The (Short) Life and Times of Martha Jefferson Quiz

Answer: John Wayles

John Wayles was born in Lancaster, England in 1715 and emigrated to Virginia in the 1730s. He built a plantation home called "The Forest" in Charles City County. In 1746 he married Martha Eppes and in 1748 they had Martha (named after her mother). Sadly, in less than a week, Martha Sr. died. John married two more times after that, each time outliving his wife. Little Martha later claimed poor relations with her various stepmothers.

After the death of his third wife, John took a slave named Elizabeth Hemings as his concubine and fathered several children with her. He died in 1773 leaving behind property and debt.

Answer: Sally Hemings

Sally Hemings was the daughter of John Wayles and one of his slaves named Elizabeth Hemings. This made her Martha Wayles' half-sister. Sally became the property of Thomas Jefferson as part of the inheritance from Wayles and came to Monticello.

As a child, she was nursemaid to Martha's daughters. She also accompanied one of the daughters to Europe in 1787 (to join the widowed Jefferson) and spent time in Paris. Later, Sally lived at Monticello and helped work at the estate. Years after Martha's death, Thomas Jefferson fathered at least six of Sally Heming's children. She was never officially freed and died in 1835.

Answer: Bathurst Skelton

Bathurst Skelton was born in 1744 and attended the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. This young attorney married Martha Wayles in 1766 at her family home plantation called "The Forest". Martha was 18 and he was 22.

They lived at his plantation during their brief marriage and had one son named John who was born in 1767. Bathurst died in a September 30, 1768 accident before he could see his son turn a year old.

In an interesting note, Bathurst's brother was named Reuben and was the first husband of John Wayles' second wife (Elizabeth Lomax). This makes Martha's brother-in-law also her stepmother's husband.

Answer: Thomas Jefferson

After Martha's first husband died, she moved in with her young son back to her father's plantation. It was there that she met Thomas Jefferson. When he came courting, she was 22 and was a widow and an heiress. They immediately bonded over their love of music as he played the violin and she was excellent on the piano.

They were married on New Year's Day in 1772 at her father's home "The Forest". They finally arrived at Jefferson's home called "Monticello" in late January and had to sleep in a small cabin that they toasted with wine, "song and laughter".

They were an extremely devoted couple and Jefferson was crushed when she died after ten years and well before he would become a U.S. President. On her deathbed, she begged him to never remarry (based on experiences with stepmothers) and he kept that promise.

Answer: Isaac Granger

Martha Jefferson, while growing up, was likely tutored at home in subjects such as literature, poetry, French, music, and Bible study. She also would have learned to play a social role at the plantation.
When she married Jefferson, she stepped in and helped run many daily activities at Monticello. This involved reading recipes to slaves, overseeing the kitchen, managing the household tasks, and keeping a ledger of the plantation's crops. A ledger book still exists which is one of the few examples of her handwriting.

One of the slaves at Monticello was Isaac Granger who was a tinsmith and blacksmith. His memoir, as told to a biographer, is one of the sources that tells a little of Martha Jefferson (as Thomas had their letters destroyed after her death and no pictures exist of her). Isaac remarked that Martha was "small and handsome and graceful".

Answer: Martha "Patsy" Jefferson

Martha's son by her first marriage died at three years old before she wed Thomas Jefferson. She and Jefferson had five daughters and one son. Martha (aka Patsy) was the eldest and was born in 1772. Jane (1774-1775), an unnamed boy (1777), Mary (aka Polly), Lucy I (1780-1781) and Lucy II (1782-1785) followed.

Martha (or Patsy) was the only child who lived past the age of 25. After Martha Sr died, Thomas turned to his beloved "Patsy" and she provided comfort during his lengthy grieving process. Patsy married Thomas Randolph in 1790 and would have thirteen children with him. When her father was President, she made two lengthy stays with him in which she would serve as the White House hostess. She was very good friends with Dolley Madison, wife of James Madison.

Answer: Martha Washington

For the first several years of their marriage, Martha would have accompanied Jefferson to the colonial capital of Williamsburg, Virginia and gotten to know many of the people in those social circles. She was back in Monticello when he wrote the Declaration of Independence and rejoined him when he became Governor of Virginia.

It was during this period of 1779-1781 that she also assumed a public and symbolic role. Her friend and letter correspondent Martha Washington asked if Martha Jefferson could lead a drive to raise funds and supplies for the Continental Army. She did the best she could, although by this time, her health was failing her due to multiple pregnancies.

Ironically, later Martha Washington would come to detest Jefferson for his verbal attacks on George Washington.

Answer: Jacob Rubsamen

Martha Jefferson, who had birthed 7 children in less than 14 years, was often tired and sickly. However, she was known to be a gracious hostess. Although much writing about her has been lost through the years, there are some examples where guests relate her fine manners and entertaining skills.

Martha had always loved music and that was a common bond with she and Jefferson. Jacob Rubsamen was a Hessian officer who visited Jefferson and even came to Monticello occasionally. He wrote that people will find there an "elegant harpsichord" and some violins. Rubsamen wrote that Martha "touched the piano very skillfully and is a very agreeable, sensible, and accomplished lady".

Answer: Mary "Polly" Jefferson

Mary (aka Polly) was the fifth child of Martha and the fourth of the six children she had with Thomas Jefferson. The family was living in Richmond, Virginia in 1780 and then quickly escaped to a country estate "Poplar Forest" when the British troops advanced. It was here that the Martha died after her last childbirth experience. Polly was only 4 years old.

Polly stayed with her aunt and uncle, Elizabeth and Francis Eppes, when her grieving father sailed for Europe. At age nine, she joined her nursemaid (and aunt), Sally Hemings, and went to Paris to be with her father and remaining sister Patsy. Polly became a darling of the social circles (even lived briefly in London with John and Abigail Adams) and soon asked to be called Maria.

She married her childhood friend and cousin, John Eppes in 1797. Frail like her mother, she died after her third child at the age of 25.

Answer: James Madison Randolph

James Madison Randolph was the eighth child and second son of Martha (aka Patsy) and Thomas Randolph. Grandson of Martha and Thomas Jefferson, he was born at the White House during his mother's visit to Washington, DC. He was the first child born in that site.

James Madison, named for his mother's friend, was educated at home and attended the first session of classes at University of Virginia. He was very quiet and lived alone, dying (like his grandmother) at a young age.