​During 1776​​

• Age: 27

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Background

• Born: 1748 in Charles City County, Virginia; maiden name Wayles

  • Died 1782​

• Spouse: Bathurst Skelton (m. 1766, d. 1768), Thomas Jefferson (m. 1772)

  • They ​shared an interest in horse-back riding, literature, and music

    • Jefferson played the violin​

    • One of the furnishings he ordered for the home he was building at Monticello was a “forte-piano” for his bride

  • As part of Martha's dowry for their January 1, 1772 wedding, Thomas and Martha received property, including:

    • The Elk Hill plantation (where Martha had lived with her first husband)

    • A great number of slaves (which helped Thomas complete the construction of the Monticello residence and landscaping of the estate's 5,000 acres)

  • Martha's father left substantial property, including slaves, but the estate was encumbered with debt. 

    • Jefferson and Martha inherited £4,000 in debt

    • Jefferson and other co-executors of the Wayles estate worked for years to clear the debt and the overwhelming debt led to Jefferson's financial ruin

  • Martha asked Thomas Jefferson to never marry again, so that her children would not grow up with stepmothers

• ​Children: 6; only 2 survived to adulthood

• Slaveowning​

  • The wedding dowry increased the number of slaves that Thomas Jefferson owned from 52 to 187, making him the second largest slave owner in Albemarle County

  • Among the more than 100 slaves were Betty Hemings, of mixed-race ancestry, and her 10 mixed-race children — the youngest being Sally Hemings, who would become Jefferson's mistress after Martha Jefferson's death​

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Personality

• There are no known portraits of Martha Jefferson, and descriptions of her appearance are scant

• Described as having possessed "... the greatest fund of good nature ... that sprightliness and sensibility which promises to ensure you the greatest happiness mortals are capable of enjoying"

• Reportedly played the harpsichord "very skillfully and who, is in all respects, a very agreeable sensible and accomplished lady"

• Jefferson could not bring himself to record their life together, so very few first-hand records of her exist

  • ​After Martha’s death, the couple’s letters to one another were said to be burned by Jefferson; he also sought out letters she'd written to other people to do the same

  • Jefferson's biographer, Dumas Malone: Jefferson "carefully preserved and deeply cherished small souvenirs of his dead wife, but eventually he also saw to it that none of their letters should ever be open to prying eyes…He was determined that the sacred intimacies of a lover and husband should remain inviolate. His wife did not belong to posterity; she belonged to him."

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Health

Managing the Jefferson household became increasingly difficult for Martha Jefferson, who had endured at least one case of smallpox, may have had diabetes, and was weakened by her numerous pregnancies.​

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The state of her health during and post-pregnancies kept Thomas as close to home as possible so he could be with his ailing wife, sometimes choosing local Virginia politics over national roles.

 

During the summer of 1776, Martha suffered a miscarriage and was very ill, and Jefferson was desperate to get out of Philadelphia as soon as possible to be by her side. (The musical has her actually travel to Philadelphia to meet Jefferson; there's no record of this actually happening and her health was likely too frail anyway.)

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Martha died four months after the birth of her last child.