Sarah Hemings

1773 - 1835  (62 years)    Has 3 ancestors and more than 100 descendants in this family tree.

• Name	Sarah Hemings
  Birth	1773	Shadwell, Virginia, USA
  Gender	Female
  Death	1835	Charlottesville, Virginia, USA
  Siblings	5 Siblings
  1. Robert Hemings,   b. 1762, Albermarle County, Virginia, USA d. 1819  (Age 57 years)   2. James Hemings,   b. 1765, Albermarle County, Virginia, USA d. 1801, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA  (Age 36 years)   3. Thenia Hemings,   b. 1767, Albermarle County, Virginia, USA d. Yes, date unknown + 4. Critta Hemings,   b. 1769, Albermarle County, Virginia, USA d. 1827  (Age 58 years)   5. Peter Hemings,   b. 1770, Albermarle County, Virginia, USA d. Yes, date unknown + 6. Sarah Hemings,   b. 1773, Shadwell, Virginia, USA d. 1835, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA  (Age 62 years) ▻ 3rd President Thomas Jefferson,  m. Apr 1789
  Person ID	I188506	Geneagraphie
  Last Modified	4 Feb 2002

  
  

  Father	John Wayles,   b. 1715, Conjurer's Neck, Henrico Co., Virginia, USA d. 23 May 1773, The Forest, Charles City Co., Virginia, USA (Age 58 years)
  Mother	Elizabeth "Betty" Hemings,   b. 1735, Bermuda Hundred, Virginia, USA d. 22 Aug 1807, Monticello, Albemarle Co, Virginia, USA (Age 72 years)
  Family ID	F76521	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Children	+ 1. Thomas Corbin Woodson, Sr.,   b. 1790   d. 1879, Jackson County, Ohio, USA (Age 89 years)
  Family ID	F145695	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	4 Feb 2002

  
  

  Family 2	3rd President Thomas Jefferson,   b. 13 Apr 1743, Shadwell, Albemarle Co., Virginia, USA d. 4 Jul 1826, Monticello, Albemarle Co, Virginia, USA (Age 83 years)
  Marriage	Apr 1789	Paris, Île-de-France, France
  http://www.ishipress.com/slaves.htm
  Children	1. Harriet Jefferson,   b. 5 Oct 1795   d. Dec 1797 (Age 2 years) + 2. William Beverly Hemings,   b. 1 Apr 1798, Monticello, Albemarle Co, Virginia, USA d. Aft 1822 (Age 24 years)   3. Thenia Jefferson Hemings,   b. Nov 1799   d. 1802 (Age 2 years) + 4. Harriet Hemings, II,   b. May 1801, Monticello, Albemarle Co, Virginia, USA d. 1876 (Age 74 years) + 5. James Madison Hemings,   b. 19 Jan 1805, Monticello, Albemarle Co, Virginia, USA d. 1878 (Age 72 years) + 6. Thomas Eston Hemings,   b. 21 May 1808, Monticello, Albemarle Co, Virginia, USA d. 3 Jan 1856, Madison, Wisconsin, USA (Age 47 years)
  Family ID	F76522	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	14 Dec 2001

  
  

• Event Map	Click to hide
  		Marriage - Apr 1789 - Paris, Île-de-France, France Death - 1835 - Charlottesville, Virginia, USA  = Link to Google Earth
  Pin Legend	: Address       : Location       : City/Town       : County/Shire       : State/Province       : Country       : Not Set

  
  

• Photos

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• Notes

  http://www.monticello.org/plantation/Sally_Hemings.html http://www.monticello.org/plantation/hemings-jefferson_contro.html Sally was a slave at Monticello; she lived in Paris with Jefferson and two of his daughters from 1787 to 1789; and she had at least six children. Sally Hemings' duties included being a nursemaid-companion to Thomas Jefferson's daughter Maria (c. 1784-1787), lady's maid to daughters Martha and Maria (1787-1797), and chambermaid and seamstress (1790s-1827). *************************** She became Thomas Jefferson's property as part of his inheritance from the Wayles estate in 1774 and came with her mother to Monticello by 1776. As a child she was probably a "nurse" to Jefferson's daughter Mary (slave girls from the age of six or eight were childminders and assistants to head nurses on southern plantations.) Sally Hemings and Mary Jefferson were living at Eppington -- residence of Mary's aunt and uncle -- in 1787, when Jefferson's long-expressed desire to have his daughter join him in France was carried out. Fourteen-year-old Sally and eight-year-old Mary crossed the Atlantic Ocean to London that summer. They were received by John and Abigail Adams, who wrote that Sally "seems fond of the child and appears good naturd."[1] Jefferson's French butler, Adrien Petit, escorted the two girls from London to Paris. It is not known whether Sally Hemings lived at Jefferson's residence, the Hotel de Langeac, or at the Abbaye de Panthemont, where Martha (Patsy) and Mary (Maria) Jefferson were boarding students. Jefferson, who had expressly asked that someone who had had smallpox or been inoculated against it accompany his daughter to France, soon had Sally inoculated by the famous Dr. Robert Sutton. While in Paris, she undoubtedly received training -- especially in needlework and the care of clothing -- to suit her for her position as lady's maid to Jefferson's daughters. She was occasionally paid a monthly wage of twelve livres (the equivalent of two dollars). Sally Hemings was certainly acting as Martha Jefferson's attendant in the spring of 1789, when Patsy began to "go out" in French society (increased expenditures for clothing for both Patsy and Sally reflect this). When booking accommodations on the Clermont for the return to America, Jefferson asked that Sally's berth be "convenient to that of my daughters."[2] After the family's return to Virginia in 1789, Sally Hemings seems to have remained at Monticello, where she performed the duties of a household servant and lady's maid (Jefferson still referred to her as "Maria's maid" in 1799)[3]. Sally's son Madison recalled that one of her duties was "to take care of [Jefferson's] chamber and wardrobe, look after us children, and do light work such as sewing, &c."[4] There are only two known descriptions of Sally Hemings. The slave Isaac Jefferson remembered that she was "mighty near white. . . very handsome, long straight hair down her back." Jefferson biographer Henry S. Randall recalled Jefferson's grandson Thomas Jefferson Randolph describing her as "light colored and decidedly good looking."[5] Sally may have lived in the stone workmen's house (now called the "Weaver's Cottage") from 1790 to 1792, when she -- like her sister Critta -- might have removed to one of the new 12'x14' log cabins farther down Mulberry Row. After the completion of the south depencies, she apparently lived in one of the "servant's rooms" under the south terrace (Thomas J. Randolph pointed it out to Randall many years later).[6] Sally Hemings was never officially freed by Thomas Jefferson. It seems most likely that Jefferson's daughter Martha Randolph gave Sally "her time," a form of unofficial freedom that would enable her to remain in Virginia (the laws at that time required freed slaves to leave the state within a year). Madison Hemings reported that his mother lived in Charlottesville with him and his brother Eston until her death in 1835.[7] According to Jefferson's records, Sally Hemings had four surviving children. Beverly (b. 1798), a carpenter and fiddler, was allowed to leave the plantation in late 1821 or early 1822 and, according to his brother, passed into white society in Washington, D.C. Harriet (b. 1801), a spinner in Jefferson's textile shop, also left Monticello in 1821 or 1822, probably with her brother, and passed for white. Madison Hemings (1805-1878), a carpenter and joiner, was given his freedom in Jefferson's will; he resettled in southern Ohio in 1836, where he worked at his trade and had a farm. Eston Hemings (1808-c1853), also a carpenter, moved to Chillicothe, Ohio, in the 1830s; there he was a well-known professional musician before moving about 1852 to Wisconsin, changing his name and his racial identity. Both Madison and Eston Hemings made known their belief that they were sons of Thomas Jefferson.[8] The descendants of Thomas C. Woodson (1790-1879) carry the strong family tradition that he was the firstborn child of Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson. Woodson, who does not appear in Jefferson's records, left Greenbrier County, Virginia, for southern Ohio in the early 1820s. He was a successful farmer in Jackson Country. Slave owned by Pres. Thomas Jefferson One of the most intriguing rumors concerning presidential affairs is also one of the oldest: Thomas Jefferson reportedly fathered children by his slave, Sally Hemings. Until now, the rumors were completely unsubstantiated. The rumors were first published in 1802. Jefferson was a widower, and Hemings was the illicit daughter of a female slave and Jefferson's own father-in-law. From the publishing of the first rumors in 1802 until his death in 1826, Thomas Jefferson never once admitted or denied the rumors. He simply refused to talk about the subject. Of course, his silence only fueled the rumors. In the 196 years since the rumor was first published, no firm evidence was ever found. In 1998, thanks to modern technology, biologists can now show a high probability that the relationship did exist and that Jefferson indeed was the father of some of Hemings’ children. A report appearing in the current issue of the journal "Nature" says that retired University of Virginia pathologist Dr. Eugene Foster has proven that Jefferson was the likely biological father of Eston Hemings. Dr. Foster and a team of molecular geneticists in Europe compared Y-chromosomal DNA haplotypes from male-line descendants of Field Jefferson, a paternal uncle of Thomas Jefferson, with those of male-line descendants of Thomas Woodson, Sally Hemings' putative first son, and of Eston Hemings Jefferson, her last son. The results fail to support the belief that Thomas Jefferson was Thomas Woodson's father, but do provide strong evidence that Jefferson was the biological father of Eston Hemings Jefferson. Quoting from the article: In 1802, President Thomas Jefferson was accused of having fathered a child, Tom, by Sally Hemings. Tom was said to have been born in 1790, soon after Jefferson and Sally Hemings returned from France where he had been minister. Present-day members of the African-American Woodson family believe that Thomas Jefferson was the father of Thomas Woodson, whose name comes from his later owner. No known documents support this view. Sally Hemings had at least four more children. Her last son, Eston (born in 1808), is said to have borne a striking resemblance to Thomas Jefferson, and entered white society in Madison, Wisconsin, as Eston Hemings Jefferson. Although Eston's descendants believe that Thomas Jefferson was Eston's father, most Jefferson scholars give more credence to the oral tradition of the descendants of Martha Jefferson Randolph, the president's daughter. They believe that Sally Hemings' later children, including Eston, were fathered by either Samuel or Peter Carr, sons of Jefferson's sister, which would explain their resemblance to the president. Because most of the Y chromosome is passed unchanged from father to son, apart from occasional mutations, DNA analysis of the Y chromosome can reveal whether or not individuals are likely to be male-line relatives. We therefore analyzed DNA from the Y chromosomes of: five male-line descendants of two sons of the president's paternal uncle, Field Jefferson; five male-line descendants of two sons of Thomas Woodson; one male-line descendant of Eston Hemings Jefferson; and three male-line descendants of three sons of John Carr, grandfather of Samuel and Peter Carr (Fig. 1a). No Y-chromosome data were available from male-line descendants of President Thomas Jefferson because he had no surviving sons. To read the full article, go to http://toc.edoc.com/ and follow the menus for "Jefferson's genes" Other links http://www.monticello.org/Matters/people/hemings_resource.html http://www.woodson.org/history.asp http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/4906574009/slavesofthomasje http://barnesandnoble.bfast.com/booklink/click?sourceid=657224&ISBN=4906574009 http://www.people.virginia.edu/~rjh9u/jeffhemm.html http://www.labnet.or.jp/~kiseido/jefferson/slave.htm