Isham Randolph

Notes:

Col. Isham Randolph
Birth: Feb. 24, 1685, Henrico County, Virginia Colony
Death: Nov. 2, 1742, Goochland County, Virginia Colony
Headstone/Memorial at Randolph Family Cemetery Presque Isle, Henrico County, Virginia, USA

“Sacred to the memory of COL. ISHAM RANDOLPH of Dungness in Goochland County Adjutant General of this Colony He was the third son of William Randolph and Mary his Wife. The distinguishing qualities of the gentleman he possessed in the most eminent degree to justice probity and honour so firmly attached that no view of secular interest or worldly advantage no discouraging frowns of fortune could alter his steady purpose of heart By an easy compliance and obliging deportment he knew no enemies but gained many friends thus in his Life meriting in universal esteem He died universally lamented Nov. 1742 aged 57 Gentle Reader go and do thou likewise."

Son of Col. Wm. Randolph and Mary (Isham) Randolph who built up a large estate near tidewater of James River, and became one of the most influential political leaders of his generation. By the time of the father's death in 1711, he had established a leading dynasty and was able to bequeath thousands of acres of land to his children. Taking advantage of opportunities in the interior, his sons moved further upriver: Richard settled at Curles Neck, Thomas far beyond the falls at Tuckahoe (the first great plantation on the upper James), and Isham further upriver still. As a young man Isham had gone to sea, become a successful merchant, and lived for many years in London, serving as an agent for Virginia affairs. In 1718 he married Jane Rogers and three years later their daughter, Jane, was baptized at St. Paul's Church, Shadwell. Jane Randolph, Thomas Jefferson's mother, was English by birth and spent her childhood in London surrounded by the busy streets and docklands of the East End, before moving to her father's plantation at Dungeness in the frontier county of Goochland.

Isham married Jane Lilburne Rogers on 25 Jul 1717 in Turkey Island, Henrico, Virginia, USA. Jane was born on 29 January 1698 in Shadwell Parish, Tower Hamlets, London, London, England; died on 1 March 1761 in Dungeness, Goochland, Virginia, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Peter Jefferson. Peter (son of Capt Thomas Jefferson, II and Mary Field) was born on 28 Feb 1707 in Osbornes, Chesterfield, Virginia, USA; died on 17 Aug 1757 in Shadwell, Albemarle, Virginia, USA; was buried in Shadwell, Albemarle, Virginia, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Married: 1 Jan 1772, , Charles City, Virginia, USA
• Residence: 6 Aug 1810, St Anns, Albemarle, Virginia, USA
• Residence: 7 Aug 1820, , Albemarle, Virginia, USA

Thomas married Martha Wayles Skelton on 23 Dec 1771 in Charles City, Charles City, Virginia, USA. Martha was born on 28 Oct 1748 in Charles City, Charles City, Virginia, USA; died on 6 Sep 1782 in Charlottesville, Independent Cities, Virginia, USA; was buried in , Albemarle, Virginia, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Thomas married Sarah Hemings in Apr 1789 in Paris, Île-de-France, France. Sarah was born on 9 Feb 1773 in , Albemarle, Virginia, USA; died in 1835 in Monticello, Albemarle, Virginia, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Name: Martha Jefferson

Other Events and Attributes:

• Residence: 1830, , Albemarle, Virginia, USA
• Residence: 1840, , Pike, Ohio, USA
• Residence: 1850, Chillicothe, Ross, Ohio, USA

Notes:

Eston Hemings Jefferson
BIRTH 21 May 1808 Albemarle County, Virginia, USA
DEATH 3 Jan 1856 (aged 47) Madison, Dane County, Wisconsin, USA
BURIAL Forest Hill Cemetery, Madison, Dane County, Wisconsin, USA
PLOT Section 3, Lot 018, Grave 3
Find a Grave Memorial ID: 10606815

Eston Hemings Jefferson was the son of President Thomas Jefferson and his slave Sally Hemings.
∼
ESTON HEMINGS WAS BORN AN enslaved person on May 21, 1808. His mother was Sally Hemings, and his father is believed to have been, Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States.

Hemings spent his early life in Monticello, Jefferson’s primary plantation just outside Charlottesville, Virginia. Eston’s mother was a mixed-race enslaved person, and he along with his siblings were all 7/8 white, “legally” white in Virginia at the time. Hemings was a trained carpenter, and because Jefferson was so fond of the violin, he and all his siblings were taught it from a very young age. When Jefferson died in 1826, his will freed Hemings and his siblings.

Now a free man, Hemings married a formerly enslaved person, Julia Ann Isaacs, and they had three children. In 1837 he moved his family to Ohio. He became a professional musician there and had his children educated in integrated schools.

The family left in 1852 due to the Fugitive Slave Act, which put pressure on ex-slave communities in free states bordering slave states. Hemings moved his family to Madison, Wisconsin, and changed their surname to Jefferson. He died in 1856, a well respected and loved man.

Inscription
E. H. Jefferson
Died ~ Jan. 3, 1856.
Æ 48 ys 7 ms
The rest is illegible.
Gravesite Details
The grave is located in plot 3, near the road and right across from plot 2.

Family Members
Parents
Thomas Jefferson 1743–1826
Sally Hemings 1773–1835

Spouse
Julia Ann Isaacs Jefferson 1814–1889

Siblings
Harriet Hemings 1795–1797
Beverly Hemings 1798 – unknown
Unnamed Daughter Hemings 1799–1800
Harriet Hemings Heckman 1801–1870
Madison Hemings 1805–1877

Half Siblings
Patsy Jefferson Randolph 1772–1836
Jane Randolph Jefferson 1774–1775
Infant Son Jefferson 1777–1777
Mary Jefferson Eppes 1778–1804
Lucy Elizabeth Jefferson 1780–1781
Lucy Elizabeth Jefferson 1782–1784

Children
John Wayles Jefferson 1835–1892
Anna Wayles Jefferson Pearson 1837–1866
Beverly Frederick Jefferson 1839–1908


Eston Hemings (1808-1856) was born a slave at Monticello, the youngest child of Sarah (Sally) Hemings. It is probable that his full given name at birth was Thomas Eston Hemings. In his later years, he changed his name to Eston Jefferson. Family tradition and oral history hold that he was the son of President Thomas Jefferson. Evidence from a 1998 DNA study of male-line descendants of the Jefferson and Hemings families suggests that if Jefferson sired any of the Hemings children, Eston is the one most likely, as he had the Jefferson “Y” chromosome. Since it is true that some male relatives of Jefferson also had the chromosome, it has been suggested that Randolph Jefferson, the president’s younger brother, may have fathered Eston and/or other Hemings children.

Eston was manumitted at the age of 21, in accordance with President Jefferson’s will. In his 1873 memoir, Eston's older brother Madison states that this was in keeping with an agreement between the future president and his slave Sally, prior to their return to the United States from France in 1789; Jefferson had been appointed ambassador to France in 1785. Madison, whose probable birth name was James Madison Hemings, stated that “…during that time my mother became Mr. Jefferson's concubine, and when he was called back home she was enciente by him. He desired to bring my mother back to Virginia with him but she demurred. She was just beginning to understand the French language well, and in France she was free, while if she returned to Virginia she would be re-enslaved. So she refused to return with him. To induce her to do so he promised her extraordinary privileges, and made a solemn pledge that her children should be freed at the age of twenty-one years. In consequence of his promise, on which she implicitly relied, she returned with him to Virginia.”

Like his brother Madison, Eston trained in woodworking with his uncle, John. Upon gaining freedom, Eston initially pursued a career in wood working and carpentry in the Charlottesville, Virginia area. In 1830, he purchased property and built a house on Main street, where his mother lived with him until her death in 1835. In 1832, he married a free woman of color, Julia Ann Isaacs (1814-1889), daughter of Jewish merchant David Isaacs and Ann (Nancy) West, a former slave. About 1837 he moved with his family to Chillicothe, Ohio, where he became a professional musician, playing the violin and leading a successful dance band. In a 1902 newspaper article, an observer wrote: “Eston Hemings, being a master of the violin, and an accomplished "caller" of dances, always officiated at the "swell" entertainments of Chillicothe; and they were more frequent then than now, I think.”

Eston and Julia Ann Isaacs Hemings had three children: John Wayles Jefferson (1835-1892), Anne Wayles Jefferson (1836-1866), and Beverly Frederick Jefferson (1838-1908). In 1852, the family moved to Madison, Wisconsin, where they changed their surname to Jefferson and became part of the white community. Their eldest son John served as an officer in the United States Army during the American Civil War, leading the Wisconsin 8th Infantry. He was wounded twice in battle, and ultimately promoted to Colonel in 1864. The entire Eston Hemings family is buried in Forest Hill Cemetery, Madison, Wisconsin.

From the memoir of Madison Hemings, 1873:
“She (Sally) gave birth to four others, and Jefferson was the father of all of them. Their names were Beverly, Harriet, Madison (myself), and Eston--three sons and one daughter.”

“We all became free agreeably to the treaty entered into by our parents before we were born. We all married and have raised families.”

From the Scioto Gazette, 1902:
“…on one occasion the writer of this sketch, in company with the late Addison Poarson, Edward Adams, Gen. James Ryan and Seneca W. Ely, while going from Pennsylvania avenue to the White House, came upon the bronze statue of Jefferson, which is located upon the broad walk leading from the avenue to the mansion. "Gentlemen, who in Chillicothe looks most like that statute?" I asked. Instantly came the unanimous answer, "Why, Eston Hemings!" Some time after my return from Washington, happening to have some business with Hemings, I told him of the incident. "Well," answered Hemings quietly, "my mother, whose name I bear, belonged to Mr. Jefferson." and after a slight pause, added, "and she never was married."

On the question of race, Eston Hemings was indisputably "black" while he was a slave at Monticello. Years later, living in Ohio as a free man in 1850, Eston was described by a census taker as "mulatto." A decade later in Wisconsin, a census taker listed Eston and his wife as "white."

Thomas married Julian Ann Isaacs Hemings Jefferson on 14 Jun 1832 in Charlottesville, Independent Cities, Virginia, USA. Julian was born in 1814 in Charlottesville, Independent Cities, Virginia, USA; died on 22 Mar 1889 in Madison, Dane, Wisconsin, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]