Cameron M Bailey

“Thomas Jefferson’s closest boyhood friend was his neighbor and boarding school classmate Dabney Carr. When it came time for the boys to go to college, they went together—to the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg. One summer the boys were home from school and they rode up the mountain near Jefferson’s home—the place where young Thomas said he would someday build a house of his own. Sitting in the shade of a large oak that day, admiring the place, the two boys made a pact: the first of them to die must see that the other was buried there, to be joined someday by the other. The friendship was strengthened by familial ties when, at age 21, Dabney married Martha Jefferson, sister of his friend Thomas. Dabney Carr and Thomas Jefferson entered politics together—Jefferson was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1769 and Carr joined him there two years later. The young friends, now brothers-in-law, joined fellow Patriots and future revolutionaries Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee and others to set Virginia and the other colonies on the road to independence. In early 1773 many in the colonies were deeply troubled by what they regarded to be increasing royal encroachments on liberty. The Virginia delegates felt the time had come to strengthen communication between the colonies, in order to coordinate resistance. In March, Dabney Carr rose and made a motion to form a Committee of Correspondence. After a speech described as “remarkable for its force and eloquence,” Dabney’s motion was passed. It was an important step toward the First Continental Congress. The members of Virginia’s first Committee of Correspondence were Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee, Francis Lightfoot Lee, and Dabney Carr. Three of those five men would later sign the Declaration of Independence (which one of them would write), while another of them (Patrick Henry) was serving as governor of Virginia. The only one of the five who would not go on to play an important role in the Revolutionary War was Dabney Carr. What he may have contributed to the cause had fate not intervened will never be known. Just thirty-five days after making his momentous motion, he came down with bilious fever and passed away at age 29. Thomas Jefferson honored his boyhood pledge, burying his friend on the grounds of Monticello, beneath the oak where they had made their agreement. Fifty-three years later, Jefferson joined him there. The inscription Jefferson drafted for his friend’s grave marker says: “To His Virtue, Good Sense, Learning and Friendship, this stone is dedicated by Thomas Jefferson, who of all men loved him most.” Dabney Carr died on May 16, 1773, two hundred fifty-two years ago today.” Source: A Daily Dose of American Rev