Jane Randolph Jefferson

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Jane Randolph Jefferson
Born (1721-02-09)February 9, 1721
Shadwell, Tower Hamlets, London, United Kingdom
Died March 31, 1776(1776-03-31) (aged 55)
Massachusetts, United States
Children Jane
Mary
Thomas
Elizabeth
Martha
Peter (died in infancy; 1748)
Peter (died in infancy; 1750)
Lucy
Anna
Randolph

Jane Randolph Jefferson, née Jane Randolph (February 9, 1721 – March 31, 1776) was the wife of Peter Jefferson and the mother of president Thomas Jefferson. Born in Shadwell Parish, Tower Hamlets, London, she was the daughter of Isham Randolph and Jane Rogers, and a cousin of Peyton Randolph.[1]

Early life and education

Randolph was born in one of the Tower Hamlets, Shadwell, a poor maritime neighborhood of London. She most likely immigrated to Virginia as a child with her family and that her education was received entirely at home. Little is known of her, for Jefferson rarely mentioned his mother in his extensive writings. According to the 20th-century biographer Merrill Peterson, she represented "zero quantity" in her son Thomas's life, although more recent scholarship questions Peterson's conclusions.

Marriage and family

Randolph married Peter Jefferson in Virginia in 1739. Together, they had the following children:

  • Jane Jefferson (1740–1765) - close to her brother Thomas, she died unmarried at age 25.
  • Mary Jefferson Bolling (1741–1811) - her husband John Bolling served in the Virginia House of Burgesses.
  • Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826), third President of the United States
  • Elizabeth Jefferson (1744–1774) - mentally handicapped
  • Martha Jefferson Carr (1746–1811) - her husband Dabney Carr, Thomas Jefferson's best friend, helped launch the intercolonial Committee of Correspondence in Virginia in March 1773, the first step to coordinated colonial action against Great Britain.
  • Peter Field Jefferson (1748)
  • Peter Thomas Jefferson (1750)
  • Lucy Jefferson Lewis (1752–1810)
  • Anna Scott Jefferson Marks (1755–1828) - twin of Randolph
  • Randolph Jefferson (1755–1815) - twin of Anna Scott

Jane Randolph Jefferson died from what was described at the time as an "apoplexy" on March 31, 1776, barely three months before Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence.[1]

Ancestry

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Jane Randolph Jefferson", Monticello, Thomas Jefferson Foundation
  • "Jane Randolph Jefferson". Monticello. Charlottesville, Virginia: Thomas Jefferson Foundation, Inc. February 2003. Retrieved November 1, 2010 
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