JEFFERSON came honestly by his red hair, his tenacity of purpose, which in lesser men is sometimes called stubbornness, and his love of controversy. His father, Peter Jefferson, was a Welshman, whose family is said to have come to the colonies at an early date from the foot of Snowden, the highest mountain in Great Britain. He knew nothing of them, although he sometimes boasted that the first of the name in Virginia was a member of the Assembly of 1619, the first legislative body that ever convened on the western continent; but he was never able to prove relationship. His mother was of a good Scotch family of wealth and influence. Her name was Jane, and her father was Isham Randolph, one of the richest tobacco lords in Virginia. Peter Jefferson was a surveyor, like Washington, and both attained social position through marriage. Thomas Jefferson used to sneer at the long pedigree of his mother's family and to boast that his father came from the soil, but, nevertheless, in 1771 he wrote to Thomas Adams, his agent in London, " to search the herald's office for the arms of my family. I have what I am told are the family arms, but

on what authority I know not. It is possible there may be none. If so, I would, with your assistance become a purchaser, having Sterne's word for it that a coat of arms may be purchased as cheap as any other coat."

The result of that inquiry is not alluded to in his writings or records, but appears frequently at Monticello, even upon the fence that encloses his tomb. According to Colonel B. Lewis Blackford, of Washington, an authority on Virginian heraldry, the Jefferson coat-of-arms is a shield, bearing upon the "chief" or upper third three leopards' faces in silver upon a ground of red, or gu," as the heralds write it. The lower part of the shield is blue fretted with gold. This combination is unusual and appears in only one other heraldic achievement, that of the Earl of Spencer. The crest is the head of a talbot, or mastiff, "erased" or broken off roughly, leaving the base with an uneven line. The head is "eared" and "langed gu," which in heraldry means that the ears, mouth, and tongue are red.

The motto is " Ab eo Libertas a quo Spiritus." Jefferson used an engraved seal in his private correspondence which bore a monogram of the initials of his name, "T. J.," surrounded by the motto in English, "Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God."

Since his death President Jefferson's descendants have traced the family line with great satisfaction. The first Jefferson mentioned in the histories of Virginia bore the name of John, and is said to have been one of a commission of three sent over from England to look into the affairs of the colony. He arrived in 1619 in the ship Bonahora. He was made a burgess the same year. In 1626 he secured a patent for two hundred and

fifty acres of land at Archer's Hope, and was in Farolay's Council at Jamestown, representing Flower de Hundred. His son, Thomas Jefferson, of Henrico, married Mary Branch, and died in 1697. Their son, Captain Thomas Jefferson, of Osborne, Henrico County (born 1679, died 1715), married Mary Field in 1698. Their son, Peter Jefferson, was the father of Thomas Jefferson, of Monticello.

The following memoranda were written by Thomas Jefferson in a Prayer-Book that belonged to Peter Jefferson:

"Births, marriages and deaths of Peter and Jane Jefferson and their children :

"Births and deaths of John and Martha Wayles, father and mother of Martha Jefferson wife of Thomas Jefferson. "Martha Eppes, born Apr. 10th, 1712, at Bermuda Hundred; intermarried Oct. 28th, 1742 with Lewellyn Epes-He died Sept. 11th, 1743.

"John Wayles, born at Lancaster, England, Jan. 31st, 1715-intermarried with Martha Eppes, May 3rd, 1746Died May 28th, 1773.

"Their daughter Martha Wayles, born Oct. 31st, 1748— The mother died Nov. 5th, 1748.

"Martha Wayles married Bathurst Skelton, Nov. 20th, 1766, he died Sept. 30th, 1768. Their child, John Skelton, born 1767, Nov. 7th, died June 10th, 1771. Thomas Jefferson and Martha Wayles intermarried Jan. 1st, 1772."