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Martha "Patsy" Randolph (née Jefferson; September 27, 1772 – October 10, 1836) was the eldest daughter of Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, and his wife, Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson. She was born at Monticello, near Charlottesville, Virginia. Randolph's mother died when she was nearly 10 years old, when only two out of her five siblings were alive. Her father saw that she had a good education. She spoke four languages and was greatly influenced by the education she received in a Paris convent school with daughters of the French elite. By 1804, she was the lone surviving child of Martha and Thomas Jefferson, the only one of the couple's children to survive past the age of 25. Martha Jefferson married Thomas Mann Randolph Jr., who was a politician at the federal and state levels and was elected as governor of Virginia (1819–1822), which made her the first lady of Virginia. They had twelve children together. Randolph oversaw the operation of Varina and Edge Hill with her husband, and Monticello with her father. She was in regular correspondence with her father when they were not together. She provided emotional stability for Jefferson, which helped him weather his tumultuous political career. Besides overseeing Monticello, she lived with Jefferson at the White House, serving as an informal First Lady. After the White House, Randolph and her children lived at Monticello and cared for her father. Due to debt, the Randolphs sold Varina and lost Edge Hill plantation to foreclosure in 1825. Randolph inheritied Monticello and Jefferson's debts when her father died in 1826. Many of the enslaved people at Monticello were sold to cover some of the debt. Early life and education Virginia Martha Jefferson was born on September 27, 1772, at Monticello, her father's estate in Virginia (then in British America). Her parents were Thomas Jefferson and Martha Wayles Skelton. During her parents' ten-year marriage, they had six children. Randolph was their first born. She was followed by Jane Randolph (1774–1775); a son who lived for only a few weeks in 1777; Mary "Polly" (1778–1804); Lucy Elizabeth (1780–1781); and another Lucy Elizabeth (1782–1784). Only Randolph and Mary survived more than a few years. As a young child, Randolph saw her mother suffer during difficult pregnancies and both parents mourn the deaths of four infant children. The family lived a genteel lifestyle and Randolph was initially schooled at home. Her studies included dance lessons. When she was seven years of age, her father became the governor of Virginia. He was elected on June 1, 1779, and the family first lived in Williamsburg. They relocated to Richmond when the government moved there in 1780. British troops advanced to Richmond in May 1781 and, due to advance warning, the Jeffersons escaped to their country home, Poplar Forest. Randolph was almost 10 years of age when her mother died on September 6, 1782, four months after the birth of the Jeffersons' last child. Randolph later wrote about this period and her father's grief, stating "in those melancholy rambles I was his constant companion, a solitary witness to many a violent burst of grief." Philadelphia Randolph went to Philadelphia with her father in 1782 and again in the fall of 1783 when he represented Virginia at the Congress of the Confederation. The largest city in America at the time, Philadelphia was the center of American Enlightenment. Randolph's father did not believe in public education for girls, but arranged for his daughter to receive a private education. Between December 1782 and May 1784, she boarded with a family and studied French, dancing, drawing, and music with private tutors, who received prescribed, strict daily schedules and instructions regarding how her education should be conducted from Thomas Jefferson. His intention was to make her an esteemed, well-read lady. He was particularly focused on cleanliness and spelling, both of which were important to create the image of a proper lady with moral behavior and diction. In the meantime, her father worked in Philadelphia and awaited Congressional orders to go to France. Paris Her younger sisters, Mary and Lucy Elizabeth, remained in Virginia with family members as Randolph and her father traveled to Boston with James Hemings. They set sail for Paris on the ship Ceres on July 5, 1784, and arrived in France on August 6, 1784. Randolph lived in Paris from age 12 to 17 while her father served as U.S. Minister to France. In October 1784, her youngest sister, Lucy, died of whooping cough. Jefferson enrolled her at the Pentemont Abbey, an exclusive convent school, after receiving assurances that Protestant students were exempt from religious instruction. At this boarding school Randolph learned arithmetic, geography, world history, and Latin, as well as music and drawing. She was deeply influenced by the four years at the convent school. Her peers were the French elite who provide a model of "female intelligence, capacity, and energy" and experienced the "rich pageantry of Roman Catholic liturgies". It gave her the ability to conduct witty, intelligent conversation and thought about how she would manage the education of her future children. [Martha Jefferson Randolph] was wont to say in after life, that she looked back to her residence in the Convent as to a period of great happiness & great improvement." When she socialized at the Abbey, she learned about women's role in political affairs, the dissension leading to the French Revolution, and palace intrique. Her father had influenced the drafting of the Declaration of the Rights of Man in France. Randolph said of her time in France was "the brightest part of a life much shaded & saddened by care & sorrows." Mary traveled with Sally Hemings to Paris and joined her sister at the convent school in July 1787. Randolph and her sister Mary contracted typhus during the winter of 1788 and lived with their father until they regained their health. They returned to the convent in spring of 1789. After Randolph expressed a desire to convert to Catholicism and said she was considering religious orders, Jefferson quickly withdrew her and her younger sister Polly from the school. Over the course of her studies, Randolph learned to speak four languages. Randolph socialized with "free thinking" European women and accomplished women of the French Enlightenment, like Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire and Germaine de Staël. She also met world leaders while in France. She enjoyed a social life that included balls and concerts during the summer. Wayson says that she was able "to observe firsthand the collective power of French women as they marched to the king's palace at Versailles and forced the royal couple's return to Paris under the escort of the Marquis de Lafayette, a Jefferson family friend." In September 1789, after the beginning of the French Revolution, Thomas Jefferson, his daughters, and James and .... Discover the Heidi Hyland Mann popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Heidi Hyland Mann books.