day be known, and have engagedmy family not to communicate it." (ME 10:416) This has been the uniform answer toevery application of the kind. On the paternal side, Mr. Jefferson could number no titles to high or ancient lineage. His ancestors, however, were of solid respectability and among the firstsettlers of Virginia. They emigrated to this country from Wales, and from near the mountain of Snowden. His grandfather was the first of whom we have any particularinformation. He had three sons: Thomas, who died young; Field, who resided on the waters of the Roanoke and left numerous descendants; and Peter, the father of thesubject of these memoirs, who settled in Albermarle county, on the lands called Shadwell. He was the third or fourth settler in that region of the country. They wereall gentlemen of property and influence in the colony.But the chief glory of Mr. Jefferson's genealogy was the sturdy contempt of hereditary honors and distinctions with which the whole race was imbued. It was a strong genealogical feature, pervading all the branches of the primitive stock and forming a remarkable head and concentration in the individual who was destined to confer immortality upon the name. With him, indeed, if there was any one sentiment whichpredominated in early life and which lost none of its rightful ascendancy through along career of enlightened and philanthropic effort, it was that of the natural equality of all men in their rights and wants, and of the nothingness of those pretensions which"are gained without merit and forfeited without crime." The boldness with which, onhis first entrance into manhood, he attacked and overthrew the deep rooted institutionsof Primogeniture and Entails forms a striking commentary upon this attribute of his character.An anecdote is related by Mr. Madison, which is no less apposite and striking. During the infant stages of our separate sovereignty, the slowness with which the wheels o...
