Patrick Henry (d. 1829) purchased his freedom in 1811 in Westmoreland County. He bought his enslaved wife from a resident of Lexington in 1815 and freed her the following year. By then Henry was living in Rockbridge County, where for a time he was employed by TJ’s Natural Bridge tenant Philip Thornton. In 1817 Henry entered into an agreement with TJ to rent and farm the latter’s land at Natural Bridge in return for paying the annual taxes on the property. He lived near the bridge itself, acted as a guide for visitors to it, and looked after TJ’s interests there generally (Marie Tyler-McGraw, An African Republic: Black & White Virginians in the Making of Liberia [2007], 146; Westmoreland Co. Deeds and Wills, 22:217; Vi: RG 48, Personal Property Tax Returns, Rockbridge Co., 1816–23, 1825, 1827–29; MB description begins James A. Bear Jr. and Lucia C. Stanton, eds., Jefferson’s Memorandum Books: Accounts, with Legal Records and Miscellany, 1767–1826, 1997, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Second Series description ends , 2:1337, 1380; Cornelia J. Randolph to Virginia J. Randolph [Trist], 30 Aug. 1817, document 4 in a group of documents on Jefferson’s Trip to Natural Bridge, [ca. 13–17 Aug. 1817]; TJ to Philip Thornton, 10 Mar. 1818; DNA: RG 29, CS, Rockbridge Co., 1820, 1830; Rockbridge Co. Will Book, 4:191–2, 6:340–1).