Pavilion X Exhibition
Frances "Fanny" Gillette Hern
Frances “Fanny” Gillette Hern was born at Monticello on March 31, 1788 as the fourth of twelve children born to Edward and Jane Gillette. While both Edward and Jane served Jefferson primarily as farm workers, they and their children acquired a variety of crafts and skills. By the fall of 1806 Fanny had married David “Davy” Hern, a wagoner from another prominent enslaved family at Monticello. At this time, in the midst of Jefferson’s second term as president, Fanny Hern joined her sister-in-law Edith Fossett at the White House to learn the art of French cuisine under Jefferson’s chief chef Honoré Julien.
This period proved immensely difficult for Fanny Hern. Davy Hern had remained at Monticello and the couple only saw one another two or three times per year. Compounding this difficulty, in November 1808, the couple’s first daughter succumbed to an outbreak of whooping cough. After returning to Monticello in 1809, Fanny Hern continued to cook for Jefferson. Following Jefferson’s death in 1826, UVA Medical Professor Robley Dunglison sought out Fanny Hern, purchasing her and her infant child Bonnycastle in early 1827 and bringing them to work in his household at Pavilion X. The surviving evidence suggests that Fanny Hern, joined by Davy in 1829, lived in a small quarters behind the pavilion with their children. The fate of the family after Dunglison’s resignation and removal to the University of Maryland in 1832 remains a mystery.