Martha Wayles^{[1, 2]}

1748 - 1782  (33 years)

• Name	Martha Wayles
  Born	19 Oct 1748	The Forest Plantation, Charles City, Virginia
  Gender	Female
  Died	6 Sep 1782	Monticello, Albermarle, Virginia
  Person ID	I12363	My Reynolds Line
  Last Modified	29 Dec 2013

  
  

  Father	John Wayles,   b. 31 Jan 1715, England ,   d. 23 May 1773, Charles City Co., Virginia  (Age 58 years)
  Mother	Martha Eppes/Epps,   b. 10 Apr 1721, Bermuda Hundred, Chresterfield Co., Virginia ,   d. 5 Nov 1748, Prob. Charles City Co., Virginia  (Age 27 years)
  Married	3 May 1746	Chesterfield Co., Virginia
  Family ID	F3929	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family 1	Bathurst Skelton,   b. Jun 1744, Williamsburg, Virginia ,   d. 30 Sep 1768, Charles Co., Maryland  (Age ~ 24 years)
  Married	20 Nov 1766
  Children	1. John Skelton,   b. 7 Nov 1767,   d. 10 Jun 1771  (Age 3 years)
  Last Modified	28 Dec 2013
  Family ID	F518495476	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family 2	Thomas Jefferson,   b. 2 Apr 1743, Shadwell Estate Goochland, Virginia ,   d. 4 Jul 1826, Monticello, Albemarle County, Virginia  (Age 83 years)
  Married	1 Jan 1772	near Williamsburg, Virginia
  Children	1. Martha "Patsy" Jefferson,   b. 27 Sep 1772, Monticello, Albemarle County, Virginia ,   d. 10 Oct 1836, Edgehill Estate, Albemarle County, Virginia  (Age 64 years) + 2. Mary "Maria" Jefferson,   b. 1778, Monticello, Virginia ,   d. 27 Apr 1804, at her childhood home  (Age 26 years)   3. Jane Randolph Jefferson,   b. 1774, Charlottesville, Virginia (Monticello) ,   d. 1775, Monticello, Albemarle County, Virginia  (Age 1 years)   4. Lucy Elizabeth (2) Jefferson,   b. 1782, Monticello, Albemarle County, Virginia ,   d. 1785, Albemarle County, Virginia  (Age 3 years)
  Last Modified	13 May 2023
  Family ID	F3869	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Photos » Slide Show		Jefferson-Wayles Marriage Marker jefferson-wayles.jpg
  		Martha Skelton Jefferson (National First Ladies Library) martha wayles skelton jefferson.jpg
  		Thomas Jefferson and Martha Wayles Skelton Marker

  
  

  Documents

  Marriage document between Thomas Jefferson and Martha Wayles Skelton

  
  

  Histories		Martha Wayles Jefferson The Brooklyn Daily Eagle Aug 17, 1930
  		Thomas Jefferson Family Greensboro Daily News Jul 12, 1914

  
  

• Notes

  MARTHA WAYLES SKELTON JEFFERSON First husband: 18 years old, to Bathurst Skelton (June 1744 - 30 September 1768) planter, on 20, November 1766 likely at "The Forest" plantation; they lived at his Charles City County plantation for one year and ten months, the endurance of their marriage as Bathurst died in 1768. Born: 1748, October 19 "The Forest" plantation, Charles City County, Virginia Father: John Wayles, barrister and landowner, born 31 January, 1715 in Lancaster, England; died 23 May, 1773 in Charles City County, Virginia Mother: Martha Eppes Wayles, born 10 April, 1712 in Bermuda Hundred, Chesterfield County, Virginia; married John Wayles on 3 May, 1746; died 5 November, 1748 When Martha Eppes married John Wayles, she brought with her, as part of her dowry, an African slave woman and the woman's half-black, half-white daughter. The woman, enslaved in Africa, sailed to Virginia on a slave ship commanded by an English sea captain with the last name Hemings. Captain Hemings impregnated the slave who gave birth to a daughter she named Betty. The slave and her daughter were sold to Francis and Frances Eppes, and they gave the young enslaved "Betty Hemings" to their daughter Martha Eppes family. When Captain Hemings learned that the newly married Wayles had inherited his concubine and their daughter Betty, he offered to buy the pair. Wayles refused to sell them. He would eventually have six children by her. Martha Wayles Jefferson never knew her mother Martha Eppes Wayles since she had died two weeks and three days after giving birth to her. After the death of his first wife, Martha Eppes (the mother of Mrs. Jefferson), John Wayles married two more times; he married secondly to Mary Cocke by whom he had one [name unknown] daughter who died young; John Wayles married a third time, on 3, January 1760 to Elizabeth Lomax, with whom he had three daughters. After the death of Elizabeth Lomax (28 May 1763), Wayles took the half-black half-white slave Betty Hemings as his concubine and had six children by her. Betty Hemings was mentioned in the will of John Wayles, thus providing evidence that she really was his mistress and not merely his slave. The first husband of Elizabeth Lomax was Reuben Skelton - he was the brother of Martha Jefferson's first husband, Bathurst Skelton; thus Martha Wayles Skelton's brother-in-law was her stepmother's first husband: http://www.firstladies.org/biographies/firstladies.aspx?biog raphy=3

  
  

• Sources

  [S3] Mary Frances Reynolds Eggleston. Martha Epps, d/o Francis Epps and Mrs. Francis Epps, married John Wayles; their daughter Martha Wayles married Thomas Jefferson, after her first husband, Bathhurst Skelton died. [S3] Mary Frances Reynolds Eggleston, http://b-womeninamericanhistory18.blogspot.com/2011/09/thomas-jeffersons-wife-martha-wayles.html. Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson (1748-1782), was Thomas Jefferson's (1743-1826) wife. She was born in Virginia at The Forest, the Charles City County plantation of her father John Wayles (1715-1773) & his 1st wife, Martha Eppes (1721-1748), who died just a week after giving her birth. John Wayles was an attorney, slave trader, business agent for the Bristol-based tobacco exporting firm of Tarell & Jones, & wealthy plantation owner. In 1734, her father John Wayles, born in Lancaster, England, had sailed for the colonies alone at the age of 19, leaving his family in England. Her mother Martha Eppes was a daughter of Francis Eppes of Bermuda Hundred. She had already been widowed once, when John Wayles married her. As part of her dowry when she married John Wayles, Martha Jefferson?s mother Martha Eppes brought with her a personal slave, Susanna, an African woman who had an 11-year-old mixed-race daughter, Elizabeth Betty Hemings. John Wayles & Martha Eppes' marriage contract provided that Susanna & Betty were to remain the property of Martha Eppes & her heirs forever. The slave Betty Hemings & her children would eventually be inherited by Martha's daughter, Martha Wayles, by then married to Thomas Jefferson. Martha Jefferson?s father John Wayles married a 2nd time, to Mary Cocke, who had 4 children. After Mary Cocke died, John Wayles married a 3rd time to Elizabeth Lomax Skelton, who died within 11 months & had no children from their union. After his 3rd wife died in 1761, he took the mulatto slave Elizabeth Betty Hemings (1735-1807) as his concubine & had 6 children with her. Born into slavery, these children were 3/4 European in ancestry, & they were half-siblings to Martha Wayles Jefferson. And those surviving eventually came to live at Monticello as slaves.Born into slavery, the children of this union were three-quarters European in ancestry and half-siblings to Martha and Elizabeth Wayles. The youngest was Sally Hemings, born about 1773.