John Paradise (1743–95), linguist, was born in Thessaloníki and studied at the University of Padua and at Oxford University. He and his father, Peter Paradise, acted as executors for Philip Ludwell, and on 18 May 1769 John married Ludwell’s daughter Lucy. Paradise knew eight languages, devoted himself to scholarly pursuits, became a fellow of the Royal Society of London, and enjoyed the friendship of Edmund Burke, David Garrick, Samuel Johnson, and Sir Joshua Reynolds. He managed his wife’s Virginia lands from afar, with the assistance of TJ and others. The Paradises visited Virginia in 1788 but soon returned to London, where John died (ODNB description begins H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison, eds., Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2004, 60 vols. description ends ; Archibald Bolling Shepperson, John Paradise and Lucy Ludwell of London and Williamsburg [1942]).

Lucy Ludwell Paradise (1751–1814) was born at Green Spring plantation, near Williamsburg. She moved with her family to London in 1760, where she met and married John Paradise. Paradise and her surviving sister, Hannah Philippa Ludwell Lee, split their father’s estate following the death of their sister Frances Ludwell in 1768. A decade after the death of her husband, Paradise returned to Williamsburg to live. She was declared insane in 1812 and died in Williamsburg two years later (Shepperson, John Paradise and Lucy Ludwell).

TJ had met John Paradise by 1786. Beginning with the couple’s May 1788 visit to Paris, TJ became heavily involved in helping them sort out their tangled affairs. TJ had seen the original marriage settlement from which this extract was made by 6 Sept. 1788. On that date he sent a copy of it to Nathaniel Burwell, who was managing the Paradises’ Virginia estates (PTJ description begins Julian P. Boyd, Charles T. Cullen, John Catanzariti, Barbara B. Oberg, and others, eds., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 1950– , 38 vols. description ends , esp. 9:434–5, 11:242–3, 13:472–3, 543–5, 570–1, 14:418–20).