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Archibald Thweatt (1876-1956), husband of Fannie LaRue Moore, has multiple connections to Thomas Jefferson via his great great uncle Archibald Thweatt (1769-1844). (See graphic below) The video on the Family Tree page demonstrates those connections while also illustrating how the interactive family tree can be used for this purpose.
Letter from Archibald Thweatt to Thomas Jefferson dated December 26, 1821
Letter from Archibald Thweatt to Thomas Jefferson dated December 26, 1821
This correspondence is a letter from Archibald Thweatt (1769-1844) to Thomas Jefferson. It is a request that Thomas Jefferson adopt some sort of amendments that were under consideration by the Virginia legislature. Thweatt suggests that with Jefferson's support the matter would easily sail through the legislature.
Eppington
Fitting Sally Hemmings into the picture
Fitting Sally Hemmings into the picture
On January 28, 2018, the New York Times Review of Books carried a review of a new book by Mary Beth Norton with the title Jefferson’s Three Daughters — Two Free, One Enslaved. The following paragraph appears in the book review ...
The lives of four Virginia families — Jeffersons, Randolphs, Eppeses and Hemingses — were intertwined. Sally Hemings, daughter of Jefferson’s father-in-law by his mulatto slave Elizabeth Hemings, arrived in the Jefferson household in Paris in 1787 at the age of 14 assigned to be the child Maria’s companion. Following Hemings’s oral history, Kerrison relates how Sally, knowing she could claim freedom by remaining in France when Jefferson returned home in 1789, negotiated a promise of eventual freedom for herself and all her children, who were by parentage seven-eighths white — a promise kept in part by Martha Randolph after her father’s death in 1826. Jefferson listed Beverley, the oldest boy, born 1798, and his younger sister, Harriet, as “run” in 1822, but other sources reveal that he quietly facilitated their departure.
-- NY Times, Jan. 28, 2018
The Eppes family referenced in the above paragraph is the family of Lucy Eppes who married Archibald Thweatt. Lucy's brother John married Maria Jefferson. Sally Hemmings, the African-American daughter of Thomas Jefferson, is identified in the paragraph above as Maria's childhood companion in Paris in 1787 when Maria and Sally Hemmings were children. Martha (also mentioned in the paragraph above) is the older Jefferson daughter and the sister of Maria and half-sister of Sally.
As indicated in the above mentioned book review, the consensus now is that Sally Hemings is the daughter of John Wayles and his slave Elizabeth "Betty" Hemings. Since Martha Jefferson, wife of Thomas Jefferson, is also the daughter of John Wayles via his first marriage to Martha Eppes, this would mean that Martha Jefferson and Sally Hemings are half-sisters. And in addition both are half sisters to Elizabeth Wayles since she is also daughter of John Wayles via his marriage to Tabitha Cocke.
Summary:
Summary:
Martha Jefferson, Sally Hemings, and Elizabeth Wayles are all half-sisters.
Archibald Thweatt's mother-in-law, Elizabeth Wayles, was half-sister to both Martha Jefferson and Sally Hemings and brother-in-law to Thomas Jefferson.
Eppington - Home of Archibald Thweat and Lucy Eppes
Eppington - Home of Archibald Thweat and Lucy Eppes
Description from Wikipedia
Eppington is a historic plantation house located near Winterpock, Chesterfield County, Virginia. It was built about 1768, and consists of a three-bay, 2 1/2-story, central block with hipped roof, dormers, modillion cornice, and flanking one-story wings in the Georgian style. It has a later two-story rear ell. It features two tall exterior end chimneys which rise from the roof of the wings. Its builder, Francis Eppes, was brother-in-law and first cousin of Martha Jefferson (1748–1782), the wife of Thomas Jefferson. After her death, Eppes and his wife raised Jefferson's two daughters, while their father was Minister to France. Charles Eppes sent samples of American trees, including Bald Cypress, Eastern Red Cedar, Southern Magnolia and Wax-myrtle as well as hams from Monticello to Thomas Jefferson in France at Thomas Jefferson's request. Daughters of the Eppes studied natural and agricultural sciences, noting what times of year crops came in as well as when Eastern whip-poor-wills arrived and started singing. One of the daughters, Lucy Elizabeth, died in 1784 and was buried at Eppington. Mary (Polly) Jefferson (1778–1804), married in 1797 her cousin, John Wayles Eppes (1772–1823) and spent much of her time at Eppington.
In 1790, Charles Eppes had 124 slaves and 2 white overseers living on Eppington. The yard near the house was a service yard, an area for the house slaves to do work such as smoking country ham, milking cows, churning butter and drawing water from a well. A fence line appears to have kept the field slaves separate from house slaves. The service yard was hidden from visitors with tended gardens, orchards and lawns. The value of the slave's labor added greatly to the wealth of the plantation until the American Civil War. As early as 1806, a school building was on the property. Later, by the mid-eighteen hundreds, the building was converted into a kitchen to replace a previous building that had been the kitchen.
Archibald Thweatt acquired Eppington over several purchases starting on December 1812. Epps Falls, at Eppington, were deemed dangerous for passing boats by the Virginia General Assembly. The General Assembly, in 1819, gave Archibald Thweatt, owner of Eppington, compensation from any damages but allowed the Upper Appomattox Canal company to build a dam and locks around the falls. Archibald Thweatt and his heirs were also given leave to build a grist mill on the dam. Archibald Thweatt raised Merino wool. Also, in 1819, he made a land arrangement which was critical to keep open the right of way road from Richmond to Petersburg.
When the Upper Appomattox Canal Navigation System was complete, neighboring farmers could ship farm produce from the docks at Eppington. There were large loading facilities. When coal was first mined at the Clover Hill Pits, in 1837, it was taken by mule, later by rail, to the docks at Epps Falls. A boat that could carry seven tons of coal, made a four-day round trip to Petersburg for two dollars and thirty eight cents. Rail Service to the docks was discontinued when the Clover Hill Railroad was built to the James River. But it was latter added back when the successor, the Brighthope Railway was expanded in 1881.
From the Findagrave entry on Lucy Eppes ...
From the Findagrave entry on Lucy Eppes ...
Lucy Eppes married Archibald Thweatt December 11, 1802. He was the son of John Thweatt and Edith Parsons. He purchased Eppington on October 10, 1810 after the death of Lucy's mother, Elizabeth.
The cemetery has been recently fenced. In her will written December 30, 1858, Lucy Eppes Thweatt, directs her nephews, Richard N. Thweatt and John Lane, to "perform their promise to me of having the graveyard substantially enclosed." Evidence of a metal fence was discovered when the new fence was put in. It is unknown if this was the fence Richard and John were responsible for.
Book reviewed by NY Times in January 2018
Sally Hemings' grandson Beverley Hemings with 3 of his sons
John Wayles is the father of Sally Hemings and Martha Jefferson and Elizabeth Wayles (mother of Lucy Eppes). So Archibald Thweatt's wife Lucy is niece of both Martha Jefferson and Sally Hemings.
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