Thomas Jefferson's Landholdings as of 1774

                                                     

       

These are Thomas Jefferson's landholdings as of 1774:

Fredericksville Parish:
Shadwell- 400 acres, inherited from Peter Jefferson, father
Lego- 819 and 1/4 acres, purchased in 1774
Pantops- inherited from Peter Jefferson
Limestone Tract- 4 acres, purchased in 1771
Pouncey's- 400 acres, inherited from Peter Jefferson

Saint Anne's Parish:
Monticello, 1,000 acres, inherited from Peter Jefferson
Tufton, 150 acres, inherited from Peter Jefferson
Portobello, 150 acres, inherited from Peter Jefferson

Bedford County:
Judith's Creek, 2,042 acres, inherited from John Wayles, father-in-law
Poplar Forest, 5,619 acres, inherited from John Wayles

Amherst County:
Part of Judith's Creek- 280 acres, inherited from John Wayles

Cumberland County:
Willis Creek- 1,076 acres, inherited from John Wayles

Goochland County:
Elk Hill- 307 acres, purchased in 1774
Elk Island- 333 acres, to which Martha Jefferson had dower rights from her late husband,
                   Bathurst Skelton

Rockbridge County:
Natural Bridge- 157 acres, patented on July 5, 1774

Henrico County:
Four lots in town of Beverley, inherited from Peter Jefferson

City of Richmond:
Part of a lot, purchased in 1774

After 1774: Thomas Jefferson would continue to acquire acreage in Albemarle County.  In 1777, he purchased acreage surrounding the Pantops farm to total 819 and 1/2 acres, as well as purchase a 483 acre neighboring mountain tract that rises 400 feet above Monticello, known as Montalto.

Thomas Jefferson's landholdings in Albemarle County, alone, eventually totaled some 5,000 acres. To manage this vast estate, Jefferson divided the land into separate farms.  The area surrounding his Monticello home constituted what he called the home farm, or Monticello Mountain.  Outlying lands were divided into manageable parcels known as quarter farms and were run by resident overseers. Thomas Jefferson's quarter farms were Tufton, which was adjacent to Monticello, and Shadwell and Lego farms, both north of the Rivanna.  Jefferson sought to further organize his farms by dividing them into agricultural fields of forty acres each.

After Thomas Jefferson's death in 1826, his daughter and heir, Martha Jefferson Randolph, was compelled to sell Monticello and much of its slaves to pay her father's debts.  The Dispersal Sale, held in January 1827, scattered his possessions among members of his family, as well as numerous buyers, chiefly from Albemarle and neighboring counties.  Since the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation took title to Monticello in 1923, it has acquired a large amount of his possessions. 

Currently, the landholdings of Thomas Jefferson now include approximately 2,500 of Jefferson's original 5,000 acres, of which more than 1,400 are held under protective easements, thanks to the Thomas Jefferson Foundation.
                                                          Monticello Plantation Model
                                                               www.monticello.org
                                                             

 

This 9½-foot by 5½-foot bronze relief model of the 5,000-acre Monticello plantation offers visitors a totally new and comprehensive view of Jefferson's landholdings.

The model is sculpted on the scale of 1 inch to 200 feet, so the Monticello house, including its terrace wings, measures less than two inches across. But this scale provides a bird's-eye perspective on not only the extent of Jefferson's property (the Monticello mountaintop and four "quarter" farms) but also of the area's complex topography; the agricultural, ornamental, and natural landscapes; the rivers and streams; the structures and roadways that existed in Jefferson's time; and the spatial organization of the plantation.

The Monticello Plantation Model incorporates information from a wide range of sources, including Jefferson's own surveys, 19th-century drawings, early 20th-century aerial photographs, and recent research by Monticello archaeologists. The model's representation of the topography is based on a digital contour map made with photogrammetric techniques accurate enough to render contours at two-foot intervals. 

The model, located on east end of the Visitor Center Courtyard, is surrounded by an informational reader rail. 

Jayne Cox: When I volunteered at the Visitor Center at Monticello, the aerial view model in the courtyard was my favorite site. There I would explain how young Thomas Jefferson would ride his horse along the tobacco fields at Shadwell, cross the Rivanna at the ford, then hike up his favorite "little mountain" with school buddy, Dabney Carr. There they would study, speak of politics, their future and shared dreams under their favorite oak tree, now the resting place of Dabney Carr. 

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