Full Name Jane Randolph Name Jane Jefferson | ||
Died March 31, 1776, Massachusetts, United States Parents Isham Randolph of Dungeness Children Thomas Jefferson, Lucy Jefferson Lewis, Randolph Jefferson Similar People Peter Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson, Isham Randolph of Dunge, Martha Jefferson, Martha Jefferson Randolph | ||
Jane Randolph Jefferson, née Jane Randolph (February 9, 1720 – March 31, 1776) was the wife of Peter Jefferson and the mother of president Thomas Jefferson. Born in the parish of Shadwell, near London, she was the daughter of Isham Randolph, a ship's captain.
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Early life and education
Jefferson personally showed little interest in his ancestry and details of his mother's life must be gleaned from public records and inscribed family bibles. She was born on February 9, 1720, at Shakspear Walk, in Shadwell, a maritime village about a mile east of the Tower of London, the daughter of Isham Randolph, mariner, and his wife Jane. Isham was the son of William Randolph, a major Virginia planter, and Jane Rogers of London, who were married in Bishopsgate Church in the City of London in 1717. Jane Randolph Jefferson was a first cousin of Peyton Randolph and aunt of Edmund Randolph. She had an older brother, Isham, born two streets away in 1718, who died shortly after his baptism.
She most likely immigrated to Virginia as a child with her family by 1725 and, as was common in the eighteenth century, received her education entirely at home. While Jefferson rarely mentioned his mother, much is known of her from extant records, particularly her ability to manage the family's finances.
Marriage and family
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:
Jane Randolph Jefferson died from what Jefferson described as an "apoplexy" on March 31, 1776, barely three months before Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence.