John Wayles Eppes

John Wayles Eppes (April 1772 – September 13, 1823) was an American lawyer and politician who served in various legislative roles representing Virginia. He served in the Virginia House of Delegates, representing Chesterfield County from 1801 to 1803. Subsequently, he was elected to the United States House of Representatives, serving from March 4, 1803, to March 4, 1811, and again from March 4, 1813, to March 4, 1815. During his time in Congress, Eppes was a member of the Democratic-Republican Party and chaired the Ways and Means Committee during the Eleventh and Thirteenth Congresses. He later served as a U.S. Senator from Virginia from March 4, 1817, to December 4, 1819, when he resigned due to health issues. In the Senate, he also chaired the Committee on Finance during the second session of the Fifteenth Congress.

Eppes was born in April 1772 at Eppington in Chesterfield County in the Colony of Virginia. He was the sixth child and only son of Elizabeth (née Wayles) and Francis Eppes. His family was part of the First Families of Virginia and was related through both parents to Martha Jefferson, the wife of Thomas Jefferson. Eppes received instruction from private tutors, consistent with the practices of his planter class, before attending the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. He graduated from Hampden–Sydney College in Virginia in 1786 and studied law, being admitted to the bar in 1794. Following his admission, he commenced legal practice in Richmond.

Eppes married his first cousin, Mary Jefferson, on October 13, 1797, at Monticello. Known as "Polly" in childhood and "Maria" in adulthood, she was the daughter of Thomas Jefferson, making Eppes closely connected to Jefferson’s family. They resided at Mont Blanco plantation in Chesterfield County, Virginia, and had three children—an unnamed daughter who lived only from December 31, 1799, to January 1800, Francis Wayles Eppes (September 20, 1801 – May 30, 1881), and Maria Jefferson Eppes (February 15, 1804 – February 1806). Mary Jefferson Eppes died at Monticello on April 17, 1804, shortly after giving birth to Maria.

On April 15, 1809, Eppes married Martha Burke Jones, the daughter of Willie Jones, a prominent North Carolina planter and politician. With Martha, Eppes had six children. Following the death of his first wife, Eppes moved his household, including enslaved people, from Mont Blanco to the Millbrook plantation in Buckingham County, Virginia. Among the enslaved was Betsy Hemmings, a mixed-race woman who was the daughter of Mary Hemings and the granddaughter of Betty Hemings. According to descendants, Hemmings became a concubine to Eppes and bore his child, Joseph, likely named after her brother. She also named their daughter Frances. Hemmings lived at Millbrook for the rest of her life and was buried alongside Eppes in the family cemetery when she died in 1857.

Eppes experienced declining health later in life. He died at Millbrook on September 13, 1823, and was buried in the Eppes family cemetery on the estate.