Thomas Jefferson

Ancestor Number

A061895 »

Date of Birth

April 14, 1743

Place of Birth

Shadwell Plantation, Goochland County, Virginia

Date of Death

July 4, 1826

Place of Death

Monticello, Albemarle County, Virginia

Spouse(s)

Martha Wayles Skelton

Children

Martha Jefferson, Jane Randolph Jefferson, Mary "Polly" Jefferson, Lucy Elizabeth Jefferson, Madison Hemings, Eston Hemings, Harriet Hemings, Beverly Hemings

Service during theAmerican Revolution

Member of Continental Congress, Member of Virginia House of Delegates, Governor of Virginia (1779-1781), Provided supplies

State of Service

Virginia

Donor

Eula Frances Reeves Jeffcoat

Thomas Jefferson’s father Peter Jefferson was much admired for his physical strength and endurance, and he taught his son to be tough and to wield power. The younger Jefferson was taught to be confident with authority and responsibility, to be an excellent student with a passion for knowledge to be practical, resourceful and scholarly.

When sent into the wilderness for survival training, he failed at first but he refused to give up. He found a turkey, tied it in a tree, shot it, then he proudly took it home. He learned to deal with adversity. He was taught responsibility to family, neighbors, his country, and his king. As the oldest son, he was expected to be a leader at all times. Peter, with Joshua Fry who was a professor at the College of William and Mary at Williamsburg, drew the first authoritative map of Virginia. They surveyed the boundary line between Virginia and North Carolina. Peter’s education was limited; but being of strong mind, judgment and eager for information Peter Jefferson, according to his son, Thomas, said his father was self – taught, he was an eager reader and improved himself. He was a colonel in the militia, vestryman, and a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses. Thomas Jefferson grew up with a powerful image of his father. When Peter died his 14-year-old son became the man of the house with the responsibilities of his father. Peter held an elevated place in the life of his young son, and Thomas spent the rest of his life recounting tales of his father.

Peter Jefferson was aware a surveyor could never acquire the elite station in society that he desired. He became very wealthy and accomplished in the military and he married well. Peter Jefferson’s desire for his son was to be at the top of all the worlds. He gave him all the educational advantages possible, but his mother had to provide him the dream.

Isham Randolph was Thomas Jefferson’s grandfather, and his family was considered as “very gentle, well-dressed people.” Jane Jefferson had a great sense of pride in her British ancestry. She is said to have descended from the “powerful Scotch Earls of Murray, connected by blood or alliance with many of the most distinguished families in the English and Scottish peerage and with royal blood itself. .

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Thomas Jefferson valued education and he preferred the classical training his father prepared him for him over the plantation responsibilities that were left to him.
Thomas Jefferson grew up the oldest son of prosperous father and he entertained famous leaders of the Virginia Society. That period in history was a great time to be a young, wealthy and handsome man in Virginia.

About 1759 when Thomas Jefferson was 17 years old, he and his mother, while visiting Chatsworth, his mother’s cousin Peter Randolph’s house on the James River, persuaded Jefferson to enroll at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg. After that he would continue his education in classical studies at the Reverend Murray’s.

Thomas Jefferson was a Founding Father, The Third President of the United States of America from 1801–1809, and he served from 1797–1801 as Vice President under John Adams. He was a statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and performed other patriotic and diplomatic services.