Jane Jefferson

Jane (Randolph) Jefferson (February 9, 1720 – March 31, 1776) was the wife of Peter Jefferson and the mother of US president Thomas Jefferson. Born in the parish of Shadwell, near London, she was the daughter of Isham Randolph, a ship's captain.

Family

From https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Randolph_Jefferson retrieved Dec 2018

Her family moved to Virginia when she was young, though it is unclear from available sources whether she immediately accompanied them or joined them later.

Randolph married Peter Jefferson, a surveyor and minor planter, at her father's plantation, Dungeness, in Virginia in 1739. Shortly afterwards they established a home near Charlottesville, which they named Shadwell, after her London birthplace.

Together, they had the following children:

1. Jane Jefferson (1740–1765) - close to her brother Thomas, she died unmarried at age 25.
2. Mary Jefferson Bolling (1741–1817) - her husband John Bolling III served in the Virginia House of Burgesses.
3. Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826), third President of the United States
4. Elizabeth Jefferson (1744–1774)
5. Martha Jefferson Carr (1746–1811) - her husband Dabney Carr, Thomas Jefferson's best friend and a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses, helped launch the intercolonial Committee of Correspondence in Virginia in March 1773
6. Peter Field Jefferson (1748) - died as an infant.
7. Peter Jefferson (1750) - died as an infant.
8. Lucy Jefferson Lewis (1752–1810)
9. Anna Scott Jefferson Marks (1755–1828) - twin of Randolph
10. Randolph Jefferson (1755–1815) - twin of Anna Scott

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From https://www.monticello.org/site/jefferson/jane-randolph-jefferson

The first record of Jane's presence in Virginia is her marriage to Peter Jefferson (1708-1757) on October 3, 1739, in Goochland County, probably at Isham's home on the James River, called Dungeness. There is no evidence that Jane brought any land or servants to the marriage. Isham provided her a dowry of £200 but it was not paid until his death, three years later, from the proceeds of his estate.

Jane bore ten children with Peter:

1. Jane (1740),
2. Mary (1741),
3. Thomas (1743),
4. Elizabeth (1744),
5. Martha (1746),
6. Peter Field (1748),
7. an unnamed son (1750),
8. Lucy (1752), and
9. a set of twins, Anna Scott and
10. Randolph (1755).

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From https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/6531111/jane-isham-jefferson

Jane Randolph Jefferson-Grave site

Very little is known about her. it is said that Peter Jefferson named his plantation "Shadwell" after the English parish in which Jane had been christened. Her grandaughter-Ellen Randolph Coolidge wrote of her grandmother that she "mild & peaceful by nature, a person of sweet temper & gentle manners".

Photo dated 1984: Jane Randolph Jefferson-Grave site

Thomas Jefferson - Monticello: Jane Randolph Jefferson

The paucity of sources leaves a number of outstanding questions about Jane, such as whether she accompanied her family to Virginia or joined them later (no evidence exists either way) and whether she died at Monticello rather than at Shadwell (her late-nineteenth century tombstone states the former). Certainly, any attempt to recover the real Jane Jefferson has been concealed by fanciful assumptions about the kind of person she was. That her family was of modest means, at best, and not aristocratic in any sense of the word, appears clear. The family accounts reveal that she husbanded her family's resources with a level of care, skill, and prudence that may have chafed her oldest son's spending inclinations yet which also kept the family out of debt, a considerable achievement in eighteenth-century Virginia.

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Jefferson's mother was a member of the Randolph family, which was an influential one in colonial society. The first Randolph to come to America, William Randolph, was born in 1650 in Warwickshire, England. He apparently followed his uncle, Henry Randolph, to the new world, some time before 1672. In 1674 he obtained his first land patent, and soon thereafter married Mary Isham, a wealthy widow and daughter of Henry Isham of Northamptonshire. William Randolph was a merchant and tobacco planter; he also served in the Virginia House of Burgesses and held the post of Attorney General of the colony.

References

• Thomas Jefferson - Monticello: Jane Randolph Jefferson

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Jane Jefferson (Randolph)

Find A Grave Memorial ID # 6531111

Jane Jefferson (Randolph) - Monticello.org

Jane Randolph Jefferson (February 10, 1720 – March 31, 1776)[a] was the wife of Peter Jefferson and the mother of US president Thomas Jefferson. Born in the parish of Shadwell, near London, she was the daughter of Isham Randolph, a ship's captain and a planter. Jefferson was proud of her heritage and brought customs of aristocracy to her family. Jefferson was revered within her family's household and positively influenced her son, Thomas Jefferson.

Source:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Randolph_Jefferson