Life, Liberty...and the Pursuit of a Fiddle
By Leonard Wibberley
Originally published in the Los Angeles Times on the Bicentennial July 4th, 1976
7/4/2017
This is surely the time to launch a nation-wide, indeed, a worldwide hunt for Tom Jefferson’s fiddle. He had three of them, but there was one in particular which Jefferson obtained because of the regrettable differences which arose between the Thirteen Colonies and their sovereign Lord, the King. That fiddle (violin, if you insist) might be viewed as part of the national heritage. After being found, it should be lodged in the Smithsonian Museum, or perhaps suspended over the head of the Speaker of the House as an inducement to harmony.
Thomas Jefferson was a good violinist. He was good enough, while a student at William and Mary at Williamsburg, VA, to be invited to the mansion of Lt. Gov. Francis Fauquier, there to dine and play in the ensemble from the works of Corelli, Vivaldi, Handel and Hayden. Fauquier, a gentleman of his times, liked gambling, women, music, horse racing and philosophy. Jefferson liked the last three.
On this occasion, the youth who would later write the Declaration of Independence played an undersized violin he had had from boyhood and would keep for the rest of his life. Then, on May 8, 1768, as Jefferson noted in his account book, he paid Dr. William Pasteur of Williamsburg 3 pounds for another violin. That was a pretty good sum for a violin in those days, so the instrument was perhaps Italian and certainly hand-made.
But the violin that became Jefferson’s as a result of the quarrel between the King and his colonial subjects, belonged to John Randolph of Williamsburg—a member of one of the great aristocratic families to which the Jeffersons were related.
John Randolph has a violin which Jefferson greatly admired. On October 11, 1771, Randolph drew up a semi-facetious will stating that, should he die before his friend, then Jefferson could have “the violin which the said John brought with him into Virginia.” But should Jefferson die before Randolph, then Randolph could have his choice of the books in Jefferson’s library.
John Randolph was a Tory—which meant he was loyal to the King. So, when the break with the throne came, Randolph sold most of his holdings in America and sailed to London, never to return. Before leaving, however, he wrote Jefferson a letter of farewell in which he said Jefferson could have the violin if he still wished it.
Jefferson replied immediately in a letter shown to me by officials at Colonial Williamsburg:
“I received your message by Mr. Braxton and immediately gave him an order on the Treasurer for the money…I now send the bearer for the violin and such musick appurtaining to her as may be of no use to the young ladies (Randolph’s daughters). I believe you had no case to her. If so, be so good as to direct Watt Lenox to get from Prentis’s or other coarse woolen to wrap her in, and then to pack her securely in a wooden box. I am sorry the situation of our country should render it not eligible to you to remain longer in it.”
Randolph wrote back to Jefferson:
“Dr. Sir,
I have received ten Guineas of the Treasurer and have left the Violin with Mr. Cocke of Wmsburg. I wish I had a Case for it.
Tho we may politically differ in Sentiments, yet, I see no Reason why privately we may not cherish the same Esteem for each other which formerly I believe Subsisted between us.
Should any Coolness happen between us, I’ll take Care not to be the first mover of it.”
No “Coolness” happened between them, but as far as I know, Jefferson and Randolph never saw each other again. It was as if Randolph had died and had anticipated his death in the will drawn up some years before.
On July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson himself died. “I am like an old witch,” he had said, “with a pinion worn out here and a wheel there until it can go on no longer.” He had carefully husbanded what strength he had left to last out to the Fourth of July.
Jefferson left a lot of debts which gradually forced the sale of his estate. Even his beloved Monticello had to be sold, and into private hands. Somewhere in this grim period of sales, the violin which he had received from John Randolph disappeared.
The instrument may have remained with the descendants of the Jefferson and Randolph families who intermarried. It may have been sold to pay a bill. But now it is lost, and I submit that it is worth going through the records of all such sales in an effort to trace that particular violin. Though it may not be a Strad or a Guarnieri, it is something more than either: a remembrance of two decent men, who, though differing strongly in their political views, retained a civilized respect and indeed love for each other.
Such remembrances are precious heritages for nations and for men. It is a pity they are in such short supply.
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