Thomas Jefferson, the man who became the third president of the fledgling United States of America, the author of the Declaration of Independence, the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, and the father of the University of Virginia, was born to Peter Jefferson, a citizen of Welsh origins who wielded a large amount of influence in Albemarle County, Virginia, and his wife Jane Randolph on 2 April 1743. Thomas was the third of ten children.
When his father died in 1757, he left "orders" that Thomas complete his education. Thomas, heeding the words of his father, entered the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg in 1760. Jefferson would later credit one of his math professors, a man by the name of Dr. Small, as being one of his biggest inspirations to excel in school. Peter Jefferson had also encouraged his children to pursue musical studies. Thomas was a talented violinist who played often at the weekly parties hosted by the Lieutenant Governor Francis Fauquier. It was through his interaction with Fauquier that Jefferson learned about the social, political, and parliamentary life of Europe which heavily influenced that in America.
After graduating from William and Mary, Jefferson studied law and in April 1764, after his 21st birthday, Jefferson assumed the management of his fathers estate and extensive lands. He was also named vestryman and a justice of the peace, positions he more or less inherited from his father. At this time, Jefferson developed his zeal for farming; an obsession that he would sustain for the rest of his life. Jefferson always believed that the United States should build its economy on agriculture, and not on industry. He simultaneously continued his studies of the law, which lead him to the writings of Lord Coke, a respected Whig party member who espoused the idea of religious freedom. Lord Coke's writings inspired Jefferson to reject Nathan Hale's assertion that Christianity was an inherent part of the laws in England, which inspired him in later years to write the Statute for Religions Freedom.
