The Granger Family

Jefferson purchased George and Ursula Granger and their sons in 1773 because Ursula Granger was a “favorite housewoman” of his wife. Ursula supervised the kitchen, smokehouse, and washhouse from 1773 through the 1790s. George Granger, Sr. was the Monticello farm foreman and, later, overseer. The Grangers’ three sons were trusted and skilled artisans and laborers.

George, Ursula, and their son George died within months of one another in 1799 and 1800. The youngest son, Isaac, using the surname Jefferson, survived into the 1840s as a free man in Petersburg, Virginia, and his recollections of life at Monticello were recorded.