Hello, friends. Welcome. We've been talking about America's First Ladies and the people

and events that define their times. Today we're going to learn just a little about the women

who were an indispensable part of Thomas Jefferson's life, his political career, and eventually his presidency.

I'm Sharon McMahon, and here's where it gets interesting.

The first part of today's story may feel eerily familiar if you've already listened to my episode on Martha Washington.

Because not so surprisingly, the lives and customs of young women from wealthy families in

colonial America didn't differ all that much from each other, nor did their names.

Just to make sure things stay extra super confusing for another couple of podcast

episodes. Because Thomas Jefferson's wife was also named Martha. In 1720, Martha Wales Skelton

was 22 years old. Though no portraits of her were painted during her lifetime,

she was said by acquaintances to be a natural beauty with large hazel eyes, a slender build,

and rich aubbered hair. She was a widow. Four years earlier at age 18, she had married another man, another man who was a young and promising lawyer, but he died after an accident when he was only 24.

Martha was a mother. At the time of her husband's death, Martha had given birth to a son who she named John. But sadly,

the boy died a few years after his father around the age of three. She was also a very wealthy

woman. Martha was born into wealth. She was born at The Forest, which was a large plantation

near Williamsburg, Virginia in 1748.

Her parents were John Wales and his first of three wives, also named, you guessed it, Martha,

although she wasn't called Patsy.

Patsy's mother was from an extremely prominent family in Virginia at the time.

But she died when Martha was only three weeks old.

Martha's father, John, remarried two more times, though.

And in the end, he outlived all of his wives and eventually took on a mistress, an enslaved woman in the

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