Elk Hill Property Sketch

Thomas Jefferson drew this sketch of his Elk Hill plantation sometime around 1790 when he was starting the process of selling the property. He mapped the main house’s location across the James River from Elk Island and adjacent to Byrd Creek, including a dotted line showing the “public road from Richmond.” He clarified on the sketch that the map was “drawn from memory” and represented a “General idea” of the property. His then deceased wife, Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson, had lived at Elk Hill with her first husband, Bathurst Skelton, from 1766 to Skelton’s death in 1768. Martha Jefferson visited Elk Hill frequently while her husband’s planned manor house, Monticello, was under construction. Jefferson purchased Elk Hill in 1774 following the death of his father-in-law, John Wayles.