Martha Jefferson and Patsy Jefferson Randolph

• Martha Jefferson
• Born: October 19, 1748
• Birthplace: Charles City County, Virginia
• Died: September 6, 1782
• Place of death: Albermarle County, Virginia

• Patsy Jefferson Randolph
• Born: September 27, 1772
• Birthplace: Albermarle County, Virginia
• Died: October 10, 1836
• Place of death: Washington, D.C.

President:Thomas Jefferson 1801-1809

Overview

Martha Wayles Jefferson was Thomas Jefferson’s true love and companion during the forming of the United States. Their happy marriage produced seven children, but only two survived. Martha was left weakened, and after ten years of sharing her life with Thomas at Monticello, she died in 1782. So devastated was Thomas by the loss of his wife that he burned all things that reminded him of her, including their correspondence. Consequently, Martha remains an obscure and unknown figure, and history is left with more questions than answers about her life. The Jeffersons’ eldest daughter, Martha Washington Jefferson, was called Patsy. She ably helped her father entertain at the White House during his presidency.

Early Life

Martha Wayles was born to John Wayles and Martha Eppes Wayles in Williamsburg, Virginia, in 1748. Martha’s father was a prominent lawyer who owned a large plantation. She had a privileged upbringing and expressed an inclination for and love of music; playing the harpsichord and piano brought her particular enjoyment. Several accounts of young Martha describe her as a widely admired woman. Given her family’s social status and her beauty, it is not surprising that she was said to have many suitors for marriage.

On November 20, 1766, she married Bathurst Skelton, a successful lawyer from the region. A year after their wedding, they had a son who would die by the age of four. Bathurst, too, would soon die, and in 1770, Martha found herself widowed and the heiress to a large fortune.

Marriage and Family

At age twenty-two, Martha was courted by Thomas Jefferson, a twenty-eight-year-old lawyer and a member of the House of Burgesses in Williamsburg. As they would throughout their marriage, the two spent many hours together enjoying music. He played the violin while she played the harpsichord. The courtship was brief, and on New Year’s Day of 1772, Martha and Thomas were married. The event took place at Martha’s plantation home, known as The Forest. The newlyweds moved to Jefferson’s home in a rural region farther west in the Virginia colony. The mansion, Monticello, was Jefferson’s pride and joy. An architect, he had designed the home himself. To accommodate his new bride, who was far away from home and not accustomed to living in such a remote area, he ordered a fortepiano to be brought to the mansion.

The small amount of evidence that exists of Martha’s life suggests that her marriage to Thomas was a happy one in spite of the adversities they faced together during subsequent years. Of the seven children born to Martha , four (three of them Jefferson’s) would die in infancy. Their first child together, Martha Washington, was born in 1772. Jane Randolph was born in 1774 but died at age two. Later, in 1777, a son was born, but he did not survive infancy. Another daughter, Mary, was born in 1778. By now Martha’s difficult pregnancies and tragic losses had weakened her health. Lucy Elizabeth was born in 1780 and died two years later. Their last daughter, also named Lucy, was born in 1782 and would die in 1785. In poor health, Martha did not survive this last childbirth, dying shortly after giving birth.

In addition to the tragedies of losing so many children, the Revolutionary War began only three years after Martha married Thomas. During the war, a British invasion near Monticello in 1781 forced Martha to flee twice from the area, and it is likely that she was not in a condition to travel, as she was frail and had an infant child with her.

Martha’s fragile health always worried Jefferson, who did not want to leave her side. Although he served in Virginia’s House of Delegates and as Virginia’s governor, he did not accept an appointment as commissioner to France, in order to be close to his frail wife. When Martha died in 1782, she was thirty-three years old, and only two of her children—both daughters—would survive past infancy. Her daughters Martha Washington, who was nicknamed Patsy, and Mary, who was also called Maria, both lived to adulthood.

Thomas Jefferson was deeply affected by the loss of his beloved wife. Patsy recalled seeing her father in a stupor as never before after his wife passed away. Sinking deep into depression, he stayed in seclusion for three weeks, pacing back and forth in his room. He kept a lock of Martha’s hair, as he did of the four children who had not survived. It is also believed that he had promised Martha he would never remarry. So distraught was Jefferson that he appears to have destroyed all of his wife’s correspondence.

Presidency and First Ladyship

Nineteen years had passed after Martha’s death when Thomas Jefferson was inaugurated as president on March 4, 1801. He was the first widowed president and the first chief executive to start the presidency in the new “federal city,” Washington, D.C. Martha (Patsy), the Jeffersons’ eldest daughter, served as First Lady, presiding over the White House social affairs during the winter seasons of 1802-1803 and 1805-1806.

Patsy was a highly capable hostess, having received a well-rounded education at schools in Philadelphia and, later, in Paris. When Thomas served as a diplomat in Paris in 1784, Patsy joined her father in France, where she was sent to an elite Parisian convent school. There, in addition to receiving a solid formal education, she considered becoming a nun. A concerned Jefferson immediately diverted his daughter’s interest by giving her a secular education instead. She also participated in social affairs of the European courts.

Patsy married her cousin Thomas Mann Randolph in 1790 and had ten children. One of her sons was the first child to be born in the President’s House and was named after James Madison, Jefferson’s secretary of state. As only the third First Lady in the young republic, Patsy had to shun the extravagances of the royal parties of Europe and to host in a less ostentatious manner, one befitting the new democracy and her father’s famous political ideology. She therefore stopped the practice of hosting “levees,” the weekly socials for ladies of the capital city, and changed the dress code for her social functions to a less formal standard. Patsy appears to have done an admirable job as hostess and was said to resemble her mother in appearance and her father in intellect. When she was unable to preside over the social affairs of state, Dolley Madison, the wife of James Madison, hosted for Jefferson.

Legacy

Martha Wayles Jefferson never became First Lady, but she did witness her husband’s thriving political career. Although scholars cannot be sure because of the limited documentation that exists, it appears that Martha was not directly involved in her husband’s writing and work during the American Revolution and founding of the United States. She did, nevertheless, provide a home where Thomas could find solace and happy moments with his family. As did most of the other presidential spouses, Martha lived with her husband during the important formative years of his political career. Martha and Thomas Jefferson supported each other through the difficult times of the founding of the United States, including his drafting of the Declaration of Independence. The loss of four children and her frail health may have brought stress to their lives, but in spite of this they were known to be content with each other.

One intriguing aspect of Martha’s legacy is that no verifiable portrait or likeness of her is known to exist. Given her family’s social standing and that of her first husband, Bathurst Skelton, as well as the custom of the period for affluent Virginia families to have portraits painted of each member, it is probable that Martha sat for several portraits during her lifetime. These might have been destroyed by the depressed Jefferson after her death, along with her correspondence. The result is that, despite the fame Thomas Jefferson achieved as one of the most admired public figures in U.S. history, his wife remains one of the most obscure of all presidential spouses.

Bibliography

Brodie, Fawn M. Thomas Jefferson: An Intimate History. New York: Norton, 1974. Provides personal insights into the social and family life of the third president.

Eckenrode, Hamilton J. The Randolphs. New York: Bobbs-Merrill, 1946. Presents the story of the family of Martha “Patsy” Jefferson’s husband in early Virginia.

Jefferson, Thomas. The Family Letters of Thomas Jefferson. Edited by Edwin Betts and James A. Bear. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1966. Insights into the lives of Thomas and Martha Jefferson, through Thomas Jefferson’s correspondence.

Smith, Margaret Bayard. The First Forty Years of Washington Society. Edited by Gaillard Hunt. New York: Ungar, 1965. A reporter who was a friend of Thomas Jefferson and his daughter Martha Randolph provides an account of their presidential years.

Whitton, Mary Ormsbee. First First Ladies, 1789-1865: A Study of the Wives of the Early Presidents. New York: Hastings House, 1948. Includes one of the very few accounts of Martha and Thomas Jefferson and their daughter.