Lucy Jefferson Lewis

Born in Tuckahoe (plantation), she was the eighth of Peter Jefferson and Jane Randolph Jefferson's 10 children.{{cite book |last1=Teitloff |first1=Faye Tramble |title=The Images of America: Livingston County |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IX8q3ZI8hw8C&pg=PA55 |year=2009 |publisher=Arcadia Publishing |location=Charleston, South Carolina |isbn= 9780738567020 |pages=55–56 |chapter=North Livingston County }}{{cite web |url=http://www.monticello.org/site/jefferson/jane-randolph-jefferson |title=Jane Randolph Jefferson |date=February 2003 |work=Monticello, Home of Thomas Jefferson |publisher=Thomas Jefferson Foundation, Inc. |location=Charlottesville, Virginia |access-date=November 1, 2010 }} She was nine years younger than her brother Thomas Jefferson.{{efn|Thomas Jefferson had named a daughter, Lucy Elizabeth Jefferson I (1780–1781), after his sisters Lucy and Elizabeth. After she died as an infant, he named his next daughter after Lucy and Elizabeth as well, as was the custom. The second Lucy (1782–1784) died at the age of 2 of whooping cough while her father was serving in Paris in the late 1780s as US Minister to France.{{cite book |last1= Quinn-Musgrove |first1=Sandra L. |last2=Kanter |first2=Sanford |title=America's Royalty: All the Presidents' Children |url=https://archive.org/details/americasroyaltya00quin_0 |url-access= registration |edition=2 |year=1995 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |isbn= 9780313295355 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/americasroyaltya00quin_0/page/21 21]–22 |chapter=Thomas Jefferson's Children }}}} She was born into an elite planter family and would have been educated at home by her mother, together with her sisters. Their father died when they were young.

At age 16, Jefferson married her first cousin, Charles Lilburne Lewis, on September 12, 1769.{{cite book |last1=Sorley |first1=Merrow Egerton |title=Lewis of Warner Hall: The History of a Family |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yeWgvfDpwbwC&pg=PA345 |year=2000 |orig-year=1935 |publisher=Genealogical Publishing Co. |location=Baltimore, Maryland |isbn= 9780806308319 |chapter=Chapter 13: Col Charles Lewis of Buck Island|pages=345, 350 }} He was related to Meriwether Lewis, who would help lead the Lewis and Clark Expedition.{{cite web |url=http://franceshunter.wordpress.com/2009/10/08/murder-and-madness-in-the-lewis-family/ |title=Murder and Madness in the Lewis Family | date=October 8, 2009 |first=Frances |last=Hunter |publisher=WordPress|quote=Jefferson was related to the Lewis family by marriage, and from the time he first heard about Meriwether Lewis' death, he believed that the man had committed suicide as a result of an inherited tendency toward depression and mental disturbance. Subsequent events likely reinforced Jefferson's feelings, for at the time he wrote a sketch of Meriwether, the former president was reeling from the news of a scandalous murder committed by his nephews Lilburne and Isham Lewis.}} The couple eventually had eight children: Randolph, Isham, Jane Jefferson, Lilburne, Mary Randolph, Lucy B., Martha, Ann (Nancy), and Elizabeth .{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ts5km4_uzKcC&pg=PA71 |author=Boynton Merrill Jr.|title=Jefferson's Nephews: A Frontier Tragedy|orig-year=1976|year= 2004|pages=71–72|publisher=U of Nebraska Press |isbn=0803282974}}

Her brother, Thomas Jefferson, did not seem to be close to Lucy after her marriage. He was not close to the men in the Lewis family and disliked Charles Lewis' sister, Elizabeth Henderson.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ts5km4_uzKcC&pg=PA79 |author=Boynton Merrill Jr.|title=Jefferson's Nephews: A Frontier Tragedy|orig-year=1976|year= 2004|pages=71, 79|publisher=U of Nebraska Press |isbn=0803282974}}

Jane and Mary had married before 1806 and established their own households. The remainder of the Lewis family moved to Livingston County, Kentucky, in 1806 or 1808, following their grown sons Randolph and Lilburne and their families. Charles and Lucy Lewis built a plantation called "Rocky Hill" near the present-day town of Smithland. Lucy's older brother Thomas Jefferson took an interest in the education of her sons, and encouraged them in their studies.

Lucy Jefferson Lewis died in 1810. She was buried on the grounds of the Rocky Hill plantation, but the gravesite has been lost. The estate is now in ruins.{{Cite web |url=http://livingstoncountyky.org/history.php |title=Livingston County, Kentucky Government - History |website=livingstoncountyky.org |access-date=2020-01-17}}

In 1812, the year after Lucy and her son Randolph died, the brothers Lilburne and Isham Lewis murdered a slave named George. The men tried to hide the youth's remains, but his skull was revealed by the collapse of a chimney during the second New Madrid earthquake. The brothers were arrested but received bail.[https://books.google.com/books?id=v-bfoPtOnW4C&pg=PA31&lpg=PA25 Stewart, David, and Knox, Ray, The Earthquake America Forgot], Marble Hill, Missouri: Gutenberg-Richter Publications, 1995, pp. 25–31 Before the trial, Lilburne urged Isham to join him in a suicide pact, but died almost by accident while preparing, and Isham did not go through with it. Held as an accessory in his brother's suicide while it was investigated, Isham escaped from jail and disappeared. The murder of the slave and suicide by Lilburne brought the entire family into disrepute.

• In Livingston County, a monument honoring Lucy Jefferson Lewis was erected by the Daughters of the American Revolution at the intersection of U.S. Route 60 and Kentucky Route 137.
• A few miles south of the monument, a bridge named in her honor, the Lucy Jefferson Lewis Memorial Bridge, spans the Cumberland River on U.S. Route 60 at Smithland.
• An obelisk in her memory was placed in the Rocky Hill Cemetery by the local chapter of the DAR, which was named for her.

• Ancestry of Thomas Jefferson (also Lucy's ancestors)

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Category:1752 births

Category:1810 deaths

Category:American people of English descent

Category:American people of Welsh descent

Category:Jefferson family

Category:Randolph family (Virginia)

Category:People from Albemarle County, Virginia

Category:People from Livingston County, Kentucky