Monticello Association - The Monticello Graveyard

The Monticello Graveyard

Jefferson left a sketch and specific instructions for the size and material of the monument he wished to be erected over his grave, and the inscription he would prefer. "Could the dead," Jefferson had written on the back of a partially mutilated envelope, "feel any interest in monuments or remembrances of them," he would prefer "on the grave a plain die or cube three feet without any mouldings, surmounted by an obelisk of six feet height, each a single stone: on the faces of the obelisk the following inscription and not a word more –

Here was buried Thomas Jefferson Author of the Declaration of American Independence of the statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom and Father of the University of Virginia

On the Die

Born April 2, 1743 O.S. Died July 4, 1826

By these as testimonials I had lived and desire most to be remembered."

The "O.S." refers to the Old Style or Julian calendar in-use when he was born. (His birthday under the New Style or Gregorian calendar is April 13). Jefferson further directed that these memorials be made from "the coarse stone of which my columns are made, that no one might be tempted hereafter to destroy it for the value of the materials." The obelisk was fabricated by John M. Perry and James Dinsmore, who had earlier helped Jefferson as carpenters and builders of Monticello, and placed over his grave with a white marble slab around the base.

While the three achievements listed by Mr. Jefferson for his tombstone were certainly major accomplishments, he omitted many others.

The Monticello Association, mindful of the historic importance of the Monticello Graveyard, in 1956 erected a bronze plaque near the graves of Mr. Jefferson and Dabney Carr to inform visitors about the origins and care of the Graveyard. The inscription bears these words:

"This Graveyard had its beginning in an agreement between two young men, Thomas Jefferson and Dabney Carr, who were schoolmates and friends. They agreed that they would be buried under a great oak which stood here. Carr, who married Jefferson's sister, died in 1773. His was the first grave on this site, which Jefferson laid out as a family burying ground. Jefferson was buried here in 1826. The present monument is not the original, designed by Jefferson, but a larger one erected by the United States in 1883. Its base covers the graves of Jefferson, his wife, his two daughters, and Governor Thomas Mann Randolph, his son in-law."

The Graveyard is owned by the Jefferson descendants of the Monticello Association, who limit burial in the cemetery to lineal descendants of Thomas Jefferson.

In 1993 The Monticello Association erected another bronze plaque next to the one that was erected in 1956, showing the location of 19 graves in the front portion of the graveyard. Descendants and their families continue to be buried in the back portion of the graveyard.