I, Thomas Jefferson, of Monticello, in Albemarle, make and
add the following codicil to my will, controlling the same so far as its provisions
go:
I recommend to my daughter Martha Randolph, the maintenance
and care of my well beloved sister Anne Scott, and trust confidently that from
affection to her, as well as for my sake, she will never let her want a
comfort. I have made no specific provision for the comfortable maintenance of
my son-in-law Thomas M. Randolph, because of the difficulty and uncertainty of
devising terms which shall vest any beneficial interest in him, which the law
will not transfer to the benefit of his creditors, to the destitution of my
daughter and her family, and disablement of her to supply him: whereas,
property placed under the exclusive control of my daughter and her independent
will, as if she were a feme sole, considering the relation in which she stands
both to him and his children, will be a certain resource against want for all.
I give to my friend James Madison, of Montpellier, my gold-mounted
walking staff of animal horn, as a token of the cordial and affectionate
friendship which for nearly now an half century, has united us in the same
principles and pursuits of what we have deemed for the greatest good of our
country.
I give to the University of Virginia my library, except such
particular books only, and of the same edition, as it may already possess, when
this legacy shall take effect: the rest of my said library, remaining after
those given to the University shall have been taken out, I give to my two
grandsons-in-law Nicholas P. Trist and Joseph Coolidge. To my grandson Thomas
Jefferson Randolph, I give my silver watch in preference of the golden one,
because of its superior excellence. My papers of business going of course to
him, as my executor, all others of a literary or other character I give to him
as of his own property.
I give a gold watch to each of my grandchildren, who shall
not have already received one from me, to be purchased and delivered by my
executors to my grandsons, at the age of twenty-one, and granddaughters at that
of sixteen.
I give to my good, affectionate, and faithful servant Burwell,
his freedom, and the sum of three hundred dollars, to buy necessaries to
commence his trade of glazier, or to use otherwise, as he pleases.
I give also to my good servants John Hemings and Joe Fosset,
their freedom at the end of one year after my death; and to each of them
respectively, all the tools of their respective shops or callings; and it is my
will that a comfortable log-house be built for each of the three servants so
emancipated, on some part of my lands convenient to them with respect to the
residence of their wives, and to Charlottesville and the University, where they
will be mostly employed, and reasonably convenient also to the interests of the
proprietor of the lands, of which houses I give the use of one, with a
curtilage of an acre to each, during his life or personal occupation thereof.
I give also to John Hemings the service of his two
apprentices Madison and Eston Hemings, until their respective ages of
twenty-one years, at which period respectively, I give them their freedom; and
I humbly and earnestly request of the legislature of Virginia a confirmation of
the bequest of freedom to these servants, with permission to remain in this
State, where their families and connections are, as an additional instance of
the favor, of which I have received so many other manifestations in the course
of my life, and for which I now give them my last, solemn, and dutiful thanks.
In testimony that this is a codicil to my will of
yesterday's date, and that it is to modify so far the provisions of that will,
I have written it all with my own hand in two pages, to each of which I
subscribe my name, this seventeenth day of March, one thousand eight hundred
and twenty-six.
SOURCE: Paul Leicester Ford, Editor, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: 1816-1826, p. 394-6
