Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Thomas Jefferson

JEFFERSON, (1743-1826), the third president of the United States, and the most conspicuous apostle of Democracy in America, was born April 2, 1743, at Shadwell, Albemarle county, in the State of Virginia, a region of which his father Peter Jefferson, an obscure and unlettered planter, was the third or fourth settler.

At the early age of five years Thomas was sent to an English school, and from that time until he finished his studies at William and Mary's College in 1762 appears to have enjoyed superior educational advantages, and to have turned them all to good account. He carried with him from college, at nineteen, a tolerably thorough reading knowledge of the Latin, Greek, and French languages, to which he added a familiarity with the higher mathematics and natural sciences only possessed at his age by men who have, as he had, a rare natural faculty for the prosecution of those studies. Soon after leaving college he entered the law office of Mr George Wythe, then at the head of the Virginia bar, and withal, Jefferson being judge, &ldquo;the best Latin and Greek scholar in the State.&rdquo; In Mr Wythe he found a &ldquo;faithful and beloved mentor in youth and most affectionate friend through life.&rdquo; In 1767, after five years close application to the study of his profession, he was admitted to the bar. The death of his father in 1757 left Thomas, who was the eldest son, heir to the estate on which he was born, and which yielded him an income of about £400 a year, a sum in those days sufficient to gratify all his tastes, and to give him, as he matured, the position of an independent country gentleman. At the time of his admission to the bar he is described by his contemporaries as 6 feet 2 inches in height, slim, erect as an arrow, with angular features, a very ruddy complexion, an extremely delicate skin, full deep-set hazel eyes, and sandy hair, an expert musician (the violin being his favourite instrument), a good dancer, a dashing rider, and a proficient in all manly exercises. He was, and continued through life, frank, earnest, cordial, and sympathetic in his manner, full of confidence in men, and sanguine in his views of life.

( J. BI. )