The Monticello Association is a non-profit organization founded in 1913 to care for, preserve, and continue the use of the family graveyard at Monticello, the primary plantation of Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States. The organization's members are lineal descendants of Thomas Jefferson and his wife Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson. The site is located just outside Charlottesville, Virginia. Thomas Jefferson was the designer, builder, owner, and, with his family, a first resident of Monticello.
Purposes On Monday, April 14, 1913 (the first business day after Thomas Jefferson's birthday), a group of 13 descendants of Thomas Jefferson met in Charlottesville, Virginia, for the first meeting of the Monticello Graveyard Association. Officers were elected, and a constitution and bylaws were adopted.The Annual Report of The Monticello Association 1913. At the Annual Meeting in 1919 the membership voted to drop the word "Graveyard" from the title of The Monticello Association.The Annual Report of The Monticello Association 1919, at 4.
While there have been some changes in the Monticello Association since its founding, the scope and purposes of the Monticello Association have remained the same, as stated in Article II of its Constitution. Somewhat abbreviated, they are: (i) to preserve and care for the graves and grounds of the Monticello graveyard, (ii) to protect and perpetuate the reputation and fame of Thomas Jefferson, and (iii) to encourage association and friendship among Mr. Jefferson's descendants. Additional purposes of The Monticello Association include: (i) to defend the property rights of the lineal descendants of Col. T. J. Randolph as owners of the original Monticello graveyard, and (ii) to affirm the rights of the descendants of Thomas Jefferson to burial in the addition to the Monticello graveyard as provided in the covenant under which this property was deeded.
In his will, Jefferson conveyed the graveyard to Thomas Mann Randolph, Jr., his daughter Martha's husband, and then in trust to Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson. He named his eldest grandson, Thomas Jefferson Randolph, as his executor. The original section of the graveyard was given to T. J. Randolph's descendants under a restrictive covenant deed and will, and a subsequent section given to all of the lineal descendants of Thomas Jefferson under a restrictive covenant deed.
Thus from its inception, the Monticello graveyard has been available to all lineal descendants of Thomas Jefferson's white children and has been managed and cared for by The Monticello Association as a single unit. Burials in the Monticello graveyard continue to this day.
Membership
According to the membership information on the association's website, "Membership in the Association is limited to direct, lineal descendants of Thomas Jefferson, through his daughters, Martha and Maria."
There are two categories of membership:
1. Regular membership is open to any lineal descendant of Mr. Jefferson upon receipt of a completed application and annual dues. Dues are $40 per year. Adults aged 18–25 are eligible for reduced dues of $25. There are no dues for children under age 18. Life membership (regular) is available for the lump sum of $500.
2. Associate membership is offered to adopted and stepchildren, and to spouses of regular members if such persons show interest in the association by attendance at meetings, by correspondence with the Secretary, or by monetary contributions. No dues are assessed.
The Monticello Graveyard Jefferson left a sketch and specific instructions for the size and material of the monument he wished to be erected over his grave, and the inscription he would prefer. "Could the dead," Jefferson had written on the back of a partially mutilated envelope, "feel any interest in monuments or remembrances of them," he would prefer "on the grave a plain die or cube three feet without any mouldings, surmounted by an obelisk of six feet height, each a single stone: on the faces of the obelisk the following inscription and not a word more –
Here was buried Thomas Jefferson Author of the Declaration of American Independence of the statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom and Father of the University of Virginia
On the Die Born April 2, 1743, O.S. Died July 4, 1826
By these as testimonials I had lived and desire most to be remembered."
The "O.S." refers to the Old Style or Julian calendar in-use when he was born. (His birthday under the New Style or Gregorian calendar is April 13). Jefferson further directed that these memorials be made from "the coarse stone of which my columns [at Monticello] are made, that no one might be tempted hereafter to destroy it for the value of the materials." The obelisk was fabricated by John M. Perry and James Dinsmore, who had earlier helped Jefferson as carpenters and builders of Monticello, and placed over his grave with a white marble slab around the base.
While the three achievements listed by Mr. Jefferson for his tombstone were certainly major accomplishments, he omitted many others.
The Monticello Association, mindful of the historic importance of the Monticello Graveyard, in 1956 erected a bronze plaque near the graves of Mr. Jefferson and Dabney Carr to inform visitors about the origins and care of the Graveyard.The Annual Report of The Monticello Association 1956, at 10. The inscription bears these words:
This Graveyard had its beginning in an agreement between two young men, Thomas Jefferson and Dabney Carr, who were schoolmates and friends. They agreed that they would be buried under a great oak which stood here. Carr, who married Jefferson's sister, died in 1773. His was the first grave on this site, which Jefferson laid out as a family burying ground. Jefferson was buried here in 1826. The present monument is not the original, designed by Jefferson, but a larger one erected by the United States in 1883. Its base covers the graves of Jefferson, his wife, his two daughters, and Governor Thomas Mann Randolph, his son in-law.
The Graveyard is owned by the Jefferson descendants of the Monticello Association, who limit burial in the cemetery to lineal descendants of Thomas Jefferson.
In 1993 The Monticello Association erected another bronze plaque next to the one that was erected in 1956, showing the location of 19 graves in the front portion of the graveyard. Descendants and their families continue to be buried in the back portion of the graveyard.The Annual Report of The Monticello Association 1993, at 27. Burial is restricted to the descendants of Jefferson's two white daughters (see "Controversy" section below).The Graveyard Today
Annual meetings The pattern for the annual meeting weekend of The Monticello Association has changed little over the lifetime of The Monticello Association, but the date has had to be changed from time to time to avoid conflict with other functions in Charlottesville, primarily at the University of Virginia. During the past few years the annual meeting has occurred on the second Sunday in June.
On Saturday afternoon, after public visiting hours, The Monticello Association holds a private reception and open house at Monticello. Guided tours of the House and grounds are provided by the staff of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation. This practice began in 1970.The Annual Report of The Monticello Association 1970, at 5. On Saturday evening the family has a social occasion, which began shortly after World War II. In recent years this activity has become more organized, and the family recently has been gathering at Michie Tavern, an historic and famous tavern of the 1700s located on Monticello mountain, just below Monticello.The Annual Report of The Monticello Association 1986, at 5. The tavern staff provides guided tours of the museum, which contains an extensive collection of pre-revolutionary furniture and artifacts. A buffet supper is also served featuring typical dishes of the colonial era, with period music provided by a strolling minstrel. These social occasions provide opportunities for members of the family from all over the country to get together on an informal basis. From these gatherings have grown close friendships between distant cousins who otherwise would not know one another.
On Sunday the family first gathers at the Monticello Graveyard. The affair is a modest ceremony, with remarks by the President, the reading of prayers, and the announcement of those who have died during the past year. The young children present also are invited to place flowers on Mr. Jefferson's grave. Following the ceremony at the Monticello Graveyard, the members of the family repair to a suitable place in Charlottesville, Virginia for a luncheon and business meeting. From 1925 to 1950, the luncheon was held at Monticello in Jefferson's own dining room with many members seated around Jefferson's own dining table.The Annual Report of The Monticello Association 1950, at 3. By 1950, The Monticello Association had outgrown the dining room, and from 1950 to 1982, the family was served a buffet luncheon at the Keswick Hunt Club.The Annual Report of The Monticello Association 1982, at 6. For several years thereafter lunch was served in the Dome Room of the Rotunda at the University of Virginia until the family outgrew that space.The Annual Report of The Monticello Association 1988, at 6. In recent years the luncheon and business meeting have been held at Alumni Hall at the University of Virginia, at the Visitor Center at Monticello, or some other suitable place in Charlottesville.
The business sessions which follow the luncheon are generally brief, but not always pro forma. From time to time actions recommended by the executive committee or a committee chairman provoke sharp debate. Indeed, it is not unknown for recommended action to be modified, or even abandoned, if it is clear that there is considerable opposition. On the whole, however, considering the diversity of age, geography, personality, and philosophy represented in the family, the prevalence of good humor and search for consensus generally mark the business sessions.
Jefferson–Hemings controversy
The association has traditionally been composed of European-American descendants of Thomas Jefferson and his wife Martha Wayles Skelton. He was long rumored to have had a liaison with his slave Sally Hemings, beginning years after his wife died, and six children with her. In 1998 a Y-DNA study showed that a descendant of Eston Hemings Jefferson, the youngest son of Hemings, had Y-DNA that matched that of the Jefferson male line. The same study showed there was no match between the Hemings descendant and the Carrs, named by Jefferson descendants as the fathers of Hemings' children. The study team noted that the body of historical evidence made it most likely that Thomas Jefferson was the father of Eston and all of Hemings' children. Together with existing historical evidence, the DNA study convinced former skeptics and Jefferson biographers, such as Joseph Ellis and Andrew Burstein, that the president had a long relationship with Hemings and likely fathered all her children. Quote: Joseph Ellis "...[T]his is really new evidence. And it—prior to this evidence, I think it was a very difficult case to know and circumstantial on both sides, and, in part, because I got it wrong, I think I want to step forward and say this new evidence constitutes, well, evidence beyond any reasonable doubt that Jefferson had a longstanding sexual relationship with Sally Hemings."Richard Shenkman, "The Unknown Jefferson: An Interview with Andrew Burstein", History News Network, July 25, 2005, accessed March 14, 2011. The Carr nephews, identified by Jefferson's grandchildren as the father(s), were shown to have no genetic connection to the Hemings descendant.