Martha Jefferson

Martha Jefferson

  • Bio: Martha "Patsy" Randolph (née Jefferson; September 27, 1772 – October 10, 1836) was the eldest daughter of Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States, and his wife, Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson. She was born at Monticello, near Charlottesville, Virginia.
    Her mother died when she was 10 years old, when only two out of her five siblings were alive. By 1804, she was the lone surviving sibling. Martha was very close to her father in his old age. She was the only one of his children, with his wife Martha, to survive past the age of 25. Patsy had a close relationship with her father, who saw that she had a good education. She spoke four languages and was greatly influenced by the education she received, in a Paris convent school, with daughters of the French elite.
    She married Thomas Mann Randolph Jr., who was a politician at the federal and state levels and was elected a governor of Virginia (1819–1822), which made her the First Lady of Virginia. They had twelve children together. When her widowed father was US President, she sometimes lived with him at the White House, serving as his hostess and informal First Lady.
    She was not present at either of his Inaugurations, in 1801 and 1805 and made only two lengthy stays with her father in Washington, during which time she served as his White House hostess - the winter of 1802 and the winter of 1806. During her second visit, she gave birth on January 17, 1806 to her eight child, James Madison Randolph; thus he became the first child born in the White House.
    Martha Randolph spent almost his entire time in the White House at either Monticello or the Virginia plantation, "Edgehill" of her husband. She bore four of her twelve children during the eight-year Administration. During her father’s long stays away from Washington, when he returned to Monticello, she received his guests, both public and private, as his official hostess and helped to manage the family tableaux which she and her children provided for the President as a form of political appeal. Among those they frequently entertained were Secretary of State James Madison and his wife Dolley, whom Martha Randolph had befriended during her initial sojourn in Washington.
    Thomas Jefferson took charge of the entertaining details at the White House during his presidency, particularly the food and the form of protocol and ceremony; whenever he had women dinner guests, he invited Dolley Madison ( 1768-1849 ), the wife of his highest-ranking Cabinet member, Secretary of State James Madison, as his escort, his vice president Aaron Burr also being a widower. At large open functions in the White House, Dolley Madison also assumed a public role as hostess, assisting the President in welcoming the general citizenry.
  • Born: September 27, 1772, Monticello, Virginia
  • Died: October 10, 1836 (aged 64) Albemarle County, Virginia
  • Ancestry: English
  • Religion: No formal affiliation
  • Education: Abbaye Royale de Panthemont
  • Career: No formal occupation