Randolph Jefferson (1755–1815), TJ’s only surviving brother, inherited roughly twenty-two hundred acres of valuable farmland along the James River and twenty slaves from his father in 1757. He was schooled both privately and in Williamsburg prior to his service as a cavalryman during the Revolutionary War. Jefferson married Anne J. Lewis in 1780 and, shortly following her death in 1808, Mitchie B. Pryor. He lived at Snowden in Buckingham County, just across the James River from Scottsville. Jefferson became a captain of the local militia in 1794 but otherwise held no public office. His relationship with TJ was marked by mutual affection and respect. Late in life Jefferson fell into financial difficulty. After his death TJ became involved in unsuccessful litigation to reinstate a will that he had drafted for his brother in 1808, a later one more favorable to Randolph Jefferson’s widow having surfaced (Bernard Mayo, ed., Thomas Jefferson and His Unknown Brother [1942, repr. 1981], esp. 1–7; Malone, Jefferson description begins Dumas Malone, Jefferson and his Time, 1948–81, 6 vols. description ends , 6:153–6; TJ’s Deposition in Jefferson v. Jefferson, 15 Sept. 1815).

Mitchie B. Pryor Jefferson had eight brothers (VMHB description begins Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, 1893– description ends 7 [1900]: 325–6).