The graveyard began as an agreement between two young men, Thomas Jefferson and Dabney Carr, who were schoolmates and friends. They agreed that they would be buried under a great oak which stood here. Carr, who married Jefferson's sister, died in 1773.  His was the first grave on this site, which Jefferson laid out as a family burying ground.  Jefferson was buried here in 1826. 

The present monument is not the original, designed by Jefferson, but a larger one erected by the United States in 1883.  Its base covers the graves of Jefferson, his wife, his two daughters, and of Governor Thomas Mann Randolph, his son-in-law.  The graveyard remains the property of Jefferson's descendants, and continues as a family burying ground.

The Monticello Association was founded to care, preserve and continue the family graveyard at Monticello.  It is a non-profit organization whose members include the lineal descendants of Thomas Jefferson.

More about the history of the graveyard