John Wayles
| John Wayles, Esq. | |
|---|---|
| Born | January 31, 1715 Lancaster, England |
| Died | May 28, 1773 (aged 58) Charles City County, Virginia |
| Nationality | English |
| Occupation | Attorney at law, Planter |
| Spouse(s) | Martha Eppes, Tabitha Cocke, Elizabeth Lomax, Elizabeth Hemings (Common-law) |
| Children | Martha Wayles, Elizabeth Wayles, Tabitha Wayles, Ann Wayles, Robert Hemings, James Hemings, Thenia Hemings, Critta Hemings, Peter Hemings, Sally Hemings |
John Wayles (January 31, 1715 – May 28, 1773) was a planter, slave trader and lawyer in the Virginia Colony. He is historically best known as the father-in-law of Thomas Jefferson, third President of the United States.
Wayles is widely believed by historians to have taken his mixed-race slave Betty Hemings as a concubine after being widowed the third time; he had six children with her, of whom the youngest was Sally Hemings. The children were three-quarters European in ancestry and half-siblings to his two daughters by his first and second wives. A year after her marriage to Thomas Jefferson, his oldest daughter Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson inherited the Hemings family and 125 other slaves, along with 11,000 acres and debts as part of her father's estate.
Born in Lancaster, England in 1715, to Edward Wayles and Ellen Ashburner-Wayles, Wayles emigrated as a young man to the English colony of Virginia, likely during the 1730s.
In Virginia, Wayles became part of the planter elite. His plantation, called "The Forest", was located in Charles City County. This was one of the first four shires in the colony and located in the Tidewater region along the north side of the James River. Wayles also worked as a lawyer and slave trader.
Wayles married Martha Eppes (b. at Bermuda Hundred on 10 April 1721) on 3 May 1746. As part of the wedding settlement, her parents gave the new couple an African slave woman and her young mixed-race daughter Elizabeth or Betty Hemings. The girl was the daughter of an English sea captain named Hemings. Hemings family tradition tells that Captain Hemings tried to buy Elizabeth from Wayles; but he refused to sell her.
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