Randolph Jefferson

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Randolph Jefferson (October 1, 1755 – August 7, 1815) was the younger brother of Thomas Jefferson. He was Thomas' only brother to survive infancy, and was twins with Anna Scott, Thomas' youngest sister. Randolph was 12 years younger than Thomas and lived at Monticello for many years. He married his first cousin Anne Jefferson Lewis in 1781 and was widowed some time between 1792 and 1807.

Randolph attended the College of William and Mary, as did his older brother, but Dumas Malone writes in his book Jefferson and His Time: The Sage of Monticello that Randolph did not share his older brother's eloquence. Letters to Thomas show a disregard of grammar and the use of colloquialisms such as "tech" instead of "touch."

A former Monticello slave, Isaac Jefferson, recalled in 1847 that Randolph Jefferson "used to come out among black people, play the fiddle and dance half the night." Since Isaac Jefferson left Monticello in 1797, his reference probably predates that year, and most likely refers to the 1780s, the period that is the subject of the majority of his recollections.

Thomas was considerate and affectionate toward Randolph, they addressed each other as "Dear Brother," and exchanged visits and services with each other. Thomas lent Randolph the harness for a gig, had his watch repaired, gave him a dog, sent him vegetable seeds, and gave him a spinning jenny.

Captain Jefferson, as Randolph was called, inherited the plantation Snowden, about twenty miles south of Monticello, in Buckingham County, across from Scott's Ferry, and lived simply as a country squire. Snowden later burned to the ground, two days after Randolph's second wife and widow moved out.

In May 1808, when Randolph was a widower with five sons and a daughter, Jefferson wrote him a will. Later in 1808, or possibly 1809, Randolph married Mitchie B. Pryor of Buckingham. In the following years, Randolph complained that his wife was running up bills at Scott's Ferry, and in the spring of 1815 told Thomas that he had sold some of his best lands to pay his debts. He was in ill health that summer, and Thomas found out that his younger brother had signed a new will, to the wife's advantage. The new will was challenged by Randolph's five sons from his first marriage, who were supported by a lengthy deposition from their uncle, but they failed.

Randolph Jefferson's sons were Isham Randolph Jefferson (1781-1852); Thomas Jefferson, Jr. (1783-1876) resident at Monticello for extended periods of schooling in 1799 and 1800, and possibly 1801; Field Jefferson (c1785?-1808+); Robert Lewis Jefferson (c1787?-1808+); and James Lilburne Jefferson (c1789?-1816+).

After a DNA study in 1999 showed a family link between patrilineal descendants of one of Sally Hemings's sons and the Jefferson family, a committee commissioned by the Thomas Jefferson Heritage Society suggested that Randolph rather than Thomas was the father of her children.^[1]

Only four recorded visits to Monticello (in September 1802, September 1805, May 1808, and sometime in 1814) are known, none related to Sally Hemings's conceptions. In August 1807, a probable conception time for Eston Hemings, Thomas Jefferson wrote his brother that "we shall be happy to see you also" at Monticello. A search of visitors' accounts, memorandum books, and Jefferson's published and unpublished correspondence provided no indication that Randolph did, in fact, come at this time. A similar search was made of the probable conception time for Madison Hemings, without finding reference to a Randolph Jefferson visit. ^[2]

[edit] See also

Sally Hemings

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

Fawn M. Brodie Thomas Jefferson: An Intimate History 1974
Noble E. Cunningham, Jr. In Pursuit of Reason: The Life of Thomas Jefferson 1987
Dumas Malone Jefferson and His Time: The Sage of Monticello 1977