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Evidence needed to support as son of Samuel Jefferson, II
Thomas Jefferson was born 1656 in St. Christopher's Island, West Indies, and died Bef. December 01, 1697 in Charles City Co. Virginia. His parents are uncertain.
Thomas Jefferson, I., married Mary Branch, daughter of Christopher Branch, Jr., shortly before 1678 when her grandfather, Christopher Branch, Sr., called her my granddaughter Mary Branch, wife of Thomas Jefferson, in his will. He also named Thomas as his executor. This will was signed June 20, 1678, & proven February 20, 1682.[4]. She survived him and married Joseph Mattox second.
Thomas Jefferson and Mary Branch had three children: a daughter, named Mary, born in early 1679, followed by Captain Thomas Jefferson II, born November 20, 1679, and another daughter, Martha Jefferson, born February 23, 1682. All were born at Jefferson’s Landing, later known as Osborne's Plantation, in Henrico County, English colony of Virginia.
Children of Mary Branch and Thomas Jefferson:
Parents: Samuel & (Elizabeth.) Or - Thomas's father may have been a John Jefferson who arrived in 1619 aboard the ship Bonahora ("Thomas Jefferson," by William Eleroy Curtis).
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Jefferson-111
Two Theories of his Heritage
The Thomas Jefferson Foundation agrees that these are both theories and not proven.[3] For this reason, no parents are attached to this profile.
1. "Annual Report" of the Monticello Association. 1907; cited on Bob Juch's Kin on RootsWeb: Thomas Jefferson. [dead link] An interesting citation as the Monticello Association did not exist in 1907
2. Curtis, William Eleroy, Thomas Jefferson, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: J. B. Lippincott Company (1901), Page 19.
3. https://www.monticello.org/research-education/thomas-jefferson-ency...
https://www.monticello.org/research-education/blog/on-the-welshness/
Dumas Malone, in Jefferson the Virginian, remarked rather dismissively on the Jeffersons’ claim to originate in Wales, “Whether they ever did seems to be beyond the possibility of historical verification and the matter is of no real importance.” …
… While these may indeed be evidence of a particular interest in Wales, I do feel compelled to point out that, based on his house, books and other possessions, Thomas Jefferson appeared to be interested in almost everything.
… The DNA tests proved no such thing, however, and indeed the results seem to make it even less likely that the Jefferson family originated in Wales. To summarize very briefly, DNA tests were performed on 85 men with the last name “Jefferson” at the University of Leicester, and only 2 of them turned out to have the same Y chromosome as our Jefferson. These two men, whose relation to President Jefferson was estimated at about 11 generations back, had ancestral ties in Yorkshire and the West Midlands, respectively. I have just looked at a map and can tell you with some authority that neither of those are in Wales. …
Dumas Malone source:
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/dna-tests-prove-jeffe...
Wikipedia includes Thomas Jefferson DNA: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_haplogroups_of_historic_peopl...
Possible Jewish Y DNA of Thomas Jefferson 2007:
https://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/28/us/28jefferson.html
From the National Library of Medicine:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17274013/#:~:text=This%20is%20suppo....
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY:
https://www.csueastbay.edu/museum/files/docs/exhibit/dna/dna-thomas...
From http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/m/a/y/Lyndall-J-Mayes/WE...
Thomas Jefferson I, the son of Samuel Jefferson III (his mother's identity is unknown), was born in 1656 on St. Christopher's Island in the British West Indies where his father had owned a tobacco plantation since 1624. The family (plus Thomas's two brothers) moved to Antigua in the Leeward Islands about 1669 when Thomas was about 15. As a young adult Thomas moved from the West Indies to Henrico Co., Virginia. He settled at Osborne's, across the James River from Farrar's Island, where Mount Malada had once stood below present day Richmond. Before 1678 Thomas Jefferson I married Mary Branch, the daughter of Christopher Branch, Jr. and Sarah Almond neighbors at "Kingland." Mary's identity was proven from her grandfather Christopher Branch's will of 1681 in which he named her "my granddaughter Mary Branch, wife of Thomas Jefferson." Thomas also benefited from receiving one fifth of his father-in-laws estate left to Mary Branch in 1668 when she was about ten years old.
"He went forward on the road to fortune and a genteel station..." Thomas Jefferson I's name appears with some frequency in the archives of Henrico County. He was a surveyor *"one of ye surveyors of ye highways" (a profession in which his descendants dutifully followed him); as a man of recognized integrity he appeared on the roll of jurors several times, appraised estates and served as executor of wills; he paid taxes for the maintanence of soldiers; and he was evidently an excellent shot, for he collected a good many bounties which the colony offered for the extermination of wolves. The enterprising Thomas Jefferson entered as a squatter on some virgin forest land further up the James River near the falls, only to discover that it had already been granted to that prince of speculators, William Byrd. The defect in the title was cured in 1682, however, by the purchase of the 167 acres in question on the southside of the James River in the Curles of William Byrd.
"Kingsland" home of the Branch family, just west of Farrar's Island, was also near Osborne, home of the Jefferson's. They were all neighbors of the Fields, Randolphs and Eppes and closely associated as justices, burgesses and officers of the militia, etc. Thomas Jefferson I owned several slaves, enough to produce nearly two tons of tobacco a year. Even after accumulating a modest fortune, Jefferson was nevertheless referred to as "mister," rather that "esquire," indicating he was less than prominent in the colony.
When Thomas Jefferson I died in 1697 he left a fairly adequate estate for the benefit of his wife and two children. Exclusive of Negro slaves and crops, it came to a valuation of some 97 pounds, a respectable total for the period. His will included such hints of luxury as "an old silver dram cup, buttons and shoe buckles." Mary Branch Jefferson served as executrix of the estate as decreed in Henrico Court on December 1, 1697 when it ordered the division of the estate as specified in the will between wife Mary Jefferson, son Thomas Jefferson II (age 20) and daughter Martha Jefferson. The date of Thomas Jefferson I's death is estimated as prior to this court record date. Three years later, April 1, 1701, Mary Jefferson, relict of Thomas Jefferson, married Joseph Mattox of Charles City County, by which time the Jefferson children were all grown.
From http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/BRANCH/2002-05/102277...
Some believe Mary BRANCH's husband, Thomas (1) JEFFERSON to have been the son of Samuel JEFFERSON, aka JEAFFRESON and brother of (Captain) John JEFFERSON, first of his family to actually immigrate to Virginia but Samuel was the first to stay in Virginia after immigrating as, according to my understanding, and (Capt.) John JEFFERSON later returned to live in England.
Samuel JEFFERSON and brother, (Captain) John JEFFERSON are believed to have journeyed with friend and neighbor, (Sir) Thomas WARNER, to the Leeward journeyed with friend and neighbor, (Sir) Thomas WARNER, to the Leeward Islands, (including St. Kitt's/St. Catherine's,) where he became Governor of the Leeward Islands for life, and died in the Leeward Islands,) along with approximately 12-14 other individuals who were colonizing the islands. Later the JEFFERSONs and descendants along with descendants of WARNER immigrated to Virginia.
From http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~cnoelldunc/Virginia/Jeffer...
1640 |
1640
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St. Christopher's Island, British West Indies
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1679 |
December 7, 1679
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Jefferson's Landing, Henrico County, Virginia
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1679
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Jefferson's Landing, Henrico County, Virginia Colony, Colonial America
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1682 |
February 23, 1682
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Jefferson's Landing, Henrico County, Virginia, Colonial America
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1682
Age 42
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Maryland
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1697 |
December 1, 1697
Age 57
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Osborne's Plantation, Henrico County, Virginia Colony, Colonial America
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???? |
VA, United States
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