Mary Jefferson Eppes | |
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| Born | Mary Jefferson August 1, 1778 Monticello, Virginia, U.S. |
| Died | April 17, 1804 (aged 25) Monticello, Virginia, U.S. |
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Mary Jefferson Eppes (August 1, 1778 – April 17, 1804), known asPolly in childhood andMaria as an adult, was the younger ofThomas Jefferson's two daughters with his wife who survived beyond the age of 3. She married a first cousin,John Wayles Eppes, and had three children with him. Only their sonFrancis W. Eppes survived childhood. Maria died months after childbirth.
Mary "Polly" Jefferson was born toThomas Jefferson andMartha Jefferson (née Wayles) in 1778.[1][a] She was their fourth child, but only one of two children who made it to adulthood.[1][2] Their first child,Martha "Patsy" Jefferson, was born in 1772. By the time that Polly was born, Jane (1774–1775) and a son who lived for only a few weeks in 1777 were both dead.[3]
Her father was elected thegovernor of Virginia on June 1, 1779, and the family first moved toWilliamsburg. The government relocated toRichmond in 1780 and the family moved there.[4] British troops advanced to Richmond in May 1781 and, due to advance warning, the Jeffersons escaped to their country home,Poplar Forest.[4] During this time, Martha and Thomas's fifth child, Lucy Elizabeth (1780–1781) had died. Then, the second Lucy Elizabeth was born on May 8, 1782.[5] Martha had not seemed to recover during the four months following Lucy's birth and died on September 6, 1782.[2] Polly was four years old.[1][2] Thomas was bereft in grief. The monument that he had created for her contained the words "Torn from him by death / September 6th, 1782: / This monument of his love is inscribed."[2]
The Jefferson daughters stayed atEppington with their aunt and uncle, Elizabeth Wayles Eppes and Francis Wayles Eppes, who was her mother's cousin.[1][6]Between December 1782 and May 1784, Patsy and Thomas were in Philadelphia. Patsy boarded with a family and received an education while her father worked in Philadelphia and awaited Congressional orders to go to France.[4]
Polly and Lucy Elizabeth remained in Virginia with the Eppes family members as Patsy and her father lived in Philadelphia and then sailed for Paris on the shipCeres on July 5, 1784, accompanied byJames Hemings.[5][4] Elizabeth Epps provided Polly's early education, including reading, writing, dancing, and sewing. In the summer of 1786, Frances Eppes recommended that Jefferson provide her with a tutor to advance her education to include music, mathematics, English and French. The Eppes had six children.[7] Lucy Elizabeth died ofwhooping cough on October 13, 1784[5] and Jefferson arranged for Polly to leave the Eppes household and join him in France.[1][b]
In the care ofSally Hemings, at age nine Polly sailed to Europe to join her father and older sister Patsy in Paris. They first landed in England, whereAbigail Adams, wife of the U.S. MinisterJohn Adams, looked after the girls before they joined her father in Paris: Abigail developed a deep and lasting affection for Polly.[9] Jefferson received a letter from Adams that said that Polly was "the favorite of every creature in the House."[1] In France, Polly attended thePentemont Abbey convent school with her older sisterPatsy.[10] Polly, who had a love of reading, was sufficiently schooled that she did well at the elite school. She spoke French "easily enough" according to her father and in addition to her French studies, she also learned Spanish, drawing, and how to play the harpsichord.[11] Polly and Patsy became ill withtyphus and were at their father's house from the winter of 1788 until the spring of 1789.[4] After Patsy expressed a desire toconvert toCatholicism and said she was considering religious orders, Jefferson quickly withdrew her and her younger sister Polly from the school.[12] TheFrench Revolution broke out during their last few months in Paris.[4]
Accompanied by their slaves Sally Hemings and her older brotherJames, who had served Jefferson as chef in Paris, the family returned to Virginia in 1789. At that time, Polly adopted the pronunciation and name "Maria" (with a long "i" in the Virginia fashion), which she used the rest of her life.[1] After living for a time in the temporary national capital ofPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania, while Jefferson was Secretary of State, the family returned to Monticello. Maria spent most of the rest of her short life in Virginia. She inherited her mother's beauty, which was frequently complimented, to her chagrin. She preferred to be known for her character or mind.
The youngest Daughter is a lovely Girl about 11 years of age. The perfect pattern of good temper, an engaging smile ever animates her Countenance, and the chearful attention which she pays to the judicious instructions and advice of her worthy Father, the Pertinent queries which she puts to him, and the evident improvement she makes in her knowledge of Foreign Languages, History and Geography, afford a pleasing Presage that when her faculties attain their maturity, she will be the delight of her Friends, and a distinguish’d ornament to her sex.
In the fall of 1792, her father enrolled her in Valeria Fullerton's school in Philadelphia, where she made good friends and was able to visit her father on Sundays. He lived near the school in Philadelphia at that time.[14] She boarded there until September 1793, and may have been removed due to ayellow fever epidemic[15] in Philadelphia that ultimately killed 5,000 people.[16]
Maria, as she was now called, married her childhood friend and cousinJohn Wayles Eppes, the son of Francis and Elizabeth Epps, on October 13, 1797, atMonticello. The couple lived at his plantation, Mont Blanco, on theJames River inChesterfield and often visited his family's plantation, Eppington.[1][6]
After several miscarriages,[17] Maria and John had three children:[18]
Maria traveled with her sister to Washington from November 1802 to January 1803 where her sister served as their father's hostess and informalFirst Lady.[19][4] Maria had poor health as her mother did.[1] She never recovered physically from her thirdchildbirth, and subsequently died on April 17, 1804[1] atMonticello, where she is buried.[20]
My aunt, Mrs. Eppes, was singularly beautiful. She was high-principled, just, and generous. Her temper, naturally mild, became, I think, saddened by ill-health in the latter part of her life. In that respect she differed from my mother, whose disposition seemed to have the sunshine of heaven in it. ... [My mother] was intellectually somewhat superior to her sister, who was sensible of the difference, though she was of too noble a nature for her feelings ever to assume an ignoble character. There was between the sisters the strongest and warmest attachment, the most perfect confidence and affection.
— Ellen Wayles Randolph Coolidge to Henry S. Randall, January 15, 1856[1]
Her death promptedAbigail Adams to send written condolences to President Jefferson; it was the first break in a long silence between the two families following the acrimoniouspresidential campaign of 1800. Abigail wrote movingly of the immediate affection she had felt for Maria when meeting her in London as a girl, an affection which had never altered.[21]
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