Prominent political family from Virginia, United States of America
Coat of Arms of William Randolph
The Randolph family of Virginia is a prominent political family, whose members contributed to the politics of Colonial Virginia and Virginia after statehood. They are descended from the Randolphs of Morton Morrell, Warwickshire, England. The first Randolph in America was Edward Fitz Randolph, who settled in Massachusetts in 1630.[1] His nephew, William Randolph, later came to Virginia as an orphan in 1669. He made his home at Turkey Island along the James River. Because of their numerous progeny, William Randolph and his wife, Mary Isham Randolph, have been referred to as "the Adam and Eve of Virginia". The Randolph family was the wealthiest and most powerful family in 18th-century Virginia.
Henry Randolph I (1623-1673), born in Little Houghton, Northamptonshire, England,[2][3] immigrated to the colony of Virginia in 1642,[4] protege of Sir William Berkeley.[5] Randolph became clerk of the county court, and when Charles Norwood left the colony, Speaker Francis Moryson put forth Randoph's name for the position and the House of Burgesses selected him as its clerk. Randolph remained such longer than anyone else in the century.[6]
Randolph also acquired title to land on the north side of Swift Creek in Bermuda Hundred in 1655 and built Swift Creek Mill, considered one of the first grist mills in the United States, about 1663.[2][7] The mill was located alongside Randolph's plantation.[8] Henry married Judith, the daughter of speaker of the House of Burgesses Henry Soane, with whom they had a son, Captain Henry Randolph. Henry Randolph I was the uncle of William Randolph of Turkey Island in Colonial Virginia, whom Henry sponsored to emigrate to Colonial Virginia[5] following a visit to England and Ireland in 1669 or 1670.[3][9] He was also the half brother of Thomas Randolph, the poet of England.[4][9] Henry died in Henrico County, Virginia in 1673.[3][9]William Randolph, nephew of Henry Randolph I, resided in Colonial Virginia by 1672.[3] William was a transatlantic merchant and ran a tobacco plantation.[3] He represented Henrico County, Virginia at the Virginia House of Burgesses and later was Speaker of the Virginia House of Burgesses.[3] He was a founding trustee of the College of William and Mary.
Junius Daniel, 4x great-grandson of William Randolph, was a planter and career military officer, serving in the United States Army, then in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War, as a brigadier general. His troops were instrumental in the Confederates' success at the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg. He was killed in action at the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House.
Modern era
Harrison Randolph, 4x great-grandson of William Randolph was President of the College of Charleston from 1897 to 1945.
Armistead C. Gordon, 5x great-grandson of William Randolph was a Virginia lawyer and a prolific writer of prose and poetry.
Edmund Randolph Williams, 2x great-grandson of Edmund Randolph, great-grandson of Peyton Randolph, was a Virginia lawyer
Robert Williams Daniel, 2x great-grandson of Edmund Randolph was a bank executive who served in the Virginia Senate from 1936 to 1940. He is best known for having survived the sinking of the ocean liner RMS Titanic in 1912. His account of the disaster was published in multiple newspapers.
The family's wealth was based on four large plantations on the James River, acquired by William Randolph: Turkey Island (which he began assembling after his arrival around 1668), Curles (purchased from the colonial government), Tuckahoe and Dungeness (the result of two large land grants around 1700).
Turkey Island was given its name by the first explorers of the James River, who noted that it contained a large population of wild turkeys. The term can refer to the surrounding area as well as the island. William Randolph's residence overlooked Turkey Island, and he is buried near the site of the house.[20]
Curles Neck Plantation is west of Turkey Island. It was owned by Nathaniel Bacon, who rebelled against the governor in 1676. The property was forfeited to the colonial government and William Randolph purchased it.
Tuckahoe is the American English name of an edible plant, borrowed from an Algonquian Native American language. It is also the name of several streams and places in eastern Virginia, including Tuckahoe Plantation, established by William Randolph's son, Thomas. "Tuckahoe" later became a pejorative nickname for eastern Virginians, used mainly by western Virginians.
Dungeness is the headland of a shingle beach in Kent, England, which must be rounded to approach the Thames Estuary. The founder of Dungeness Plantation, Isham Randolph, spent several years of his adult life as a ship's captain, and therefore was familiar with the feature.[citation needed]
Bremo was the name for a tract between Turkey Island and Curles plantations.[citation needed] The name comes from a Germanic word meaning "edge", in this case the edge of a river. The root also occurs in the English word "brim". The extant Bremo Plantation was established in the early 19th century in Fluvanna County, far to the west.
Randolphs who freed slaves and fought Virginia's growing dependence on the "peculiar institution" in the early Republic are less known, but include Ryland Randolph of Turkey Island and Ann Cary Randolph Morris, who later married founding father (and anti-slavery advocate) Gouverneur Morris of New York[21] Jacob Randolph of Isle of Wight County, Virginia, freed 13 slaves in 1783.[22]
Richard Randolph (? - 1859) of Greene County, Ohio, in his will probated in 1859, left his entire estate valued at $80,000 to be used to free slaves of the Randolph family and to be expended for their use and benefit.[26] By 1895, $6,646.27 of Richard Randolph's estate remained unclaimed.[27] In response, the Ohio General Assembly passed an act in 1898 that directed the entire $6,646.27 to be transferred to the endowment of Wilberforce University.[27]
Other connections
Members of the Randolph family also intermarried with other prominent Virginia families, including the Blands, Byrds, Carters, Beverleys, Fitzhughs, and Harrisons. Pocahontas was indirectly an ancestress to members of the Randolph family through marriages of Robert Bolling's two granddaughters, Lucille and Jane Bolling. Some evidence suggests that famous American frontiersman, politician and hero Davy Crockett was of Randolph descent. Actor Lee Marvin and actress and producer Kimberley Kates are also Randolph descendants, in her case through her paternal grandmother. World War I fighter ace Hamilton Coolidge was a direct descendant of the marriage of a Randolph to the daughter of U.S. President Thomas Jefferson.
In 1926, Jessie Harlan Lincoln, the granddaughter of Abraham Lincoln married her third husband, Robert John Randolph of this Randolph family.[28] Her later two marriages did not produce any more children.
John Jacob Astor VII (1918–2000), ∞ 1944 (div 1972) : Ana Inez Carcano y Morra (1918–1992); ∞ 1976 (div 1985) : Susan Eveleigh (died 1997); ∞ 1988 : Marcia de Savary
Richard Roger Emmanuel Étienne Pierre de Dampierre, 3rd Duke of San Lorenzo Nuovo (1916–2004), ∞ 1937 : María de las Mercedes de Pedroso y Sturdza (1914–2012)
Yolande Beatrix de Dampierre (1918–1990), ∞ 1940 : Luigi, Count Miani di Angorisin
Anna Bland (1712–1770), ∞ 1732 : Robert Munford II (1711–1744); ∞ 1744 : George Currie
^Randolph, Grady Lee (1990). The Randolph's of Virginia. Atlanta, GA: G.L. Randolph.
^ a b"1663-1964: Over Three Centuries of History Surrounds Old Grist Mill on Swift Creek". The Progress-Index. Petersburg, Virginia. June 14, 1964. p. 15 – via newspaper.com clipping.
^ a b c d e fStoermer, Taylor (January 4, 2009). "William Randolph". www.monticello.org. Retrieved December 26, 2019.
^ a bThe Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. Virginia Historical Society. 1903. p. 58.
^ a bRobert M. Randolph (13 November 2019). Peyton Randolph and Revolutionary Virginia. McFarland. pp. 181–182. ISBN 978-1-4766-3862-1.
^Billings, Warren M. (2004). A Little Parliament: The Virginia General Assembly in the Seventeenth Century. Jamestown 2007 and Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation 2004. Library of Virginia. pp. 118–119. ISBN 0-88490-202-1.
^"History". Retrieved 31 July 2016.
^The National Register of Historic Places. United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service. 1976. p. 790.
^ a b c"Quietus of Mrs. Judith Randolph as Executrix of Henry Randolph, 1674". The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. Virginia Historical Society. 1906. pp. 269–270.
^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.
^"Sir John Randolph". Williamsburg, Virginia: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. Retrieved November 13, 2010.
^Clines, Francis X. (17 May 2002). "Williamsburg Journal; Where the Past Lives, Undisturbed by the Present". Retrieved 31 July 2016 – via NYTimes.com.
^"Travel". The New York Times. Retrieved 31 July 2016.
^Ramage, C.J. (1922). "Randolph". The Virginia Law Register. 8 (6): 415–418. doi:10.2307/1105871. JSTOR 1105871.
^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). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-27.
^"Federal Judicial Center: John Marshall". 2009-12-12. Retrieved 2009-12-12.
^In the military parlance of the time, the term "Light-horse" had a hyphen between the two words "light" and "horse". See the title page of "The Discipline of the Light-Horse" by Captain Robert Hinde of the Royal Regiment of Foresters (Light-Dragoons) published in London in 1778.
^Hinde, Captain Robert (1778), Discipline of the Light-Horse, London: W.Owen, retrieved 20 August 2010
^Goldberg, David E. "George Wythe Randolph (1818–1867).", Encyclopedia Virginia, Ed. Brendan Wolfe. 6 Apr. 2011. Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, accessed 6 April 2011
^Sankey, Margaret D. "Randolph, William (1650–1711), colonist in America"