RANDOLPH, Beverly, governor of Virginia,
was born in Chatsworth, Henrico county, Va., in
1754 ; son of Col. Peter and Lucy (Boiling) Ran
dolph. His father was surveyor of customs of
North America in 1749 and a member of the Vir
ginia house of burgesses for many years. He was
graduated from the College of William and Mary
in 1771, and during the Revolution served as a
member of the general assembly of Virginia and
the executive council of Virginia, 1787-88, and
succeeded Edmund Randolph as governor of the
state, serving, 1788-81. He was appointed a visi
tor of the College of William and Mary in 1784.
He died at Green Creek, Cumberland, Va., in 1797.
RANDOLPH, Edmund (Jennings), cabinet
officer, was born in Williamsburg, Va.. Aug. 10,
1753 ; son of John Randolph (1727-1784) king s
attorney, 1766-75. He was graduated at the Col
lege of William and Mary, and studied law with
his father. He remained in Virginia when his
father fled to England in 1775. and Washington
made him a member of his own family, and his
aide-de-camp, Aug. 15, 1775. On the sudden
death of his uncle Peyton he returned to Wil
liamsburg to care for the estate, and was married
to a daughter of R. C. Nicholas. He was a
member of the committee of 1776, where lie
assisted in passing the bill of rights, and in fram
ing the constitution for Virginia. He was elected
attorney-general of the state, under the new
constitution, and was also mayor of AVilliams-
burg. He was a delegate to the Continental
congress, 1779-82, where he had a place in the
committee on foreign affairs. He resigned his
seat in 1782, and devoted himself to the care of
his estate inherited from his uncle, Peyton
Randolph, which was subject to the debts of his
father who died in England in 1783, which debts
he paid out of his practice of the law. He was
appointed a commissioner from Virginia to the
Annopolis convention, and as a member of that
body urged the calling by congress of a constitu
tional convention. He was governor of Virginia,
1786-88, and leader of the Virginia delegation to
the constitutional convention of 1787, when he
introduced the general plan of the instrument as
had been agreed upon, and prepared another plan
which he did not introduce, but which was
found among the papers of George Mason in 1887,
and brought to light by M. D. Conway. He op
posed a single executive, preferring an executive
commission ; opposed re-elegibility of the Pres
ident, and his holding pardoning power, the
vice-presidential office, and states having two
senators irrespective of their population ; and
favored the giving of powers to the Federal gov
ernment sufficient to prevent any state from
carrying out a law declared by the supreme
court to be unconstitutional. It was this motion
that eliminated the word "slavery" from the
constitution. He refused to sign the instrument
as prepared, unless a second national convention
should act on it after it had been discussed by
the people. In the Virginia convention of 1788,
however, he advocated its ratification as necessary
to union, claiming that by so doing Virginia
could secure needed amendments. The clause of
1408]
RANDOLPH
RANDOLPH
Art. VI. on religious tests was added at his sug
gestion before the adoption. He resigned as
governor in 1788, and secured a seat in the as
sembly that he might take part in codifying the
laws of the state, the code published in 1794 being
the result. On Sept. 27. 1789, he was named by
President Washington as attorney-general in his
cabinet, and lie served until Jan. 2. 1794. when he
succeeded Thomas Jefferson as secretary of state,
and was succeeded by William Bradford of Penn
sylvania, as attorney-general. He opposed the
signing of the Jay treaty unless the clause per
mitting the search of neutral ships was revoked,
and the President promised to withhold his signa
ture, but when Randolph was charged by Fau-
chet with being purchasable, in a dispatch of the
French minister to his home government, which
dispatch was intercepted and sent to the English
minister Hammond in Philadelphia, Washington
signed the treaty, and Randolph resigned his
portfolio, protesting his innocence, and followed
the recalled French minister to Newport, R.I.,
where he obtained from him a full retraction of
the false charge and wrote his Vindication.
In the interim the President did not withhold
from his former secretary of state his personal
regard, visiting him at his house on several
occasions, and twice giving him the place of
honor at the executive table. In 1888 a dispatch
was found in Paris written by Fauchet which
conclusively disproved the charge of intrigue
made against Randolph. He resumed the practice
of law in Richmond, Va. An account was made
up against him of $49.000 for moneys placed
in liis hands to defray the expenses of foreign in
tercourse, and as he was held responsible for all
moneys lost through accidents and other calami
ties, after repeated trials and arbitration, his
lands and slaves were sold, the government gain
ing, besides the debt and interest, about 87000.
He appeared as counsel for Aaron Burr in his
trial for treason in Richmond. He is the author
of: Democratic Societies (1795); Vindication of
Mr. Randolph s Resignation (1793); Political
Truth, or Animadversions on tJte Past and Present
State of Public Affairs (1790). and Histori/ of
Virginia (MS. in possession of Virginia His
torical society). Moncure D. Con way published
" Omitted Chapters of History disclosed in the
Life and Papers of Edmund Randolph" (1888);
and an article published in Lippincott s Magazine
in September. 1887, entitled "A Suppressed
Statesman. His son, Peyton Randolph (1779-
1828), married Maria Ward, and was the author
of: Reports of Cases in the Supreme Court of
Virginia" (6 vols.. 1823-32). Edmund Randolph
died in Clarke county. Va.. Sept. 13. 1813.
RANDOLPH, George Wythe, cabinet officer,
was born at Monticello, Va., March 10, 1818 ; son
[403J
of Gov. Thomas Mann and Martha (Jefferson)
Randolph. He attended school at Cambridge,
Mass., while under the care of his brother-in-law,
Joseph Coolidge of
Boston, and in 1831
was warranted mid
shipman in the U.S.
navy. He was given
leave of absence in
1837. to attend the
University of Vir
ginia, where he
studied two years.
In 1839 he resigned
his commission in
the navy, and after
studying law, prac
tised in Richmond.
He was one of the
commissioners sent
by the state of Virginia to confer with Abraham
Lincoln at his home in Springfield, with the
hope of maintaining peace. He raised a com
pany of artillery at the time of the John Brown
raid, and the organization then known as the
Virginia Howitzer Battalion, Maj. George W.
Randolph, was attached to Magruder s force in
the battle of Big Bethel, Va., June 10, 18G1. He
was commissioned brigadier-general, and com
manded- a brigade in Magruder s army until
March 17, 1862, when President Davis appointed
him secretary of war in his cabinet to succeed
Judah P. Benjamin, transferred to the state
department. The question of the use of hidden
shells as charged against the Confederate troops
at the evacution of Yorktown, led to his decision
that it was not admissible in civilized warfare
to take life with no other object than the destruc
tion of life, but that planting shells was ad
missible on tiie parapet of a fort to prevent its
capture or on the trail of a retreating army to
save the army. He resigned his seat in the
cabinet of President Davis, Nov. 17, 1862, and
returned to the army, but was forced to resign
and seek relief from a pulmonary complaint by
running the blockade and living in Southern
France. He returned to Virginia several years
after the close of the war, and died at Edgar Hill,
Va.. April 10. 1878.
RANDOLPH, Harrison, educator, was born in
New Orleans. La., Dec. 8, 1871 ; son of John
Field and Virginia Dashiell (Bayard) Randolph ;
grandson of Edward and Margaret (Turn bull)
Randolph of Petersburg. Va. . and of Samuel
John and Jane Winder (Dashiell) Bayard, and a
descendant of William Randolph of Turkey Is
land, Virginia (born in Warwickshire, England,
and came to America, arriving at Jamestown,
Va., in 1674); and of Peter Bayard of Bohemia
RANDOLPH
RANDOLPH
Manor, Cecil county, Maryland ; son of Samuel
and Anna (Stuyvesant) Bayard, born in Holland,
who came to New York with his uncle, Peter
Stuyvesant, in 1647. He was graduated from
the University of Virginia, A.B., A.M., 1892;
was instructor of mathematics in the university,
1890-95 ; professor of mathematics in the Uni
versity of Arkansas, 1893-97, and in 1897 was
elected president of the College of Charleston,
which position he still held in. 190;}. He received
the honorary degree of LL.D. from Washington
and Lee university, Lexington, Va., in 1899.
RANDOLPH, James Fitz, representative, was
born in Middlesex county, N.J., June 26, 1791 ;
a descendant of Edward Fitz Randolph, who
emigrated to America from England in 1630. He
received a common school education, served as
apprentice in a printing office, and was one of
the editors of the New Brunswick weekly
Fredonia, 1812-42. He was U.S. collector of in
ternal revenue, 1815-46 ; clerk of the court of
common pleas for Middlesex county, and a rep
resentative in the state legislature for two years.
He was a Democratic representative in the 20th,
21st and 22d congresses, 1828-33, having been
elected in 1828 to fill a vacancy caused by the
death of George Holcombe (q.v.). He died in
Jersey City, N.J., March 19, 1871.
RANDOLPH, John, statesman, was born in
Cawsons, Va., June 2, 1773 ; son of Richard of
Curies, and Frances (Bland) Randolph ; grand
son of Richard Randolph (1691-1748); great-grand
son of Col. William, the immigrant, and Mary
(Isham) Randolph of Turkey Island. William
Randolph, the immigrant, came from Warwick
shire. England, to Virginia in 1674. Richard
Randolph of Curies died in 1775, and Frances
(Bland) Randolph married secondly in 1788, St.
George Tucker (q.v.). John Randolph was in
structed by his mother and stepfather ; attended
Walker Murray s school in Orange county ; the
grammar school of the College of William and
Mary ; the College of New Jersey, 1787-88 ; Colum
bia college, 1788-89 ; was present in New York,
April 30. 1789, at the inauguration of President
Washington, and studied law with his second cou
sin, Edmund Randolph (q.v.) in Philadelphia, also
attending lectures on anatomy and physiology.
In 1795 he returned to Virginia and made his
home at " Bizarre," the family mansion occupied
by his brother Richard, and where Richard died in
1796. He thus became the head of the house
hold, but does not appear to have practised law
except to the extent of defending in the Federal
courts his rights to his portion of the Randolph
estate. He opposed Patrick Henry as a candi
date for representative in the 6th congress, but
was defeated. When Henry died. June 6, 1799,
without taking his seat, Randolph was elected
and was a representative from Virginia in the
6th-12th congresses, 1799-1813, serving as chair
man of the committee on ways and means and
being a leader of the Republican party in the
house. He favored the reduction of the army
and spoke of the men making it up as " merce
naries and hirelings," which resulted in his being
insulted and jostled by two marine officers at the
theatre. In a note addressed to the President
asking for protection against such insults, lie ad
dressed him as " President of the United States"
and signed himself " AVith respect, your fellow-
citizen, John Randolph." President Adams pre
sented the note to the house for its consideration
as " a breach of representative privilege." A
deadlock resulted and the question was left un
decided. Randolph was a powerful orator, and
opposed every public wrong, the Yazoo fraud
being passed in his absence. He defended Jeffer
son in the purchase of Louisiana, on constitutional
grounds; and advocated an embargo, but soon
discovering his error, admitted his mistake and
voted against the measure. He favored James
Monroe as presidential candidate to succeed Mr.
Jefferson in 1808, and opposed the war of 1812
and the policy of President Madison, which made
an enemy of Monroe who had been chosen secre
tary of state. This cost him his re-election to
congress in 1812, and he retired to Roanoke. He
was, however, returned as a representative in the
14th, 16th, 17th and 18th congresses, 1815-17 and
1819-25, and became the founder of a powerful
state rights party, and an ultra Anglomaniac.
He hated slavery and his duty to his creditors
was the only bar to the liberation of the slaves
owned by him, during his lifetime. He opposed
the Missouri compromise, and likewise the doc
trines of Calhoun. for whom he had no respect.
In December. 1824, he was elected to the United
States senate to fill the vacancy caused by the
resignation of Senator Barbour, and completed
his term, March 3, 1827. While in the senate
Clay challenged him for the use of offensive
language in a speech, and a duel followed, April
8. 1826, in which neither was hurt. He failed to
be re-elected to the U.S. senate. He was a
member of the state constitutional committee
of 1829, and as a reward for his support of Jack
son for the presidency in 1828, he was appointed
U.S. minister to Russia in 1830, but resigned in
1831 and returned to the United States. He
disagreed with the President on the question of
nullification in 1832, which doctrines he had at
first opposed. In 1833 he made preparations for
a second visit to Europe for the benefit of his
health, seriously threatened by consumption, but
only lived to reach Philadelphia. He was declared
of unsound mind when he made his last will,
executed in 1832, and a former will made in 1821,
[404]
RANDOLPH
RANDOLPH
liberating his slaves and providing for their
colonization, was sustained. He is the author
of: Letters to a Young Relative (1834). Hugh
A. Garland wrote : Life of John Randolph" (2
vols., 1850), and Henry Adams, "John Ran
dolph" (American Statesmen Series, 1882). He
died in Philadelphia. Pa., May 24, 1833.
RANDOLPH, Joseph Fitz, representative, was
born in Monmouth county, N.J., in 1803. He
received a common school education ; was ad
mitted to the bar in 1825 : practiced in Freehold,
arid was appointed prosecuting attorney for Mon
mouth county. He was a Whig representative
from Freehold in the 25th congress, 1837-39,
and from New Brunswick in the 26th and 27th
congresses, 1839-43, serving as chairman of the
committee on Revolutionary claims. He was a
member of the state constitutional convention in
1844 ; judge of the supreme court of New Jersey,
1845-52 ; resumed the practice of his profession
in Trenton in 1852 ; was a member of the Peace
conference at Washington, D.C., in 1861, and
subsequently removed to Jersey City, N.J., where
he died, March 20, 1873.
RANDOLPH, Peyton, first president of con
gress, was born at Tazewell Hall, Williamsburg,
Va.. in 1721: son of Sir John Randolph (1693-
1737). king s attorney, speaker of the house of
burgesses of Virginia and recorder of Norfolk,
and grandson of William Randolph, the immi
grant. He was graduated at the College of
William and Mary : studied law at the Inner
Temple. London, England, and was appointed
king s attorney for Virginia in 1748, and the
same year represented Williamsburg in the house
of burgesses. He went to London in 1754, by
direetion of the burgesses, without the consent
of Governor Dinwiddie, and obtained the re
moval of the pistole fee from all lands of less
than one hundred acres in extent. During
his absence the governor suspended the absent
attorney, and appointed George Wythe in his
place, who, however, accepted the office only to
hold it for the return of Randolph, who was
reinstated in 1754. He was chairman of the
committee appointed to revise the laws of Vir
ginia, and in 1758 was appointed a visitor of the
College of William and Mary. He drew up the
remonstrances of the burgesses against tlie pro
posed stamp act in 1764 ; was appointed speaker
of the house in 1766, and thereupon resigned his
office as king s attorney and was placed at the
head of all the important committees requiring
legal knowledge. He also served as chairman of
the committee of correspondence for May, 1773 :
was president of the convention of August, 1774,
and was the first of the seven deputies appointed
to the proposed Continental congress by that
bodv. He issued the call to the citizens of
Williamsburg to assemble at their courthouse,
discuss the action of the convention and instruct
the deputies, and presided over the meeting, for
this action being named as one of the citizens of
Virginia to be attainted by Parliament. When
the Continental congress assembled in Philadel
phia, Sept. 5, 1774, he was unanimously elected
president of the first congress, which office he
held until Oct. 22, 1774, when he resigned and
was succeeded by Henry Middleton of South
Carolina. On Jan. 20, 1775, he called a conven
tion to meet at Richmond, Va., March 21, 1775,
and was elected a delegate to the convention,
Feb. 4, 1775. He prevented aggressive measures
on the part of the patriots when Lord Dunmore,
on April 20, 1775, removed the gunpowder from
the public magazine at Williamsburg, and
through the medium of his brother, John Ran
dolph (1727-1784). he obtained 300 from Lord
Dunmore to pay for the powder. He met with
the house of burgesses in May, 1775, and presided
until adjournment, when he returned to Philadel
phia, and was elected speaker of the second con
gress that assembled May 10. Owing to illness he
was obliged to resign, and John Hancock assumed
the presidency of congress, May 24, 1775. He
married a sister of Benjamin Harrison, governor
of Virginia, but left no children. His body rests
under the chapel of the College of William and
Mary. He died in Philadelphia, Pa., Oct. 22, 1775.
RANDOLPH, Sarah Nicholas, author, was
born at Edge Hill, Charlottesville, Va., Oct. 12,
1839 ; daughter of Thomas Jefferson and Jane
Hollins (Nicholas) Randolph. She established a
school for young ladies at Edge Hill, which
became celebrated, and she was afterward
principal of Patapsco institute, which was
transferred to Baltimore, and became the
Sarah Randolph school. She is the author of:
Domestic Life of Tfiomas Jefferson (1871); Tlie
Lord Will Provide (1872) : Life of Stonewall
Jackson (1876) ; Martha Jefferson Randolph, in
AVister s "Famous AVoinen of the Revolution"
(1876) ; Tlie Kentucky Resolutions in a New Light
(Nation, May 5, 1887), and other articles. She
died in Baltimore. Md., April 25. 1892.
RANDOLPH, Theodore Frelinghuysen, gov
ernor of New Jersey, was born in New Bruns
wick, N.J., June 24, 1816 ; son of James Fitz
Randolph (q.v.). He attended the Rutgers
grammar school, and in 1840 removed to \ T icks-
burg, Miss., where he engaged in mercantile pur
suits. He was married in 1851 to Fanny F.,
daughter of N. D. Colman of Kentucky, and in
1852 returned to New Jersey, settling in Jersey
City. He became interested in the mining and
transportation of coal and of iron and ores, and
was for many years president of the Morris and
Essex railroad. He was a representative in the
[405]
RANDOLPH
RANEY
state legislature, 1859-61; was elected state senator
in 1862 to fill a vacancy, and was re-elected for
the full term, serving, 1862-65. He introduced a
bill providing for a state comptroller, and in 1863
remove;! to Morristown, N.J. He was governor
of New Jersey, 1869-72, and
during his administration the
State riparian commission
was established ; the Camden
and Am boy monopoly tax was
repealed ; the Morris Plains
lunatic asylum was con
structed, and on the anniver
sary of the battle of the Boyne, July 12, 1871, he is
sued a proclamation, insuring the right of parade
to the Orangemen of New Jersey, giving them
state protection, and thus avoiding a riot similar to
the one that occurred in New York city the same
day. He was U.S. senator from- New Jersey,
1875-81. He was a delegate to the Democratic
national conventions of 1864-72 : chairman of
the Democratic national committee ; a trustee
of Rutgers college, and one o*f the founders and
president of the Washington Headquarters asso
ciation of Morristown, N.J. He died in Morris-
town, N..J.. Nov. 7, 1883.
RANDOLPH, Thomas Jefferson, literarian,
was born at Monticello, Va., Sept. 12, 1792 ; son of
Gov. Thomas Mann (q.v.) and Martha (Jefferson)
Randolph. He was sent to school in Philadel
phia, 1807-10, gained his further education in the
library of his grandfather, largely collected in
Europe, and was married in 1824. to Jane Hol-
lins, daughter of Gov. Wilson Gary Nicholas
(q.v.). He became literary executor of his
grandfather, as well as the superintendent of his
estates, from the proceeds of the cultivation of
which lie discharged financial obligations of his
grandfather to the extent of $40,000, satisfying
every claim, besides supporting and educating his
own brothers and sisters and starting them in
life, and bringing up and giving the best advan
tages of education to his twelve children. He
was a representative in the state legislature,
and in 1832 introduced a bill for emancipation
on the post-natal plan suggested by Jefferson,
and secured the passage of the tax bill in 1842,
which placed the state on a firm financial basis.
He was also a member of the state constitu
tional convention of 1851-52. and for seven years
rector of the University of Virginia, having been
on its board of visitors for thirty-one years. His
antislavery views prevented his political advance
ment in Virginia. After the war he was influential
in securing the restoration of the financial and
agricultural prosperity of the state. He was
chairman of the Democratic national convention
at Baltimore in 1872. He is the author of : Life
and Correspondence of Thomas Jefferson (4 vols.,
1829); Sixty Years Reminiscences of the Currency
of the United States (1842). He died at Edge
Hill. Albemarle city, Va., Oct. 8. 1875.
RANDOLPH, Thomas Mann, governor of
Virginia, was born at Tuckahoe, on James river,
Va.. Oct. 1, 1768 ; son of Thomas Mann and Anne
(Gary) Randolph, and grandson of William Ran
dolph of Tuckahoe and of Col. Archibald Gary.
He was educated at Edinburgh university. 1785-
88, and by Sir John Leslie, who returned with
him and his brother to Virginia, and was a tutor
in his father s family. He visited Thomas Jeffer
son in Paris, and there met Martha Jefferson, to
whom he was married, Feb. 23, 1790. at Monti-
cello, and continued his studies in Jefferson s
library at Monticello. He was a representative
from Virginia in the 8th and 9th congresses,
1803-07, and while in congress came in contact
with John Randolph of Roanoke. in debate, with
the result that preliminaries for a duel were ar
ranged, which was. however, prevented. While
in congress he resided with his wife in the White
House. He joined the army in 1812 as lieutenant
of light artillery: was ordered to the Ganada
frontier as captain in the 20th U.S. infantry :
quarrelled with General Armstrong, and resigned
from the army, Feb. 6, 1815. He was elected
governor of Virginia in 1818. "serving. 1819-21.
He died at Monticello. Va.. June 20. 1828.
RANEY, George Pettus, jurist, was born at
Apalachicola, Fla., Oct. 11, 1845: son of David
Greenway and Frances Harriet (Jordan) Raney ;
grandson of William and Rebecca (Abernathy)
Raney, and of Miles and Hariot (Pettus) Jordan.
He was educated in the schools of his native
town, and entered the University of Virginia in
1863 ; was in the Confederate army from Septem
ber, 1863. till the close of the civil war : studied
law at the University of Virginia in 1866-67 ; was
addmitted to the bar in 1867, and practised his
profession at Apalachicola until he moved to
Tallahassee in the latter part of 1869. He was a
member of the Florida legislature. 1868-70 : a
member of the Democratic state executive com
mittee, 1876-80 ; attorney-general of Florida,
1877-85 ; reporter of the decisions of the state
supreme court, 1S77-85; associate justice of the
state supreme court. 1885-89. and chief justice,
1889-94, when he resigned and returned to the
practice of law at Tallahassee. He was a pres
idential elector, 1896 : a member of the state leg
islature from Leon county, 1899-1902, and a
member of the Democratic national committee
for 1900-04. He was married twice : first, in
November, 1873, to Mary Elizabeth, daughter of
Thompson Byrd and Sarah (Bailey) Lamar. who