Martha Jefferson
Martha was born to John Wayles (1715 - 1773) and
his first wife Martha Eppes (1712 - 1748), wealthy plantation
owners in Charles City County, Virginia. Her father was born in
Lancaster, England and emigrated alone to Virginia in 1734, at the
age of nineteen, leaving family in England. He was a lawyer.
Martha's mother was a daughter of Francis Eppes of Bermuda Hundred
and was a widow when Wayles married her. As part of her dowry,
Martha's mother brought with her a personal slave, Susanna, who had
an eleven-year-old daughter by the name of Elizabeth Hemings
(Betty). Their marriage contract stipulated that mother and child
were to remain the property of Martha Eppes and her heirs forever
or be returned to the Eppes family should there be no heirs. This
is how the Hemingses came into the custody of Martha Wayles. Patsy
Eppes Wayles died when Martha was three weeks old.
Martha's father remarried Mary Cocke of Malvern Hill and had her
half-sister Elizabeth, who married Martha's cousin and became the
mother of John Wayles Eppes. After the death of his third wife,
John Wayles took up with the slave Betty and had several children,
the famed Sally Hemings as well.
Martha Wayles, aged 18, first married Bathurst Skelton (1744-1768)
and had one son, John Wayles Skelton (1767-1771). Bathurst Skelton
died in September of 1768 in Williamsburg, Virginia after an
accident. Upon her husband's death, Martha moved back to her
father's house with her infant son, who died suddenly of a fever on
June 10, 1771.
She probably met Jefferson in Williamsburg about 1770. Following
their January 1, 1772 wedding, the Jeffersons honeymooned about
two-weeks at The Forest (her father's plantation) before setting
out in a two-horse carriage for Monticello (Jefferson's
plantation). They made the 100-mile trip in one of the worst
snowstorms ever to hit Virginia. Some miles from their destination,
their carriage bogged down in 2-3 feet of snow; they had to
complete the journey on horseback. Arriving at Monticello late at
night after the slaves had banked the fires and retired for the
night, the couple settled in the freezing one-room brick building
that was to be their home until completion of the famous main house
at Monticello.
They had six children:
* Martha Jefferson Randolph (1772-1836)
* Jane Randolph (1774-1775)
* unnamed son (b./d. 1777)
* Mary "Polly" Jefferson Eppes (1778-1804) - Polly was said to have
resembled her mother.
* Lucy Elizabeth (1780-1781)
* Lucy Elizabeth (1782-1785)
Martha was in frail health for much of her marriage. She is
believed to have suffered from diabetes, the cause of her
childbearing problems. In the famous summer of 1776 she had
suffered a miscarriage and was very ill, thus Jefferson's
desperation to get out of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania as soon as
possible.
Throughout their 10-year marriage, they appeared to have been
wholly devoted to each other. According to slaves who attended her
in her final days, Jefferson promised his wife that he would never
remarry. Jefferson was inconsolable in his loss. It was said that
he collapsed just before she died. After the funeral, he refused to
leave his room for three weeks. Then he spent endless hours riding
horseback alone around Monticello. Not until mid-October did he
begin to resume a normal life.
Martha Jefferson was, according to her daughter and to eyewitness
accounts (the French delegation), musical and highly educated, a
constant reader, with the greatest fund of good nature, and a
vivacious temper that might sometimes border on tartness, but was
completely subdued with her husband by her affection for him. She
was a little over five feet tall, with a lithe figure, luxuriant
auburn hair, and hazel eyes. She played the keyboard and the
guitar, and she was an accomplished needlewoman. Her music book and
several examples of her embroidery survive. It was she who
instituted the brewing of beer at Monticello, which continued until
her husband's death. She was much beloved by her neighbours, and
she was a great patriot, raising funds for the cause before and
after her tenure as First Lady of Virginia.
When she died following the birth of her sixth child on September
6, 1782, Jefferson was distraught and for years suffered from deep
depression. No miniature of her survives, although there is a
silhouette {See White House biography link below} and sketches of
her daughter Maria Eppes, who resembled her mother. Other
portraits, reputed to be of her, are of her daughter, Martha
Jefferson Randolph.
This is a
projection cache set up for true north.
Start point is: N
42 31.328 W 082 55.406
Project a
point: 924 ft. at 57 degrees to find the cache.