Presidential Biographies | Jefferson Administrations - Early Life

Early Life

Thomas Jefferson was born into a well-established family in Goochland (now Albemarle) County, Virginia. Jefferson's father, Peter Jefferson (1708–57), was a self-educated man who became a planter, surveyor, justice of the peace, and eventually a legislator in the Virginia House of Burgesses, the legislative body of Virginia's colonial government under Great Britain. Jefferson's mother, Jane Randolph (1720–76), was the daughter of a wealthy and socially prominent Virginia family that owned slaves and plantations. Thomas Jefferson was born on April 13, 1743. He was the third of ten children.

Jefferson's father instilled in his son a spirit of discipline and hard work. He taught him to read, write, and keep accounts, as well as to ride, shoot, and hunt. When his father died in 1757, 14-year-old Jefferson assumed the responsibility of being the oldest male in a home with six girls and two boys. He was a tall,...