relative or a friend qualified to advise or guide me, and recollect the various sorts of bad company with which I associated from time to time, I am astonished that I did not turn off with some of them, and become as worthless to society as they were. From the circumstances of my position, I was often thrown into the society of horseracers, cardplayers, foxhunters, scientific and professional men, and of dignified men; and many a time have I asked myself, in the enthusiastic death of a fox, the victory of a favorite horse, the issue of a question eloquently argued at the bar, or in the great council of the nation, "Well, which of these kinds of reputation should I prefer--that of a horsejockey, a foxhunter, an orator, or the honest advocate of my country's rights?"
He caroused with the boys, flirted with the girls, studied late into the night, and fixed his eye on Rebecca Burwell, a beautiful orphan whom moony 19 year old Tom petnamed Belinda. For months his adolescent letters--embarrassing now to read--were full of Belinda. His selfconscious infatuation soon embarrassed him, too. When he gathered up his courage to approach her, Tom made a fool of himself. He wrote "in the most melancholy fit that ever any poor soul was":
"Last night, as merry as agreeable company and dancing with Belinda in the Apollo could make me, I never could have thought the succeeding sun would have seen me so wretched as I now am. I was prepared to say a great deal. I had dressed up in my own mind such thoughts as occurred to me, in as moving language as I know how, and expected to have performed in a tolerably creditable manner. But, good God! when I had an opportunity of venting them, a few broken sentences, uttered in great disorder, and interrupted with pauses of uncommon length, were the too visible marks of my strange confusion."
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
Six feet two and a half inches tall, thin, square shouldered, strong, Jefferson was straight as a gun barrel. He neglected fashion in clothes and hair, never lost a tooth, but seldom smiled or showed any expression. Stiff with strangers and acutely sensitive to personal slights, he found nothing so goading as to be contradicted in company by his wife. Under stress he was prone to migraines that lasted weeks. He liked to toss off bits of his learning, but when he spoke in public his voice was hoarse and guttural. He ate little meat, and then as a condiment for his vegetables. Peas were his favorite. He did not drink strong wines or spirits, rose by dawn, and left his room by eight after bathing his feet in cold water.
1781/82 Francois Jean, Marquis de Chastellux, who found Jefferson at his best. Chastellux wrote:
Let me describe to you a man not yet forty, tall, and with a mild pleasing countenance, but whose mind and understanding are ample substitutes for every exterior grace. An American who without ever quitting his country, is at once a musician, skilled in drawing, a geometrician, an astronomer, a natural philosopher, legislator, and statesman . . . and it seems as if from his youth he had placed his mind, as he had done his house, on an elevated situation, from which he might contemplate the universe. . . . We may safely aver that Mr. Jefferson is the first American who has consulted the arts to know how he should shelter himself from the weather.
A LEGAL ANALYSIS OF THE PARENTAGE OF SALLY'S CHILDREN
by Richard E. Dixon - Attorney at Law
IX. Conclusion
Under Virginia law, unless there is an admission of paternity by the father, a claim must be pursued under the statutory procedure. Evidence to establish paternity means oral testimony or documents that pass the legal test of admissibility. The case against Thomas Jefferson is devoid of admissible evidence.
There is no direct evidence from any source during JeffersonÃss%sss lifeeeee that he was the fatttheeer of any of the children born to Sally Hemings between 1790 and 1808. Although Jefferson was present at Monticello during each of SallyÃss%s conceptions, there is no proof thattt shhhee waaasss att Monticello during these periods. There is also not a scintilla of proof of any cohabitation or physical intimacy between Jefferson and Hemings during the approximate thirty years she resided at Monticello.
The two prominent documents written after Jefferson's death and relied on as paternity evidence are hearsay and inadmissible. These are the Parton letter, which raised for the first time the resemblance claim against Jefferson, and the Madison Hemings memoirs which created the treaty legend.
The 1998 DNA test results identify a chromosomal link between Eston Hemings and the male Jefferson line. Thomas Jefferson is included among the twenty-five possible fathers, but he is eliminated because of the lack of admissible evidence.
It is surprising that the sources and the nature of the information that make up the Tom and Sally myth has put the academic community into such a quandary. It is a tale which should return to its status as no more than a footnote to the Jefferson legacy.
The Report may be downloaded from
http://www.monticello.org/plantation/hemings_report.html. Special attention should be given to the Minority Report. See also, Research Report on the Jefferson-Hemings Controversy, A Critical Analysis, by Eyler Robert Coates at
http://www.angelfire.com/va/TJTruth
Richard E. Dixon
Attorney at Law
4122 Leonard Drive
Fairfax, Virginia 22030
703-691-0770
redixonlaw@aol.com
April 2000
Poplar Forest Commentary
"Thomas Jefferson and his wife, Martha, inherited the plantation known as Poplar Forest from her father in 1773. Theworking tobacco farm of 4,812 acres eventually provided Jefferson with a significant portion of his cash income. The plantation also offered the perfect site for his most personal architectural achievement -- a unique octagonal house set withinan elaborately designed landscape. In this meticulously planned retreat he had the seclusion to pursue his passion forreading, writing, studying, and gardening." In the early years of his ownership of Poplar Forest, Jefferson was increasingly active in public service. He practiced law, was a member of the House of Burgesses, Governor of Virginia, Minister to France, and President of the United States for two terms. Even with these responsibilities, he began managing the plantation operations at Poplar Forest and moved slave labor there. In 1781, Jefferson eluded capture by the British by retreating to his Bedford County plantation. During this extended visit Jefferson compiled much of the material for his only book, Notes on the State of Virginia. Little is known about the dwelling used by Jefferson during these early visits.
In 1806, Jefferson supervised the laying of the foundation for the octagonal house he had designed. After his second term as President ended in 1809, Jefferson made regular visits to his Bedford retreat. He usually took three to four trips per year and stayed from two weeks to two months. His visits often coincided with the seasonal responsibilities of the working plantation and he also oversaw the embellishment of the house, the planting of his vegetable garden and the adornment of the grounds. Family members, usually his grandchildren, joined Jefferson on many of his visits. At Poplar Forest he could escape the almost perpetual round of visitors at Monticello and enjoy what he called "the solitude of a hermit."
Jefferson made his last trip to Poplar Forest in 1823 when he settled his grandson, Francis Eppes, on the property. Ill health prevented future visits to his retreat. In 1828, two years after Jefferson's death, Eppes sold Poplar Forest to a neighbor.
http://www.poplarforest.org/history.html
Famous Folks, Anc Thos. Jefferson http://www.genealogy.com/famousfolks/Jefferson/i0000001.htm
rhondam@magicnet.net
Jefferson, Thomas 1743 -- 1826
Famous Folks http://www.genealogy.com/famousfolks/index.html
Biography.com http://www.biography.com/
Apart from Jefferson's philosophical stance on slavery, there was the paradox inherent in his own life. Though he undoubtedly believed that slavery violated the principles of natural law he had included in the Declaration of Independence, he was a wealthy slave owner whose lifestyle depended upon the institution. Jefferson viewed himself and his slaves as victims of mankind's failure to rid itself of this terrible institution, and he contented himself with the idea that he would be a benevolent master to those he owned, until the "peculiar institution" met with its rightful end.
In hindsight, Jefferson's stance on slavery is inescapably hypocritical. History's view of him has been complicated even more by the increasingly unavoidable conclusion that he was sexually involved with one of his house servants, Sally Hemings, and that he fathered at least one, if not several, of her children. Allegations that he was sexually involved with Hemings surfaced as early as 1802, when the disgruntled journalist James Callendar (allegedly the same man Jefferson had hired to libel Adams during the 1796 presidential election) published the accusation, which had been circling as gossip in Virginia for several years. In the latter half of the nineteenth century, contradictory evidence surfaced: Madison Hemings, born in 1805, claimed to be Jefferson's child; just a year later, an account was published claiming that Jefferson's nephew, Peter Carr, had confessed to Jefferson's daughter Martha that he had been the father of all or most of Sally's children. Jefferson's direct descendants, Thomas Jefferson Randolph and Ellen Randolph Coolidge, stood by the conclusion that either Peter or Samuel Carr (both Jefferson's nephews) had fathered Hemings' children.
The question of a Jefferson-Hemings liaison remained a bone of contention among branches of the Jefferson, Randolph, and Hemings familiesÃssaassssss welllll as Jefferson scholars throughouuuut tthee nineteenth and twentieth centuries... In November 1998, dramatic new scientific evidence became available through the analysis of the DNA of male descendants of both Hemings and Jefferson. After comparing the Y-chromosome component of the DNA of a descendant of Jefferson's paternal uncle, Field Jefferson, with that of a descendant of another of Hemings' sons, Eston (born 1808), Dr. Eugene Foster of the University of Virginia found an exact match of certain portions of the DNA (the odds of a perfect match in a random sample are less than one in a thousand). In January 2000, the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation accepted the conclusion, supported by Foster's DNA evidence, that Jefferson and Hemings were sexual partners, and that they had between one and six children between 1790 and 1808.
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| Sources |
- [S693] William and Mary Quarterly Vol IV p 229-230.
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