William McGehee served as overseer at TJ’s Tufton property from 25 Dec. 1809 to 15 Nov. 1811. Before that he had been an overseer for no more than a year apiece at three other plantations nearby. TJ described McGehee as industrious and skilled in old agricultural practices but resistant to innovation, insubordinate, discontented, and so harsh a disciplinarian that in an earlier position he had routinely carried a gun for fear of attack from the slaves he supervised. His father may have been the William McGehee who in 1774 sold TJ the Colle tract adjoining Monticello (MB description begins James A. Bear Jr. and Lucia C. Stanton, eds., Jefferson’s Memorandum Books: Accounts, with Legal Records and Miscellany, 1767–1826, 1997, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Second Series description ends , 1:344n, 2:1250, 1271; TJ to James Madison, 16 Aug. 1810; Woods, Albemarle description begins Edgar Woods, Albemarle County in Virginia, 1901, repr. 1991 description ends , 259–60).

Thomas Mann Randolph (1768–1828) had close ties to the Jefferson family from the time of his birth. TJ’s mother was Randolph’s second cousin and his father, Peter Jefferson, had served as guardian to Randolph’s namesake father. These ties were strengthened when Randolph married TJ’s eldest daughter Martha in 1790 and built a home at Edgehill near Monticello (1798–1800). Randolph often looked after TJ’s concerns when his father-in-law was absent. He shared many intellectual interests with TJ, including classics and science, which he pursued during his education at home, the College of William and Mary, and Edinburgh University. Though he did not graduate, Randolph applied his studies to scientific agriculture and became a respected botanist. He generally supported TJ’s policies during a public career that included service as a United States congressman (1803–07), colonel in the regular army and lieutenant colonel of militia in the War of 1812, Virginia governor (1819–22), and delegate (1823–25). Late in life Randolph lost control of most of his property and became estranged from TJ and his own family. He eventually reconciled with his wife and children, who had moved permanently to Monticello on TJ’s retirement in 1809, and he died and was buried at Monticello (ANB description begins John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes, eds., American National Biography, 1999, 24 vols. description ends ; DAB description begins Allen Johnson and Dumas Malone, eds., Dictionary of American Biography, 1928–36, 20 vols. description ends ; William H. Gaines Jr., Thomas Mann Randolph: Jefferson’s Son-in-Law [1966]; Lay, Architecture description begins K. Edward Lay, The Architecture of Jefferson Country: Charlottesville and Albemarle County, Virginia, 2000 description ends , 118–9).

John H. craven leased five hundred acres of land at Tufton and Monticello from TJ, 1800–09 (Betts, Farm Book description begins Edwin M. Betts, ed., Thomas Jefferson’s Farm Book, 1953 description ends , 168–71). When Craven’s lease expired, TJ made Randolph responsible for the supervision of Tufton.