Tuckahoe Plantation

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Tuckahoe Plantation is located just outside of Richmond in the Goochland County. The land was originally patented by William Randolph in 1695, and undoubtedly named for Tuckahoe Creek which formed part of its boundaries. The creek itself was probably named for the "tuckahoe", a common marsh plant (arrow arum). [1]

Tuckahoe Plantation House

Tuckahoe was inherited by Thomas Randolph in 1712, and passed to his son, William, sometime before 1730. At Williams death in 1745 the property was inherited by his only son, William Mann Randolph. William Mann was a minor at the time of his inheritance.

"Whereas I have appointed by my will that my dear only son Thomas Mann Randolph should have a private education given him in my house at Tuckahoe, my will is that my dear and loving friend Mr. Peter Jefferson do move down with his family to my Tuckahoe house and remain there till my son comes of age with whom my dear son and his sisters shall live."

Location of Tuckahoe and Shadwell Plantations

Jefferson's middle class family had come to Virginia from Wales before the sailing of the Mayflower. The family attracted little attention until about 1738 when Peter began to assemble considerable property in the foothills of the Blue Ridge. He married Jane Randolph in 1739. The couple established their home at "Shadwell Plantation", named after Shadwell parish in London, where his wife was born.

The Jefferson's home was located just east of Charlottesville, on modern US 250. At the time the main route through the area was called Three Notch'd Road, an important roadway connecting the plantations of the Tidewater with the then developing settlments in the valley of Virginia. Not entirely coincidentally, Three Notch'd Road originates near Tuckahoe plantation. As a result of William Randolph's bequest, Peter Jefferson moved from Shadwell to Tuckahoe, along with his own family. That family included the two-year old Thomas Jefferson, future president of the United States, who would live here for the next seven years.

Footnotes

1. ↑ Tuckahoe, the plant , as described by Captain John Smith, was a major root vegetable for the Native Americans, and probably abounded in the shallow marshes surrounding Tuckahoe Creek.

Notes

From: Thomas Jefferson Encylopedia

1. First cousin of Jane Randolph Jefferson and fast friend of Peter Jefferson, the widowed and ailing William Randolph had, in late 1745, turned fretful thoughts to the impending orphanhood of his three small children...[made out his will, requesting that his friend and relation, Peter Jefferson, move from Shadwell to Tuckahoe to raise his children]...In honoring the substance if not the extent of this exceptional request, Peter Jefferson kept his family at Tuckahoe in Goochland County from 1746 until 1751.... Tuckahoe then vanishes from most chronicles of Jefferson's complex and illustrious life story. Jefferson himself seemed to will such a narrative course when he wrote acidly of the Randolph family's impulse to trace their pedigree far back into England and Scotland "to which let everyone ascribe the faith and merit he chooses."... The Algonquian Indian name "Tuckahoe" dates from the seventeenth-century patents for the land, which refer to a "Tuckahoe Creek" as one of its boundaries. The tract's shoreline on the James River was one of the most valuable assets. William Randolph, an English immigrant who resided several miles down-river at Turkey Island, probably had the tract roughly cleared and cultivated as one of his outlying quarter plantations. It did not become a "home plantation" or Randolph family "seat" until after 1711, when William Randolph died, leaving each of his seven sons a substantial plantation and a workforce of slaves represented in his will by the phrase "with all appurtenances therunto belonging." To Thomas Randolph, the second son, William Randolph left the 3256-acre Tuckahoe tract.

2. From: United States Department of the Interior, 1896

Thomas Jefferson was born in 1713 His parental ancestor had come to Virginia from Wales before the sailing of the Mayflower The family of the middle class 1 attracted no attention till the advent of Peter tho lather of Thomas who in 1738 became a considerable landholder on the western border land of the colony and married one of the Randolphs. It has been remarked by a recent biographer of Jefferson that neither Washington, Jefferson, nor Madison, until they became distinguished would have been entitled to take rank in tho exclusive coterie of tho old Virginia families. But evidently Madam Peter was disposed to push her own social claims for all they were worth. Born in the Shadwell Parish of London in the somewhat equivocal language of her great son "her family traced their pedigree far back in England aud Scotland to which let everyone ascribe the faith and merit he chooses". His father's plantation was out on the western border land of the seacoast and James River country that called itself Virginia at that day with headquarters at Williamsburg...

3. From: National Park Service

Tuckahoe, situated along the James River, was the boyhood home of Thomas Jefferson for 7 years and the place where he obtained his elementary education. The mansion, outbuildings, and surrounding gardens and lands constitute an outstanding example of a southern colonial plantation.

The land on which Tuckahoe stands was patented in 1695 by William Randolph. His son Thomas inherited the plantation and built the north wing of the mansion about 1712. Sometime between 1730 and 1745, William Randolph II enlarged the residence to its present proportions. When Randolph died in 1745, Peter Jefferson moved his family, including 2-year-old Thomas, from Shadwell to Tuckahoe to fulfill a promise Peter had made to Randolph, his wife's cousin, to act as guardian of his son, Thomas Mann Randolph. In 1752 the Jeffersons returned to Shadwell.

4. From: Virginia Edu

By deed dated May 18, 1736 William Randolph Jun. Esq. of the County of Goochland conveyed to Peter Jefferson, Gen’t. of the County of Goochland, in consideration of “Henry Weatherborne’s biggest bowl of Arrack punch to him delivered,” one certain tract or parcel of land containing two hundred acres, situate, lying and being on the north side of the North Anna in the parrish of St. James in the County of Goochland aforesaid and is bounded as followeth, to-wit: Beginning at a corner black oak on the north side of the hive, thence north 23 degrees west 102 poles; thence north 64 degrees west 116 poles on the said line to a double hickory on the River shore the Sandy falls; thence down the river according to its meanders 332 pols to the beginning, and contains by estimation 200 acres be the same more or less. Together with all houses, orchards, gardens, fences, woods, ways, waters, water courses and all other appurtenances to the same belonging or in any wise appertaining and all the state, right, title use, property, interests, claim and demand whatsoever, of the said William Randolph.

This deed provides: That William Randolph, his heirs, shall and will at any time within the space of 7 years next after the date of the these presents at the reasonable request of the cost and charges in the law of said Peter Jefferson, his heirs and assigns, make, do and execute all such further and other deeds of conveyance necessary in the law for the better and more perfect assuring of the above granted land and premises in appurtenances.

Properly Executed, Acknowledged, Ceritified and Recorded May 18, 1736 in [?], p. 222 of the Clerk’s Office of Goochland County.

Abstracts of Title to Shadwell Properties, 1735-1945, Accession #5087, University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.