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Jefferson's deathbed promise to Patty
Patty's illness
Patty had been worn out by childbirth and fallen sick with tuberculosis. Jefferson, in the middle of the war of independence and meant to be organizing Virginia's defenses, dropped his duties and went back to Monticello. For months he nursed her, and so did Betty Hemings, the mother of Patty's half sister Sally.
The promise
As her end drew near, Patty told him she could not die happy if she thought her children would ever have a stepmother brought in over them. Jefferson gave his solemn word that he would not remarry. Among the witnesses gathered around her bed were Betty Hemings and her daughter Sally, then nine years old.
Patty died the same day, and Jefferson was left prostrated by grief. He kept the oath for the rest of his life.
How many of Patty's children survived?
Martha Jefferson bore six children, and only two daughters lived to adulthood. Martha, known as Patsy, married Thomas Mann Randolph and lived to 1836. Maria, known as Polly, married John Wayles Eppes and died in 1804 at age 25 after the birth of her second child. Jefferson outlived all but Martha.
What pulled Jefferson out of mourning?
After Patty's death Jefferson shut himself in his room for weeks. His daughter Martha later recalled that he rode on horseback for hours each day through the mountains around Monticello. In November 1782 Congress appointed him to join the peace negotiations in Europe, though a preliminary peace made the trip unnecessary. He went to Paris in 1784 as a commissioner to negotiate trade treaties and then succeeded Benjamin Franklin as minister to France.