For our third First Lady, we will be talking about Martha Jefferson Randolph, who filled the role of First Lady, not for her husband, but for her Father. Over the years, there have been instances where the President has been a bachelor, or has been a widower, or who has had a wife unable to fulfill her duties as First Lady, and he has asked a female relative to fill the role. Martha is the first of these First Ladies.
Martha Jefferson was born on September 27, 1772 and was the eldest child of Thomas Jefferson and Martha Wayles. Following the death of her Mother when she was only 10 years old, Martha (known as Patsy as a child) would become increasingly close to her Father. From the age of 12 - 17, she and her younger sister Polly lived in Paris with their father while he served as a U.S. Minister to France. While in Paris, Patsy grew tall and slim with red hair and freckles, closely resembling her father. She emerged as a cultivated young lady, well educated and experienced in the arts. She was also an accomplished dancer, harpsichord player and horsewoman. Patsy would return to the United States in 1790, and would marry her third cousin, Thomas Mann Randolph. After her marriage, Patsy would move to her husbands Virginia Plantation, Edgehill, which was near Monticello. Although Patsy and Thomas would have 11 children, theirs was not a happy marriage, and they would be estranged for many years. Throughout her life Patsy remained devoted to her father.
By the time Jefferson was elected President, he had been a widower for 19 years. Since he had no living wife, the responsibilities of entertaining fell to him. Whenever he hosted a dinner with women, he would invite Dolly Madison, the wife of his highest ranking cabinet member, to be his escort. However, he would rely on Patsy to perform the duties of First Lady, or First Daughter, when she was available. While assisting her Father in his role as President, Patsy also managed her own household at Edgehill plantation and Monticello, while also raising and educating her 11 children.
Patsy's husband, like her father, was a politician, serving variously as a Virginia congressman and governor. And while Thomas would lived in the White House with his father in law during his term as U.S. Congressman, Martha and her children spent most of their time at Monticello. However, one of Martha's children was born in the White House in 1806, during a visit to her father. This makes her 8th child, James Madison Randolph the first child to be born in the White House.
Despite the physical distance between them, and that she bore four of her twelve children during his Presidency, Patsy became her father's comfort and close advisor, perhaps the single most important personal factor that stabilized him during his Presidency. When Thomas Jefferson died in 1826, he said shortly before his death, that the "last pang of life was parting with her" and described Patsy as a "cherished companion of his youth and the nurse of his old age." Their bond was a strong one.
However, the rocky state of her marriage quickly fell apart after her fathers death, and Patsy fled Monticello with two of her children to escape the violent abuse of her alcoholic husband. Patsy initially lived in Boston with her daughter Ellen and her husband, but would eventually return to Virginia to care for her husband in his last days, despite their estrangement. Thomas died in 1828. the death of her husband did not make life easy for Patsy. In 1834, she was forced to sell Monticello, including the enslaved people who lived there, due to increasing debt left by to her by her father. She would live with her children for the rest of her life. Patsy died on October 10, 1836 at the age of 64. She is buried next to her parents at Monticello.
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