Martha Wayles Skelton

Notes:

MARTHA WAYLES SKELTON JEFFERSON
First husband:
18 years old, to Bathurst Skelton (June 1744 - 30 September 1768) planter, on 20, November 1766 likely at "The Forest" plantation; they lived at his Charles City County plantation for one year and ten months, the endurance of their marriage as Bathurst died in 1768.
Born:
1748, October 19
"The Forest" plantation, Charles City County, Virginia
Father:
John Wayles, barrister and landowner, born 31 January, 1715 in Lancaster, England; died 23 May, 1773 in Charles City County, Virginia
Mother:
Martha Eppes Wayles, born 10 April, 1712 in Bermuda Hundred, Chesterfield County, Virginia; married John Wayles on 3 May, 1746; died 5 November, 1748
When Martha Eppes married John Wayles, she brought with her, as part of her dowry, an African slave woman and the woman's half-black, half-white daughter. The woman, enslaved in Africa, sailed to Virginia on a slave ship commanded by an English sea captain with the last name Hemings. Captain Hemings impregnated the slave who gave birth to a daughter she named Betty. The slave and her daughter were sold to Francis and Frances Eppes, and they gave the young enslaved "Betty Hemings" to their daughter Martha Eppes family. When Captain Hemings learned that the newly married Wayles had inherited his concubine and their daughter Betty, he offered to buy the pair. Wayles refused to sell them. He would eventually have six children by her.
Martha Wayles Jefferson never knew her mother Martha Eppes Wayles since she had died two weeks and three days after giving birth to her.
After the death of his first wife, Martha Eppes (the mother of Mrs. Jefferson), John Wayles married two more times; he married secondly to Mary Cocke by whom he had one [name unknown] daughter who died young; John Wayles married a third time, on 3, January 1760 to Elizabeth Lomax, with whom he had three daughters. After the death of Elizabeth Lomax (28 May 1763), Wayles took the half-black half-white slave Betty Hemings as his concubine and had six children by her. Betty Hemings was mentioned in the will of John Wayles, thus providing evidence that she really was his mistress and not merely his slave. The first husband of Elizabeth Lomax was Reuben Skelton - he was the brother of Martha Jefferson's first husband, Bathurst Skelton; thus Martha Wayles Skelton's brother-in-law was her stepmother's first husband:

http://www.firstladies.org/biographies/firstladies.aspx?biography=3

Martha married POTUS* Thomas Jefferson. Thomas (son of Peter Jefferson and Jane Randolph) was born on 02 Apr 1743 in Shadwell Estate Goochland, Virginia; died on 04 Jul 1826 in Monticello, Albermarle, Virginia. [Group Sheet]

1. Martha Jefferson was born in c 1772 in Virginia.

John married Martha Eppes. Martha was born on 10 Apr 1712 in Bermuda Hundred, Chresterfield Co., Virginia; died on 5 Nov 1748 in Prob. Charles City Co., Virginia. [Group Sheet]