Thomas JEFFERSON

   Another name for Thomas was 3rd President Of The United STATES.

  General Notes:

B.L. and R.J. Owens 1982, Sims Kin, History and Genealogy, The Descendants of William Symes of Poundsford and Related Families. Third President of the United States.

G.B. Roberts 1989, Ancestors of American Presidents. Life dates.

Five children, three of whom died in infancy.

Buried Monticello Graveyard, Albemarle County, Virginia.

Thomas Jefferson

In the thick of party conflict in 1800, Thomas Jefferson wrote in a private letter, "I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."

This powerful advocate of liberty was born in 1743 in Albermarle County, Virginia, inheriting from his father, a planter and surveyor, some 5,000 acres of land, and from his mother, a Randolph, high social standing. He studied at the College of William and Mary, then read law. In 1772 he married Martha Wayles Skelton, a widow, and took her to live in his partly constructed mountaintop home, Monticello.

Freckled and sandy-haired, rather tall and awkward, Jefferson was eloquent as a correspondent, but he was no public speaker. In the Virginia House of Burgesses and the Continental Congress, he contributed his pen rather than his voice to the patriot cause. As the "silent member" of the Congress, Jefferson, at 33, drafted the Declaration of Independence. In years following he labored to make its words a reality in Virginia. Most notably, he wrote a bill establishing religious freedom, enacted in 1786.

Jefferson succeeded Benjamin Franklin as minister to France in 1785. His sympathy for the French Revolution led him into conflict with Alexander Hamilton when Jefferson was Secretary of State in President Washington's Cabinet. He resigned in 1793.

Sharp political conflict developed, and two separate parties, the Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans, began to form. Jefferson gradually assumed leadership of the Republicans, who sympathized with the revolutionary cause in France. Attacking Federalist policies, he opposed a strong centralized Government and championed the rights of states.

As a reluctant candidate for President in 1796, Jefferson came within three votes of election. Through a flaw in the Constitution, he became Vice President, although an opponent of President Adams. In 1800 the defect caused a more serious problem. Republican electors, attempting to name both a President and a Vice President from their own party, cast a tie vote between Jefferson and Aaron Burr. The House of Representatives settled the tie. Hamilton, disliking both Jefferson and Burr, nevertheless urged Jefferson's election.

When Jefferson assumed the Presidency, the crisis in France had passed. He slashed Army and Navy expenditures, cut the budget, eliminated the tax on whiskey so unpopular in the West, yet reduced the national debt by a third. He also sent a naval squadron to fight the Barbary pirates, who were harassing American commerce in the Mediterranean. Further, although the Constitution made no provision for the acquisition of new land, Jefferson suppressed his qualms over constitutionality when he had the opportunity to acquire the Louisiana Territory from Napoleon in 1803.

During Jefferson's second term, he was increasingly preoccupied with keeping the Nation from involvement in the Napoleonic wars, though both England and France interfered with the neutral rights of American merchantmen. Jefferson's attempted solution, an embargo upon American shipping, worked badly and was unpopular.

Jefferson retired to Monticello to ponder such projects as his grand designs for the University of Virginia. A French nobleman observed that he had placed his house and his mind "on an elevated situation, from which he might contemplate the universe."

He died on July 4, 1826.

Monticello
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Thomas Jefferson gave form to the nascent United States by his writings, his service to the country and more literally his architecture. Between 1784-1809 he designed, built and then remodeled his home, Monticello, perched atop a hill in the Piedmont of Virginia. A low, red-brick structure with a white dome and doric portico, it served as a laboratory for his ideas and reflected his interest in the neo-classical style, an architectural movement that he learned about during his years as American Ambassador in Paris. In 1819 Thomas Jefferson founded the University of Virginia to provide educational opportunity for all. His design for the campus included a central domed Rotunda, which served as the library with classrooms, and two rows of Pavillions containing student rooms and faculty lodgings on either side of the "Lawn." He modeled his buildings on the Roman republic. Thomas Jefferson was a man of creative genius whose writings and architecture embody ideals of universal freedom, self-determination and sel-fulfillment that continue to inspire humanity. (Inscribed in 1987)

University of Virginia's Academical Village

The Jeffersonian Precinct of the University of Virginia covers a plot of land measuring 28 acres. The complex is situated on an elevated site, with a gentle slope running down toward the south. The original plan for the University consists of a U-shaped configuration of buildings, with the L-shaped Rotunda placed at the northernmost part of the curve. Rows of five pavilions with connecting dormitory rooms run along the east and west sides of the central Lawn and terminate at the foot of the Rotunda. Paralleling the two inner ranges are rows of outer ranges of dormitory rooms and eating facilities. The ground between the inner and outer ranges are devoted to gardens bounded by serpentine walls.

The Rotunda measures 78' wide and is designed of pure geometric shapes with dimensions one-half those of the Pantheon. The height of the dome is determined by the diameter of the plan. The circle of the Rotunda is placed tangent to the floor of the basement in order to differentiate its height from that of the Pantheon. From the Lawn, the Rotunda is entered through a portico made up of six Corinthian columns supporting a triangular pediment. The portico extends out from the building by four rows of Corinthian columns. The drum of the Rotunda is constructed of red brick and white wood trim. The dome is built of tile, roofed in tin plate, and surfaced internally with plaster. The width of the Rotunda walls is 2'8".

The ten pavilions are numbered I to X, with the odd numbers on the west and the even numbers on the east. They represent the ten original separate schools, each with classrooms, professors' living quarters, and single story dormitories. The ten pavilions are connected by a continuous loggia which offers shelter from the weather and screens the utilitarian dormitories from view. Each of the pavilions is designed with elements drawn from classical models as published by Palladio, Fréart de Chambray, and Charles Errard. Each of the pavilions is different, thereby offering a separate lesson in classical orders and architecture. For example, Pavilion VIII provides an example of the Corinthian architectural order of the Diocletian Baths as interpreted in Chambray's pattern book.

The widths of the pavilions of the inner ranges facing onto the Lawn vary from 38 feet (Pavilion II) to 46 feet (Pavilions I and V). In order to create an illusion of distance along the ranges, the pavilions nearer the Rotunda are sited closer to each other than those farther from the Rotunda. For example, Pavilion II, near the foot of the Rotunda, is 64' from Pavilion IV, whereas Pavilion VIII is 117' from Pavilion X. The length of the gardens in between the inner and outer ranges to the east side of the Lawn is 174'. The length of the gardens in between the inner and outer ranges on the west side is 152'. The difference between the length of the gardens is compensated for by the width of the buildings of the outer ranges, which vary from 38' to 44' on the east side to 52' to 61' on the west side.

Three stories were built into the Rotunda. The first two stories consist of oval rooms. A dome room is located at the third story.

Lined with rows of trees, the Lawn measures 740' in length and 192' in width. The Lawn is terraced in gradual steps from the north to the south. The tree plantings are not original and efforts are underway to determine and reinstate the original design concept. The Jeffersonian Precinct is separated from the rest of the University by roads on the west, north, and east sides and by a wide walkway on the south side.

LIFE AND LABOR AT MONTICELLO
The eighteenth century was a time of extensive migration in Virginia as settlers in the Tidewater pushed beyond the rivers to the West. In these western uplands, called the Piedmont, the settlers replicated, as best they could, the land use patterns, labor systems, and social structures they had left behind. The Jefferson family, led by Thomas's father Peter, was part of this western movement. At least three hallmarks of Thomas Jefferson's character and interests date to this background: his interest in western exploration and settlement; his belief and participation in public service; and his lifelong adherence to the plantation-slave system of agriculture.

Throughout his life at Monticello and Poplar Forest, his country retreat, Thomas Jefferson sought to create a classic example of the country gentleman's estate, based on his personal experiences, his reading, and a broad network of correspondence. Thomas Jefferson's world of books provided him with opportunities throughout his life to experience other aspects of the world and learn selectively from them to create an idealized realm, sometimes untempered by the reality of life experiences.


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LIFE IN THE PIEDMONT
Fry and Jefferson map of Virginia
This is a second edition of a map originally drawn by Thomas Jefferson's father, Peter (1707/08-1757), and Joshua Fry (1700-1754) in 1751. This map includes Albemarle County, Virginia much the way it was in Jefferson's youth. Shadwell, the Jefferson family plantation, is indicated at the upper right. Peter Jefferson became one of the first magistrates of the county when it was formed in 1744. This upland expansion provided Virginia with much of the dynamic energy found in the state's expanding political, geographic, and economic life.


Peter Jefferson and Joshua Fry.
A Map of the Most Inhabited
Part of Virginia. . . .
1755.
Reproduction of map.
Geography and Map Division (1)


Jane Pitford Braddick Peticolas (1791-1852).
View from Monticello Looking
Toward Charlottesville
1827.
Copyprint of watercolor on paper.
Courtesy of Monticello/Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation, Inc. (8a)
View from Monticello towards Charlottesville
Thomas Jefferson often used his telescope to study and enjoy the views over the Piedmont from Monticello, which was built on the top of a conical hill. Charlottesville was the site of the University of Virginia, and Jefferson could watch the progress of its construction without leaving his home. This view shows the fertile highlands and small hills typical of the area, and the University of Virginia can be seen under construction.

Thomas Jefferson acquires slaves, supplies, and services
During most of his life, Thomas Jefferson kept detailed records, in books like this one, on his slaves, farms, and garden. He recorded births, deaths, work assignments, and food and clothing allotments. Jefferson also included minute observations and calculations about the natural world; the work cycles at his plantations, mills, and manufactories; and the work of his labor force.


Thomas Jefferson.
Memorandum Book,
1773.
Page 2
Bound manuscript.
Manuscript Division (38a)


Thomas Jefferson.
Crop Rotation Plan
undated.
Manuscript plan.
Manuscript Division (10) Crop rotation plan for Monticello
Thomas Jefferson, like other enlightened farmers, took a scientific approach to farming with the help of his son-in-law, Thomas Mann Randolph (1768-1828), who managed much of Jefferson's land after marrying Martha "Patsy" Jefferson in 1790. Jefferson's careful consideration of a workable method of crop rotation for Monticello -- an innovative practice at the time -- demonstrates his interest in scientific farming.

Jefferson's larger family at work
In addition to their general labor, slaves contributed to Monticello by selling fowl and vegetables from their own flocks and gardens to the plantation masters. The plantation mistress or her daughters made these purchases and maintained the household records. This book had first been used by Jefferson for legal notes and then by his wife, Martha (1748-1782), for her household records and recipes. Jefferson's granddaughter, Anne Cary Randolph (1791-1826), continued these records in the early nineteenth century. Most of the purchases recorded were made from the house slaves, particularly the extended Hemings family.


Thomas Jefferson, Martha Jefferson,
and Anne Cary Randolph.
Memorandum Book,
1768-1769, 1772-1782, 1805-1808.
Bound manuscript.
Manuscript Division (14)


Thomas Jefferson to Marquis de Chastellux,
November 26, 1782.
Manuscript letter.
Page 2
Manuscript Division (14a) As dead to the world as she whose
loss occasioned it
Thomas Jefferson was devastated by the death of his wife Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson who died after giving birth to their sixth child, Lucy Elizabeth (1782-1784). Jefferson wrote little about his wife's death, making this entry into his account book on September 6, 1782: "My dear wife died this day at 11H -45' A.M." More than two months later he haltingly wrote to a French officer and friend, Marquis de Chastellux (1734-1788), that he was... "emerging from the stupor of mind which had rendered me as dead to the world as [she] was whose . . . loss occasioned it."


LIFE AT MONTICELLO
Jefferson's education plan for his daughters
After the death of his wife, Jefferson carefully planned the education and training of his daughters, Martha (1772-1836), Maria (1778-1804), and Lucy (1782-1784). In this letter, he laid out a plan of study for his daughter Martha, so that she would be able to fulfill the social role of plantation mistress. Learning the social graces of music, dancing, letter writing, as well as knowledge of literature and language ability were skills that he considered essential.

James was a member of the Hemings family inherited by Jefferson and his wife at the death of his father-in-law, John Wayles. James, the son of Elizabeth Hemings and, most probably, Jefferson's father-in-law, had been trained as a French chef. This was the final accounting inventory of Monticello kitchen utensils and equipment prepared and written by James Hemings (1765-1801), just two weeks after Jefferson honored the written promise of freedom he had made to James in 1793.

When his father-in-law, John Wayles (1715-1773) died, Jefferson, through his wife, inherited the estate and the debts that came with it. To settle the debts, Jefferson sold dozens of slaves. In these letters to his brother and an overseer, Jefferson reveals both his recognition of the property value of slaves and a human concern and respect for the unity of a slave family.

Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings
In 1873, the Pike County Republican, ran a series entitled, "Life Among the Lowly," Which included a memoir by Madison Hemings, a resident of Ross County, Ohio. Hemings stated that his mother Sally, who was the half-sister of Jefferson's wife, Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson and a slave of Thomas Jefferson, gave birth to five children "and Jefferson was the father of them all." Madison Hemings's statement has been contested for well over a century. In January 2000, however, after completion of a year's work by a research committee assessing the most recent evidence including a 1998 DNA study, the Monticello/ Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation, Inc, issued a statement stating that "the best evidence available suggests the strong likelihood that Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings had a relationship over time that led to the birth of one, and perhaps all, of the known children of Sally Hemings."

Historical Society, Boston (108) Promise of freedom for James Hemings
On September 15, 1793, while residing as secretary of state in Pennsylvania, which had abolished slavery in 1780, Thomas Jefferson promised to free his slave James Hemings, after James had trained a replacement French chef. On February 5, 1796, Jefferson freed James and provided money for his return to Philadelphia. Jefferson manumitted or allowed to escape from bondage only ten slaves, all members of the Hemings family, out of over six hundred he owned over the course of his life. Five of those gained freedom in his lifetime, five under the terms of his will.

View of Poplar Forest
Thomas Jefferson built his octagon house, in the Palladian style, at Poplar Forest, a plantation inherited from his wife Martha's father, John Wayles in 1773. Jefferson usually went to Poplar Forest several times a year, staying for up to two months to oversee plantation production and to avoid visitors at Monticello. Jefferson left Poplar Forest to his grandson Francis Eppes (1801-1881), who sold it two years later to a neighbor. The house remained a private home until 1984.

Isaac Jefferson, 1845.
Isaac Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson's slave, was trained as a tinsmith and nailmaker. He and his wife Iris and two children were deeded to Jefferson's daughter Mary at the time of her marriage in 1797. By 1798, Isaac was hired by Thomas Mann Randolph, who was managing Monticello for his father-in-law Thomas Jefferson. Though it is not clear how he came to do so, Isaac left Monticello four years before Jefferson died, and later moved to Petersburg, Virginia, where this photograph was taken when Isaac was seventy-years old.

Thomas Jefferson's hair
Thomas Jefferson's hair cuttings were taken on Jefferson's deathbed as keepsakes by his only surviving daughter, Martha Jefferson Randolph, and other family members. Three samples came to the Library of Congress in clearly identified envelopes with the papers of Jefferson. Martha wrote on one envelope: "My dear father Thomas Jefferson." The hair samples are cuttings without follicles and therefore are useless for DNA studies. Only the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation is known to have custody of additional cuttings of Jefferson's hair.

Jane Pitford Braddick Peticolas.
Jane Pitford Braddick Peticolas painted Monticello for her friend, Ellen Randolph Coolidge (1796-1876), Jefferson's granddaughter, shortly after Jefferson's death. The painting portrays an idyllic scene with various Jefferson descendants enjoying themselves. No slaves are pictured, and perhaps they had all been sold when this picture was painted. Jefferson's designs for Monticello were based on the plans of the sixteenth-century Italian architect, Andrea Palladio, and incorporated the latest French designs. The intent was to create a little city in the country.

Reusable pocket notebook
Thomas Jefferson used these ivory sheets to make penciled notes, which could then be erased once he transferred the information into one of his numerous permanent record books.

Thread case, c. 1770.
Manuscript Division (81) Thread case of Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson
The thread case used by Thomas Jefferson's wife, Martha Jefferson (1748-1782), is one of her few relics kept by Thomas Jefferson. Martha's thread case and her household accounts for Monticello, both in the collections of the Library of Congress, document the economic and social role of the southern plantation mistress.

WORLD OF BOOKS
"The three greatest men that have ever lived"
"Bacon, Locke and Newton" were "the three greatest men that have ever lived, without any exception, and as having laid the foundations of those superstructures which have been raised in the Physical & Moral sciences." So states Thomas Jefferson in this February 15, 1789, letter to John Trumbull, ordering copies of portraits of the three men. Their work in the "Physical & Moral sciences" was instrumental in Jefferson's education and world view. For example, Bacon's divisions of knowledge became Jefferson's divisions in his library catalog.

Manuscript Division (24) Jefferson's literary commonplace book
Thomas Jefferson began to maintain this literary commonplace book while a schoolboy and continued the practice into the 1770s, displaying his wide-ranging literary interests. He was a great admirer of the classical writers, particularly Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC). Jefferson's entry, as shown here, was taken from Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy. Jefferson and his wife, Martha, recopied this passage on her death bed.

"I cannot live without books."
On hearing of the sale of Thomas Jefferson's library to Congress as a replacement for the books burned by the British in August 1814, John Adams wrote to Jefferson on October 28, 1814: "By the Way I envy you that immortal honour: but I cannot enter into competition with you for my books are not half the number of yours." Jefferson did not reply to Adams' letter until June 10, 1815, but wrote "I cannot live without books, but fewer will suffice where amusement, and not use, is the only future object."

University of Virginia Library (17) "Old Master had abundance of books"
Issac Jefferson (1775-c.1849), described Jefferson's reading habits: "Old Master had abundance of books; sometimes would have twenty of 'em down on the floor at once-read fust one, then tother." Trained as a tinsmith and nailmaker while a slave of Thomas Jefferson, Isaac related this information as part of an oral history given to Charles Campbell in 1847.

Jefferson was an avid newspaper reader
Though Thomas Jefferson made conflicting statements about the American press, he was an avid reader of newspapers. The Genius of Liberty was just one of more than 70 newspaper titles represented in Jefferson's library when it was sold to the Congress in 1815. Jefferson's newspapers were nearly all destroyed in the fire of December 24, 1851. Jefferson also maintained newspaper clipping files and often wrote a subject notations in the margin.

Jefferson Memorial Foundation, Inc. (22) Revolving five-sided book stand probably designed by Jefferson
This cube-shaped book stand was probably designed by Thomas Jefferson to hold five books and allow the reader to rotate the stand, thus changing the book in view. The solid walnut stand, designed to sit on a tripod was made at the Monticello joinery, supervised by James Dinsmore and John Hemings.

Jefferson's favorite copying machine
Thomas Jefferson, who wrote tens of thousands of letters used the polygraph machine, invented by an Englishman John Isaac Hawkins (1772 1855) and produced in America by Charles Willson Peale (1741 1827) to produce copies for himself, as well as his correspondent. Jefferson provided Peale with many suggested improvements to the delicate mechanism, which Peale tried to incorporate in the machine. Jefferson used the machine from 1804 until his death. It is nearly impossible to determine which copy of the page was made by the pen held by Jefferson or the off-pen.

Charles Willson Peale, designer.
Polygraph machine modern reproduction made by Wilman Spawn, c. 1974.

  Noted events in his life were:

• Death of spouse Martha (P, 6 Sep 1782.

Thomas married Sally HEMINGS. (Sally HEMINGS was born in 1773 in Shadwell, Albemarle Co., VA and died in 1835 in Charlottesville, VA.)

Thomas next married Martha Wayles SKELTON on 1 Jan 1772 in The Forest, Charles City County, Virginia. (Martha Wayles SKELTON was born about 1745 and died in 1782.)