34. Saving Monticello
While in France to study naval tactics in the 1830s, Uriah Levy arranged a meeting with the Revolutionary War hero, the Marquis Lafayette. The aging marquis asked Levy about Thomas Jefferson’s daughter, Martha Randolph, and of Jefferson’s plantation estate, Monticello. Levy did not know, but promised to find out as soon as he returned home.
Back in America, Levy discovered that Monticello had been sold after Jefferson’s death in 1826 to satisfy his debts. The plantation had been poorly maintained in Jefferson’s later years, as his deep indebtedness prevented him from making necessary repairs. A visitor in 1824 described the mansion as “old and going to decay“, and its gardens and lawns as “slovenly“. Monticello was further neglected by its purchaser, a man named James Turner Barclay. In 1834, Levy struck a deal to take the run down estate and 218 surrounding acres off Barclay’s hands, for $2700.