T H E F I R S T L A D I E S
#3 // Martha Jefferson Randolph
Martha “Patsy” Jefferson, born in 1772, was the eldest child of Thomas Jefferson and his wife Martha Wayles Skelton. Just before her tenth birthday, Patsy’s mother died. Her father spent the next several months overcome with grief and with Patsy, in her words, as “his constant companion.” In 1784, she accompanied Jefferson to Paris where he served as a Minister to France for the fledgling United States. While there, she attended an exclusive and intensive convent school where she studied several languages, music, arithmetic, and history among other subjects. Three years later, she was joined there by her only surviving sister, Maria (“Polly”).
Not long after returning from France, Patsy married Thomas Mann Randolph; she was just seventeen. She gave birth to her first child the following year and went on to have a total of twelve children between 1791 and 1818, eleven of whom lived past infancy. A devoted mother, highly educated and intelligent, Patsy personally took charge of educating her brood. Though busy raising her growing family by 1800, she supported her father’s presidential campaign that year. President Jefferson, as a widower, technically had no “first lady”.* However, Patsy did make two extended visits to Washington in 1802 and 1805. During these trips, she occupied a role similar to that of the previous presidents’ wives: she made social calls and acted as the White House hostess. The eloquent, gregarious first daughter was well-liked in Washington society. Her presence and that of several of her children improved Jefferson's public image and also gave him a respite from politics. Even when she was absent, Patsy provided comfort and counsel to her "dearest Father" through a regular correspondence.
Patsy’s large family moved to Monticello from the nearby Randolph estate after Jefferson retired in 1809. She did her best to manage household affairs there despite Jefferson’s growing financial difficulties. Patsy, now estranged from her husband, was still at Monticello in June 1826 when her father grew gravely ill. A few days before his death, Jefferson expressed his gratitude for the lifelong devotion of his “lov'd daughter” in a brief poem and lamented that the “last pang of life is in parting from you.” A grief-stricken Patsy and her adult children were left to handle his many debts, ultimately selling Monticello and most of its slaves to do so. In her remaining years, Patsy and two of her daughters opened a small school in Virginia at which she sometimes taught. She died suddenly in late 1836 at the age of 64, leaving behind a will that freed several slaves. Her brief obituary stated that “the character of this distinguished lady must be drawn by an abler hand than ours.”
*According to the White House’s official list of First Ladies, Jefferson’s wife Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson (d. 1782) is recorded as the third First Lady. However, the late Mrs. Jefferson obviously did not have the ability to fill the role of the president’s wife in 1801.
