Jefferson, Thomas, 1743-1826
Thomas Jefferson was born on April 13, 1743 at the Shadwell Plantation in Virginia Colony to Peter Jefferson and Jane Randolph. His father died when he was fourteen and he inherited his half of the estate, 5,000 acres to include Montecello, when he turned 21. He went to college at William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. He entered into law and politics in 1767 and was in the Virginia House of Burgesses from 1769 to 1775 and was a Virginia Delegate to the Second Continental Congress. He married his third cousin, Martha Wayles Skelton and they had six children, of which only two daughters, Martha and Mary, lived to adulthood. Jefferson was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, Secretary of State from 1790 to 1793 under President George Washington, Vice-President to John Adams, and the Third President of the United States. Thomas Jefferson died on July 4, 1826, 50 years to the day of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.