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I chose this map because it was created by Thomas Jefferson's father Peter Jefferson and it marks in red "Shadwell" the birth place of Thomas Jefferson called "The Punch Bowl Tract" and the Rivanna River where Thomas Jefferson enjoyed fishing with Burwell Colbert.
Benjamin Colvard Jr., of Albemarle County and his family
By Richard A. Colbert Calvert Genealogy Group
(Not for redistribution) Please ask the author for permission to republish- use attribution, and link to original material.
Like his father Benjamin Colvard Sr., Ben junior made a living as a carpenter/cabinet maker. He lived in a town adjacent to the town of Charlottesville next to the carpentry shop he inherited from his father. The carpentry shop was located next to the tavern owned by John Jouett.
John “Jack” Jouett is known as the “Paul Revere of the South” for the night ride he took in 1781 to warn both Thomas Jefferson, then the governor of Virginia, and members of the Virginia legislature who were staying with Jefferson at Monticello, that a cavalry of British soldiers had been sent to capture them. Jefferson and all the members of the Virginia legislature escaped.
Before the British cavalry had been sent to Monticello to arrest Thomas Jefferson and the Virginia legislature, they attacked the Governor’s mansion and took Jefferson’s slave and housekeeper Betty Brown as a prisoner. While a prisoner of the British, Betty Brown gave birth to her son Wormley Hughes at their encampment at Wormley creek.
At the age of 12 or 13, Ben Colvard Jr started working at his father’s carpentry shop and at 16 became the apprentice carpenter- joiner of Joseph Neilson, Thomas Jefferson’s building contractor. That was in 1778.
Thomas Jefferson had hired Neilson to build his new two-story, eight-room house on top of Monticello. This new house was of Italian design and was to replace the one Jefferson and his family currently lived in, a one-room brick building with a fireplace. Jefferson had built it in 1768 when he was a bachelor. Back then it suited his purposes. But now with a wife and growing family, it was woefully inadequate.
[The house Benjamin Colvard Jr helped build was the original family home. Built between 1790 and 1809 the house was partly torn down, expanded and rebuilt to look like the Monticello plantation we see today. Whether or not Benjamin helped in the second construction of Monticello is unknown.]
During the two years Benjamin Jr worked at Monticello (1778-1779), he lived with other carpenters and tradesmen in a stone building on Mulberry Row. While working there he met Betty Brown. She was the daughter of Elizabeth Hemings, the matriarch of the Hemings clan.
[Monticello’s Section Menu: Workshop for joined and turned woodwork ca 1774- ca 1830. “A chimney foundation is all that remains of the joiner’s shop, which Jefferson described as 57 feet by 18 feet, the underpinning and chimney of stone and the walls and roof of wood.” From about 1775, free and enslaved workmen produced some of the finest architectural woodwork in Virginia as well as carriages and furniture in this workshop. “There is nothing superior in the U.S., said Jefferson.]
Among the names of hired “artisans” who worked at Monticello were: Joseph Neilson, joiner, 1775-1779 and Benjamin Colvard, carpenter/joiner, 1778-1779. Among those who were described as “enslaved joiners” John Hemings 1798-1831, Eston Hemings 1822-1827, Madison Hemings 1819-1827.
Betty Brown was born 1759 and was the property of a successful lawyer and slave trader by the name of John Wayles. Wayles lived at his plantation called “The Forest’" which was near the town of Williamsburg. On January 1, 1772 Thomas Jefferson married John Wayles daughter, the widow Martha (Wayles) Skelton and, as a wedding present, John Wayles gave Betty Brown to Jefferson. Her job was to look after Martha and eventually her children. Betty was only 12 years old when she was taken from her mother and siblings.
Betty Brown became the first member of the Hemings family to live at Monticello and, as it turned out, the last member of the Hemings family to leave.
Two years later 1773, John Wayles died and Jefferson not only inherited The Forest and all of Wayles’ slaves, but also all of his debts. To pay off these debts Jefferson sold off The Forest and most, but not all, of the field-hand slaves. He kept members of the Hern family and took them to Monticello.
David Hern was a highly skilled woodworker and for over fifty years worked at Monticello as a carpenter, wagoner, and miller. For at least two years, 1791-1792, and possibly more. David Hern was hired out by Benjamin Colvard Jr., to work at his carpentry shop in Charlottesville. Whether Benjamin Colvard Jr and David Hern built cabinets for Jefferson’s Monticello plantation at this time is unknown. [Those Who Labor for My Happiness: Slavery at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello,” by Lucia Stanton p 135.]
Jefferson also kept Elizabeth Hemings and all of her descendants at the behest of his wife. Besides being the father of Jefferson’s wife, John Wayles was also the father of six of Elizabeth Hemings children: Robert, James, Thenia, Critta, Peter and Sally Hemings. They were Martha (Wayles) Jefferson’s half-siblings.
During the time Benjamin Colvard Jr worked at Monticello between 1778 and 1779 a romance blossomed between him and Betty Brown. And between the years 1783 and 1800 they had six children: Burwell Colbert, Brown Colbert, Melinda Colbert, Robert Colbert, Edwin Colbert and Mary Colbert. It is believed they may have had another son while Benjamin Jr., was still living at Monticello. Betty Brown had a son named Billy (William) who died in 1778. At the time of his death Billy was only a few months old.
Burwell Colbert, the oldest living son of Ben Colvard Jr and Betty Brown was born December 24, 1783. At the age of ten Burwell was given his first pair of shoes (as was the custom for all slaves to obtain shoes at age ten at Monticello), and at eleven he worked at Jefferson’s nail factory. He was thirteen when Jefferson became vice-president, and seventeen when Jefferson became president. During that time Burwell also worked in the main house and performed duties as a body servant and served food to Jefferson’s guests at dinner time. Records show that the average number of people who ate at Monticello at dinner time was between fifteen and twenty every day.
In his spare time, Burwell learned to paint and became a glazier (cut glass and set it in windows).
Burwell’s sister Melinda, married John Freeman, Jefferson’s butler at the White House in Washington DC. After John and Melinda (Colbert) Freeman gained their freedom, they spent the rest of their lives in Washington DC and fought for the freedom of all slaves.
His brothers Robert and Edwin were sold by Jefferson. Later both Robert and Edwin ran away from their new masters and were never caught.
Burwell’s brother Brown obtained his freedom and that of his wife and children and moved to Liberia along with their sister Mary in 1832. Mary, Brown and his wife and all their children (except for their son Burwell) died in Liberia of malaria within a year of their arrival.
At the age of seventeen Burwell became Thomas Jefferson’s butler, valet, and personal servant at Monticello. After President Thomas Jefferson left the White House in 1809, Burwell was his constant companion and was standing next to Jefferson when he died July 4, 1826. In his last will and testament Thomas Jefferson gave Burwell his freedom, 300 in cash, a log cabin on an acre of land, and a job at the University of Virginia. During his lifetime, the only slaves Thomas Jefferson ever freed were either Hemings or Colbert’s.
Burwell Colbert was married twice. His first wife was his half 1st cousin Critta Hemings born 1783 died 1819 the daughter of Elizabeth Hemings’ daughter Nancy Hemings born 1761 died after 1827.
Burwell and Critta had four known daughters: Susan Colbert, Emily Colbert, Martha Anne Colbert, and Thenia Colbert. Critta died in 1819 while Burwell was with Thomas Jefferson at his Bedford county plantation called “ Poplar Forest”.
While at Poplar Forest, Burwell became violently ill and almost died. According to Jefferson’s granddaughter Ellen Randolph Coolidge, “I never saw anybody more uneasy than Grandpapa, and his constant anxiety by convincing me still more of his extraordinary value of Burwell, increased my own fears and feelings to a degree that surprised even me.” While Burwell was sick, Jefferson insisted only he and Burwell’s cousin John Hemings were to watch over him. They stayed with him night and day and gave him warm baths and “by the temporary relief it procured, enabled Burwell to stand against the violence.”
It was only after Burwell recovered from his sickness that he learned that his wife Critta was dead and that Jefferson’s granddaughters were plotting to take his daughters away from him. In a letter written by Ellen Randolph Coolidge (daughter of Thomas Mann Randolph Jr and Martha “Patsy” Wayles Jefferson) she wrote that Burwell was “overwhelmed with grief” when he learned of his wife’s death. However, in letters that Ellen wrote to her sisters she went on to say:
“I have been recollecting that some time ago, when I was lamenting very seriously that I had not secured on of her [Critta’s] elder children Mama promised I should have any one of them not disposed of. Susan and Emily I believe Cornelia and yourself had taken at the time, I think I pitched on little Martha as subject to no prior claims. I hope with all my heart that is the case, for I am more than ever anxious to have it in my power to befriend, and educate as well as I can, one of these children, and if I remember right Martha is a little sprightly black-eyed girl, whom I have often noticed with pleasure. I think her poor mother would have liked this disposition of her. I believe she preferred me to the rest of the family. If, however , Mary or any of the rest of you would have a prior claim then Mama’s promise will hold good for little Theana.”
Ellen Randolph Coolidge was also one of the most vocal members of the Jefferson family who insisted Sally Hemings children were not Thomas Jefferson’s.
Jefferson’s grandchildren did eventually acquire all of Burwell and Critta’s children and they were scattered to all parts of Virginia and elsewhere. One daughter was taken to Alabama and never heard from again.
Burwell’s second wife was Elizabeth Battles, daughter of Shadrock Battles. It was said of Shadrock Battles that he was a free African who forged papers for slaves to use to obtain their freedom.
Burwell and Elizabeth married December of 1835 in Albemarle county, Virginia and their witness was Ira Garrett. Burwell and Elizabeth had three children: Sarah, Caroline and Melinda Colbert. They are listed in the 1850 Albemarle county, Virginia census along with Burwell’s half-brother Wormley Hughes.
After Thomas Jefferson died in 1826, the plantations Monticello and Poplar Forest and all of Jefferson’s slaves were sold to pay his debts, including Wormley Hughes children, Wormley spent the rest of his life trying to raise enough money to free them.
While attending the auction at Monticello, Burwell Colbert bought a mule for $30 and a miniature portrait that he kept on the fireplace mantle of the cabin Jefferson had given him.
Although several slaves were sold, Monticello and the land around it was not. No one was willing to pay the price Martha Randolph asked. Monticello was finally purchased in 1831 at a price far below market value. During the five years Monticello was up for sale, Burwell Colbert’s mother Betty Brown lived there. When Burwell came to visit, he opened all of Monticello's doors and windows to air it out, and then cleaned each room himself.
Burwell Colbert died 1860.
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