Wayles married three times, with these marriages producing eleven children; only five of them lived to adulthood.
[1][a] The young Wayles likely became aware of the burgeoning transatlantic slave trade and "its ability to make merchants rich".
[1] Wayles received his licence to practice law in Virginia in 1741, entering into the profession the very same year.
In addition to these businesses, Wayles also worked as an agent for Farrell and Jones of Bristol, included performing debt collection.
[1] As part of the wedding settlement between John Wayles and Martha Epps, her parents gave the new couple an enslaved African-American woman and her young mixed-race daughter Betty Hemings, whose father was an English sea captain named Hemings.
To do so would have communicated his relationship with Betty and would have required a change in Virginia manumission laws at that time.
He left substantial property, including many enslaved persons, but the estate was encumbered with debt.
Wayles' three sons-in-law, including Thomas Jefferson, decided to break up the estate and its debts.
[31] Martha and her husband Thomas Jefferson inherited the Willis Creek and Elk Hill plantations and a total of 135 enslaved persons, including members of the Hemings family.