Peyton Randolph

Peyton Randolph (September 10, 1721 – October 22, 1775) was a planter and public official from the Colony of Virginia. He served as speaker of the Virginia House of Burgesses, chairman of the Virginia Conventions, and the first President of the Continental Congress.^[1][2]

Early life

Randolph was born in Tazewell Hall,^[3][4] Williamsburg, Virginia^[5] to a prominent family. His parents were Sir John Randolph,^[6] the son of William Randolph, and Susannah Beverley, the daughter of Peter Beverley; his brother was John Randolph. His father died when he was 16.

Randolph attended the College of William and Mary, and later studied law at Middle Temple at the Inns of Court in London, becoming a member of the bar in 1743.^[7]

Political career

Randolph returned to Williamsburg after he became a member of the bar, and was appointed Attorney General of the Colony of Virginia the next year.

He served several terms in the Virginia House of Burgesses, beginning in 1748. It was Randolph's dual roles as attorney general and as burgess that would lead to an extraordinary conflict of interest in 1751.

The new governor, Robert Dinwiddie, had imposed a fee for the certification of land patents, which the House of Burgesses strongly objected to. The House selected Peyton Randolph to represent their cause to Crown authorities in London. In his role as attorney general, though, he was responsible for defending actions taken by the governor. Randolph left for London, over the objections of Governor Dinwiddie, and was replaced for a short time as attorney general. He was reinstated on his return at the behest of officials in London, who also recommended the Governor drop the new fee.

In 1765 Randolph found himself at odds with a freshman burgess, Patrick Henry, over the matter of a response to the Stamp Act. The House appointed Randolph to draft objections to the act, but his more conservative plan was trumped when Henry obtained passage of five of his seven Virginia Stamp Act Resolutions. This was accomplished at a meeting of the House in which most of the members were absent, and over which Randolph was presiding in the absence of the Speaker.

Randolph resigned as attorney general in 1766. As friction between Britain and the colonies progressed, he became more in favor of independence. In 1769 the House of Burgesses was dissolved by the Governor in response to its actions against the Townshend Acts. Randolph had been Speaker at the time. Afterwards, he chaired meetings of a group of former House members at a Williamsburg tavern, which worked toward responses to the unwelcome tax measures imposed by the British government.

Continental Congress and later life

Randolph was elected as presiding officer in both the First and Second Continental Congresses, in large part due to his reputation for leadership while in the House of Burgesses. He did not, however, live to see American independence; Randolph died in Philadelphia, and was buried at Christ Church. He was later re-interred at the College of William and Mary chapel.

Randolph County, North Carolina, formed in 1779, two United States Navy ships called USS Randolph, and Randolph Street in Philadelphia were named in his honor, as was the Peyton Randolph elementary school in Arlington, Virginia and Randolph, Massachusetts.

Randolph's house survives and is a U.S. National Historic Landmark. Known as Peyton Randolph House, it is shown to the public as part of the Colonial Williamsburg complex.

Family ties

• His nephew, Edmund Randolph, became the first United States Attorney General.
• His wife (m. March 8, 1745/1746) Elizabeth "Betty" Harrison (Berkeley Plantation, Charles City County (?), Virginia, c. 1723 - Williamsburg, James County, Virginia, January 31, 1783) was the sister of Benjamin Harrison V, a signer of the Declaration of Independence.
• His son Peyton Randolph, Jr. (Virginia, 1739 - Virginia, May 16, 1784) was a Major in the American Revolution and aide-de-camp to the Marquis of Lafayette and married (1763) his first cousin Lucy Harrison (Berkeley Plantation, Charles City County (?), Virginia - Staunton, Virginia, September 1809).
• His first cousin once removed was President Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson's daughter Martha Jefferson Randolph's husband Thomas Mann Randolph was a descendant of Peyton's uncle Richard Randolph and his wife Jane Bolling, Major John Bolling's daughter.
• His first cousin twice removed was Supreme Court Justice John Marshall.
• His niece Lucy Grymes married Virginia Governor Thomas Nelson Jr. Her first cousin once removed, also named Lucy Grymes, married Henry Lee II (who was in fact Peyton Randolph's first cousin once removed), and was the mother of Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee, who was the father of Confederate General Robert Edward Lee.
• He is also related to the Confederate Generals Fitzhugh Lee, Edmund Jennings Lee, Nelson Pendelton Lee, and Richard L. Page; and to US Admiral Samuel P. Lee.
• Confederate General John Pegram married Hetty Cary, a cousin to the Randolphs.

References

Further reading

• Reardon, John (1981). Peyton Randolph, 1721–1775: One Who Presided. Carolina University Press. ISBN 0890892016. 

External links

• Randolph's Congressional Biography
• Virginia Colonial Dynasties VA Historical Society {Reference only}
• Peyton Randolph at Find a Grave