John Randolph (politician)

Sir John Randolph (1693 – March 7, 1737)[1] was an American politician. He was a Speaker of the House of Burgesses, an Attorney General for the Colony of Virginia, and the youngest son of William Randolph and Mary Isham.[1]

Sir John Randolph
31st Speaker of the Virginia House of Burgesses
In office
1734–1736
Preceded byJohn Holloway
Succeeded byJohn Robinson
Personal details
Bornc. 1693
Tazewell Hall/Turkey Island, Williamsburg, Virginia
DiedMarch 15, 1737(1737-03-15) (aged 43–44)
Williamsburg, Virginia
Resting placeWren Building (Crypt) at the College of William and Mary
SpouseLady Susanna Beverley
Children4, including Peyton and John
Parent(s)William Randolph
Mary Isham
RelativesWilliam Randolph II (brother)
ResidenceTazewell Hall
Alma materCollege of William and Mary
OccupationPolitician

Early life

Randolph was born in Charles City County, Virginia.[1] He was the youngest son of William Randolph and Mary (née Isham) Randolph.[2] He was a grand-uncle of U.S. President Thomas Jefferson.[3]

Randolph later reflected, "I should have been an atheist if it had not been for one recollection—and that was the memory of the time when my departed mother used to take my little hand in hers and cause me on my knees to say, 'Our Father who art in heaven.'"[4][5]

He attended the College of William & Mary and completed his studies in 1711.[1]

Career

In 1712, the Lieutenant Governor of Virginia, Alexander Spotswood, appointed Randolph as Deputy Attorney General for Charles City County, Prince George County, and Henrico County.[1] On May 17, 1715, Randolph was admitted to Gray's Inn at the Inns of Court, then called to the bar on November 25, 1717.[1]

Randolph was the only native of Colonial Virginia to receive a knighthood.[6]

Personal life
Susanna Beverley Randolph, portrait by John Wollaston

Randolph married Susanna Beverley (the daughter of Peter Beverley, a Speaker of the House of Burgesses and Treasurer of Virginia, and Elizabeth Peyton, and sister of Elizabeth Beverley, the wife of his brother William Randolph II) around 1718. Together, the couple lived at Tazewell Hall,[7] and had at least four children who reached adulthood:[8][9]

  • Beverley Randolph (1719–1764), who married Agatha Wormeley (1721–1786) in 1742.[10]
  • Mary Randolph (1720–1768), who married Col. Philip Ludwell Grymes (1721–1761), a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses, in 1742.[11]
  • Peyton Randolph (1721–1775), the first and third president of the Continental Congress, who married Elizabeth Harrison.[12]
  • John Randolph (1727–1784), who married Ariana Jennings in 1750.[13]

He died in 1737 and was interred at the chapel of the Wren Building at the College of William & Mary.[1] His will had been witnessed in 1735 by Charles Bridges.[14]

See also

Ancestry

References
  1. "Sir John Randolph". Williamsburg, Virginia: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. Retrieved November 13, 2010.
  2. Randolph, Robert Isham (1936). The Randolphs of Virginia: A Compilation of the Descendants of William Randolph of Turkey Island and His Wife Mary Isham Of Bermuda Hundred (PDF).
  3. Tyler, Lyon Gardiner, ed. (1915). "Burgesses and Other Prominent Persons". Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography. Vol. II. New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company. p. 311.
  4. Leeman, Richard W. (1996). African-American Orators: A Bio-critical Sourcebook. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 176. ISBN 978-0-313-29014-5.
  5. Sorley, Merrow Egerton (2000) [1935]. "Chapter 33: Families Related to the Lewis Family". Lewis of Warner Hall: The History of a Family. Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Co. p. 832. ISBN 9780806308319.
  6. Railey, William Edward (2002) [1938]. History of Woodford County, Kentucky. Genealogical Publishing Com. p. 278. ISBN 9780806379999.
  7. Glenn, Thomas Allen, ed. (1898). "The Randolphs: Randolph Genealogy". Some Colonial Mansions: And Those Who Lived In Them : With Genealogies Of The Various Families Mentioned. Vol. 1. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Henry T. Coates & Company. pp. 430–459.
  8. Page, Richard Channing Moore (1893). "Randolph Family". Genealogy of the Page Family in Virginia (2 ed.). New York: Press of the Publishers Printing Co. pp. 249–272.
  9. Railey, W.E. (September 1918). Morton, Jennie C. (ed.). "Notes and Corrections of the Railey Geneaology". The Register of the Kentucky State Historical Society. Frankfort, Kentucky: The State Journal Company. 16 (48): 47–49. Retrieved November 12, 2010.
  10. Bentley, Elizabeth Petty (1982). Virginia Marriage Records: From the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, the William and Mary College Quarterly, and Tyler's Quarterly. Genealogical Publishing Com. p. 319. ISBN 978-0-8063-0983-5. Retrieved 19 October 2020.
  11. Wheeler, William Archie (1965). Alden-Shedd Families: Elwell, Grimes, Morse; a Contribution to a Knowledge of the Genealogy and Family History of the Families of Albert Martin Alden and His Wife, Maria Elizabeth Shedd, and the Families of Their Descendants. W.A. Wheeler. p. 157. Retrieved 19 October 2020.
  12. Keith, Charles Penrose (1893). The Ancestry of Benjamin Harrison: President of the United States of America, 1889-1893, in Chart Form Showing Also the Descendants of William Henry Harrison, President of the United States of America in 1841, and Notes on Families Related. Lippincott Company. p. 50. Retrieved 19 October 2020.
  13. Mooney, Barbara Burlison (2008). Prodigy houses of Virginia : architecture and the native elite. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press. p. 145. ISBN 978-0-8139-2673-5. Retrieved 19 October 2020.
  14. "Bridges, Charles (bap. 1672–1747)". encyclopediavirginia.org. Retrieved 21 March 2015.
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