Virginia Randolph Cary (30 January 1786 – 2 May 1852) was the author of Letters on Female Character, Addressed to a Young Lady, on the Death of Her Mother (1828), an influential advice book.
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Most likely she was born in Goochland County, Virginia, at Tuckahoe, the plantation of her parents, Thomas Mann Randolph (1741–1794) and his first wife, Ann Cary Randolph. Her twelve sisters and brothers included Mary Randolph, author of the influential cookbook The Virginia House-Wife (1824), and Thomas Mann Randolph (1768–1828), who served in the House of Representatives (1803–1807) and as governor of Virginia (1819–1822). After her mother died, she lived in Albemarle County, Virginia, at Monticello with her brother and sister-in-law, the daughter of Thomas Jefferson. Her sister Judith married Richard Randolph, of Bizzare, who was a descendant of Pocahontas ( alias Rebecca Rolfe) and John Rolfe.[1]
On 28 August 1805 she married her cousin Wilson Jefferson Cary, of Fluvanna County, Virginia. They had six children: Col. Wilson Miles Cary (1806–1877), Archibald Cary (who married Monimia Fairfax), Jane Blair Cary, Elizabeth Randolph Cary, Mary Randolph Cary (1806–1882), and Martha Jefferson Cary (who married Gouverneur Morris Jr.). Her granddaughter was Constance Cary.[2]
Cary died in Alexandria, Virginia, and is buried in Saint Paul's Episcopal Church Cemetery.
After she was widowed she published four major works: