LIFE OF JEFFERSON.

CHAPTER I.

1743-1764.

Topography of Virginia-The Birth-place of Mr. Jefferson-Early Settlement of the State -Large Estates acquired by the Lowland Proprietors-Their Style of Living, Manners, Habits, and Character-Other Social Strata-Mr. Jefferson's Ancestors-His Grandfather-Early History of his Father, Colonel Peter Jefferson-Colonel Jefferson's Estate He marries Jane Randolph-Genealogy of the Randolph Family-Its Settlement and Great Success in Virginia-Isham Randolph, the Father-in-law of Colonel Jefferson-Colonel Jefferson's first Civil Offices-Birth of Thomas Jefferson-Colonel Jefferson's Removal to Tuckahoe-Assists in surveying Boundary Line and constructing Map of Virginia-His Return to Albemarle-Appointed Colonel of his CountyElected a Member of the House of Burgesses-His Death and Character-His Training of his Son, and Influence in forming his Character-Mr. Jefferson's Mother-Her Character-Family Record-Childhood of Mr. Jefferson-His Religious Training-His Early Education and Amusements-First meets Patrick Henry-Enters College-His Relatives at Williamsburg-His Habits of Study-His Morals and Standard of ActionInfluence of Dr. Small-Second Year in College-Attainments and Favorite BranchesBranches which were not Favorites-Mental Characteristics-Favorite AuthorsStudies Law with Mr. Wythe-Intimacy with Governor Fauquier-Habits as a Law Student-First Love-Personal Appearance, Accomplishments, Conversational Powers, Temper, etc.-Becomes of Age.

A GLANCE at the map of Virginia shows that the territory of that State is divided about midway by several ranges of mountains, collectively taking the name of Appalachians or Alleghanies, which extend through it from the southwest to the northeast, nearly parallel with its Atlantic shore. From the ocean, about half the distance to the most eastern of these ranges-the Blue Ridge-stretches the low, and often marshy Tertiary plain, through which the tides extend up the sluggish rivers;

VOL. I.-1

2

BIRTHPLACE OF JEFFERSON.

[CHAP. I. and hence it is called the "tide-water country." From its western limit, the surface rises more rapidly and brokenly, but still very gradually, to the base of the Blue Ridge; and this second plain, known in Old Virginia statutes as the "Piedmont Country," is more fertile and salubrious than the lower, and as it nears the mountains, is excelled in these particulars by few countries on earth. Detached hills of no great elevation occasionally break its surface; and parallel with the Blue Ridge, and about twenty miles east of it, a continuous chain, from six hundred to a thousand feet in height, known now as the Southwest Range, extends from James River to the southern head-waters of the Rappahannock. South of the village of Charlottesville, the space between these outliers and the Blue Ridge, is mostly filled with a cluster of irregular heights, still lower than the former, called the Ragged Mountains; but north of Charlottesville, the broad valley stretches away as far as the eye will reach to the northeast, presenting a mixture of fields and woodlands and running streams, combined into a landscape of quiet but uncommon beauty.

From the slopes of the Blue Ridge, west of Charlottesville, spring two streams which unite to form the Rivanna, the principal northern tributary of the James; and after their confluence, they find their way through a gap in the Southwest Range, not far from the centre of the chain, in Albemarle county. This opening through the hills is about a mile in breadth. A little more than a mile from its eastern outlet, on one of those gentle swells into which the river banks are here everywhere broken-in the midst of a now cultivated fieldstand two plane and two locust trees; and hard by is (or was in 1851) a cavity, nearly filled by the plow, indicating to the passer, by the bits of broken bricks and plaster, and remnants of chimney-stones, fire-cracked and vitrified, which lay in and about it, that here once had been the cellar of a human habitation. A Virginia farm-house formerly occupied the site. It was of a story and a half in height; had the four spacious ground rooms and hall, with garret chambers above, common in those structures a hundred years since; and also the usual huge outside chimneys, planted against each gable like Gothic buttresses, but massive enough, had such been their use, to support the walls of a cathedral, instead of those of a low, wooden

CHAP. I.]

SETTLEMENT OF VIRGINIA.

3

cottage. In that house was born THOMAS JEFFERSON; the plane and locust trees were planted by his hand in his twenty-first year.

The spot commands a delightful view. On the east and south, the eye wanders over a rolling plain, bounded only by the horizon. West and north, it rests on the wooded folds and waving summit line of the Southwest Range. The first of these elevations south of the Rivanna-a hill six hundred feet in height, and approaching nearer to a hemispherical than conical form, overtopped on the south by Carter's Mountain, and on the north dropping down in rocky cliffs to the river's brink-is Monticello.' Through the Rivanna gap, the eye, after traversing a portion of the valley west of the hills, encounters, on the left, the broken and picturesque summits of the Ragged Mountains, while beyond, and to the right, the Blue Ridge lifts up its towering barrier-as if typical of the soil and climate, of the rich hue of the ripe blue wild-grape 'against the western sky.

In the early settlement of Virginia, the inhabitants found the river-bottoms of the tide-water region more fertile than the intervening sandy ridges; and the rivers themselves for a long period furnished the only convenient means for transporting heavy products to or from the seaboard. The population, therefore, clung to their banks, each new wave of foreign emigration, or younger and spreading generation of the inhabitants, advancing higher towards their sources. Lands were obtained on easy conditions from the Government and otherwise; and provident individuals secured vast estates. This was particularly the case on James River, where the most enterprising and wealthy of the earlier emigrants established themselves. Some of these, men of particular mark and energy, acquired possessions vying in extent with those of the proudest nobles of their native land. These were perpetuated in their families by entails, the laws regulating which were ultimately rendered more stringent in Virginia, than in England itself. As their lands rose gradually in value, the great lowland proprietors began to vie with English nobles in wealth as well as in terri

1 From the Italian, signifying "Little Mountain."

Beverly, the early historian of Virginia, speaking of the wild grapes, when left to grow in the clearings, says: "I have seen in this case more grapes upon one single vine than would load a London cart."-History of Virginia, Book ii. chap. 22.

4

EARLY SOCIETY.

3

[СНАР. І. tory. Many of them lived in baronial splendor. Their abodes, it is true, were comparatively mean, as the country did not yet furnish permanent building materials, except at vast cost, nor did it furnish practiced architects to make use of them: but their spacious grounds and gardens were bravely ornamented; their tables were loaded with plate, and with the luxuries of the Old and New World; numerous slaves, and white persons whose time they owned for a term of years, served them in every capacity which use, luxury, or ostentation could dictate; and when they travelled in state, their cumbrous and richly appointed coaches were dragged by six horses, driven by three postillions. But usually the mistress of the household, with her children and maids, appropriated this vehicle. The Virginia gentleman of that day, with much of the feeling of earlier feudal times, when the spur was the badge of knighthood, esteemed the saddle the most manly, if not the only manly, way of making use of the noblest of brutes. He accordingly performed all his ordinary journeys on horseback. When he went forth with his whole household, the cavalcade consisted of the mounted white males of the family, the coach and six, lumbering through the sands, and a retinue of mounted body servants, grooms with spare led horses, etc., in the rear.

In their general tone of character, the lowland aristocracy of Virginia resembled the cultivated landed gentry of the mother. country. Numbers of them were highly educated and accomplished, by foreign study and travel; and nearly all, or certainly much the largest portion, obtained an excellent education at William and Mary College, after its establishment, or

1 Yet, if they lacked the baronial piles of England, they did not lack comfortable residences. Beverly (writing about 1720, we think) says that several gentlemen of Williamsburg have "built themselves large brick houses, of many rooms on a floor; but," he adds, "they don't covet to make them lofty, having extent enough of ground to build upon; and now and then they are visited by winds which would incommode a towering fabric. They love to have large rooms, that they may be cool in summer. Of late they have made their stories much higher than formerly, and their windows larger, and sasht with crystal glass; adorning their apartments with rich furniture. All their drudgeries of cookery, washing, dairies, etc., are performed in offices apart from the dwelling-houses, which by this means are kept more cool and sweet." This description would apply equally to the better residences on the James, except that many of the latter were constructed of wood.

The families," says Beverly, "being altogether on country seats, they have their graziers, seedsmen, gardeners, brewers, bakers, butchers, and cooks within themselves; they have a great plenty and variety of provisions for their table; and as for spicery, and other things the country don't produce, they have constant supplies of 'em from England. The gentry pretend to have their victuals drest and served up as nicely as the best tables in London."

Being apprenticed, to pay their passage money.

CHAP I.]

THE LOWLAND ARISTOCRACY.

5

respectable acquirements in the classical schools kept in nearly every parish by the learned clergy of the Established Church. As a class, they were intelligent, polished in manners, hightoned and hospitable-and sturdy in their loyalty and in their adherence to the national Church. Their winters were often spent in the gaieties and festivities of the provincial capital; their summers, when not connected with the public service, principally in supervising their immense estates, in visiting each other, and in such amusements as country life afforded. Among the latter, the chase held a prominent place. Born almost to the saddle and to the use of fire-arms, they were keen hunters; and when the chase was over, they sat round groaning boards, and drank confusion to Frenchman and Spaniard abroad, and to Roundhead' and Prelatist at home. When the lurking and predatory Indian became the object of pursuit, no strength of the Red man could withstand, no speed of his elude, this fiery and gallantly mounted cavalry. The social gulf which separated this from the common class of colonists, became about as deep and wide, and as difficult to overleap in marriage and other social arrangements, as that which divided the gentry and peasantry of England. Such were the Carters, the Carys, the Burwells, the Byrds, the Fairfaxes, the Harrisons, the Lees, the Randolphs, and many other families of early Virginia.

Various social strata intervened between the great lowland proprietors and the lowest class of whites. Midway in this scale, of conceded respectability and of a fortune neither large nor mean, stood a gentleman by the name of Jefferson, residing at Osborne's, on the James, in Chesterfield county. His

1 For animated pictures of these dashing riders, hunting bears, deer, and "vermine"dragging captured wolves alive at their horses' tails, "none faltering in their pace "-see Beverly, Book iv. chap. 21.

We do not propose to enter upon the question whether the Cavalier or Puritan blood predominated among the early lowland aristocracy of Virginia. It will not probably be disputed by any that this class were generally decided loyalists, whatever their pedigree. Perhaps we should state the question which has been raised more accurately by saying it is whether the lowland grandees of Virginia were sprung from the higher or lower classes in England. Our opinion is that there have been decided exaggerations in the extreme statements on both sides. If well-preserved and properly connected family traditions and records can be relied on, not a few of the earlier settlers belonged to English families of rank, particularly those which were reduced from affluence to comparative poverty in the civil wars of Charles I.'s time. On the other hand, we entertain no doubt that many of the most opulent and distinguished families of the Old Dominion sprung from enterprising emigrants without any such pretensions. But esteeming the subject of no sort of consequence, we will not stop to bestow investigation on it.