Thomas Jefferson was born on April 13, 1743, in Shadwell, Virginia. He was a draftsman of the U.S. Declaration of Independence; the nation's first secretary of state; second vice president; and, he was also the third president who was responsible for the Louisiana Purchase. Jefferson died in bed on July 4, 1826. Thomas Jefferson, author of the American Declaration of Independence and the third U.S. president, was born on April 13, 1743, in Charlottesville, Virginia. Jefferson was born into a wealthy plantation family. His mother, was a member of the proud Randolph clan. His father, Peter Jefferson, was a successful farmer as well as a skilled surveyor and cartographer. The young Jefferson was the third born of ten siblings.
As a boy, Thomas Jefferson's favorite free activities was playing in the woods, practicing the violin and reading. He didn’t begin his formal education at the age of nine, studying Latin and Greek at a local private school. In 1757, at the age of 14, he studied languages as well as literature and mathematics with the Reverend James Maury. In 1760, Jefferson left home to attend the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia's. William and Mary was not at that time a strong academic college Jefferson was dismayed to discover that his classmates playing around rather than studying. Nevertheless, the serious and precocious Jefferson fell in with a circle of older scholars and it was from them that he received his true education. After three years at William and Mary, Jefferson decided to study law, from a distinguished lawyers of the American colonies. Wythe guided Jefferson through a difficult five-year course of study; by the time Jefferson won admission to the Virginia bar in 1767, he was already a well taught lawyer. From 1767-'74, Jefferson practiced law in Virginia with great success. During these years, he also met and fell in love with Martha Wayles Skelton one of the wealthiest women in Virginia. The