Summer Speaker Series: James C. Thompson “The Women Who Romanced Thomas Jefferson”

Thomas Jefferson’s Enlightenment – Paris 1785 follows Jefferson’s life during his five years in France (August 1784 to September 1789), and where Jefferson became an object of interest for two circles of women. The first were aristocrats and intellectuals who circulated in the salons of Paris. The second included mothers and their friends who Jefferson met while tending his parental duties.

The women in these two circles all romanced the self-styled “savage from the mountains of America.”

Mr. Thompson will focus his talk on four specific women, Maria Cosway, née Hatfield (1760–1838), Marie-Louise Nicole Elisabeth de la Rochefoucauld, Duchess d’Anville (1716–1797), Adrienne Catherine de Noailles, Comtesse de Tessé (1741–1813), and Marguerite-Victoire, Madame de Corny (1747–1832).

Once we understand Jefferson’s Parisian romances, we can understand the relationships Jefferson had with women when he returned to Virginia late in 1789.

About the Speaker/Author

James Thompson grew up in Wilmington, Delaware where he studied art at the Delaware Art Museum. He studied Philosophy as an undergraduate and graduate student at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia. As a graduate student, he lived across the Rivanna River from Monticello on the Shadwell farm of Jefferson’s eldest daughter, Martha Jefferson Randolph. During his four years there, he commenced what has been a continuing investigation into “the philosophy” of Thomas Jefferson.

He cultivated his interest in the ‘History of Ideas’ teaching courses in Philosophy, Religion, and Ethics and in Western Civilization at Strayer University. He has written seven books: The Birth of Virginia’s Aristocracy (2010), The Dubious Achievement of the First Continental Congress (2011), Thomas Jefferson’s Enlightenment – Paris 1785 (2014), Thomas Jefferson’s Enlightenment – Background Notes (2014), George Washington’s Mulabo Man – Who was Billy Lee? (2016), and The First Revolutions in the Minds of the People (2023).

Thompson has delivered talks at the Naval Academy, the Virginia Historical Society, Stratford Hall, and Wilton House in Richmond. He has presented lecture series for the continuing education programs at the University of Virginia, the College of William & Mary, George Mason University, and the University of Delaware.