Dorothea Randolph

Notes:

Col. Isham Randolph
Birth: Feb. 24, 1685, Henrico County, Virginia Colony
Death: Nov. 2, 1742, Goochland County, Virginia Colony
Headstone/Memorial at Randolph Family Cemetery Presque Isle, Henrico County, Virginia, USA

“Sacred to the memory of COL. ISHAM RANDOLPH of Dungness in Goochland County Adjutant General of this Colony He was the third son of William Randolph and Mary his Wife. The distinguishing qualities of the gentleman he possessed in the most eminent degree to justice probity and honour so firmly attached that no view of secular interest or worldly advantage no discouraging frowns of fortune could alter his steady purpose of heart By an easy compliance and obliging deportment he knew no enemies but gained many friends thus in his Life meriting in universal esteem He died universally lamented Nov. 1742 aged 57 Gentle Reader go and do thou likewise."

Son of Col. Wm. Randolph and Mary (Isham) Randolph who built up a large estate near tidewater of James River, and became one of the most influential political leaders of his generation. By the time of the father's death in 1711, he had established a leading dynasty and was able to bequeath thousands of acres of land to his children. Taking advantage of opportunities in the interior, his sons moved further upriver: Richard settled at Curles Neck, Thomas far beyond the falls at Tuckahoe (the first great plantation on the upper James), and Isham further upriver still. As a young man Isham had gone to sea, become a successful merchant, and lived for many years in London, serving as an agent for Virginia affairs. In 1718 he married Jane Rogers and three years later their daughter, Jane, was baptized at St. Paul's Church, Shadwell. Jane Randolph, Thomas Jefferson's mother, was English by birth and spent her childhood in London surrounded by the busy streets and docklands of the East End, before moving to her father's plantation at Dungeness in the frontier county of Goochland.

Isham married Jane Lilburne Rogers on 25 Jul 1717 in Turkey Island, Henrico, Virginia, USA. Jane was born on 29 January 1698 in Shadwell Parish, Tower Hamlets, London, London, England; died on 1 March 1761 in Dungeness, Goochland, Virginia, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

William Randolph was a colonist and land owner who played an important role in the history and government of the Commonwealth of Virginia. He moved to Virginia sometime between 1669 and 1673, and married Mary Isham a few years later. His descendants include Thomas Jefferson, John Marshall, and Robert E. Lee. Genealogists refer to him and his wife as the "Adam and Eve of Virginia."

Randolph appears to have arrived in Virginia with little capital and few connections. By 1674 he had acquired enough money to import 12 persons and earn his first of many land patents (between 1674 and 1697 he imported 72 servants and 69 slaves for which he collected patents for more than 7000 acres). In later years he became a merchant and planter and co-owned several ships used to transport tobacco to England and goods back to Virginia. He established several of his sons as merchants and sea captains.

Following Bacon's Rebellion (in 1676), Nathaniel Bacon's estate, Curles, near Turkey Island, was forfeited. Randolph assessed the property for Gov. Berkeley and was allowed to buy it for his estimated price, adding 1230 acres to his land holdings.

Randolph held numerous official appointments and offices: clerk of Henrico County; justice of the peace; member of House of Burgesses; Speaker of the House; Clerk of the House.

He was a founder and one of the first trustees of William and Mary College.

He built a mansion on the Turkey Island plantation on high ground overlooking the island the river. It featured a ribbed dome and was known as the "Bird's Cage."


The Randolph family is a prominent Virginia political family, whose members contributed to the politics of Colonial Virginia and Virginia after it gained its statehood. They are descended from the Randolphs of Morton Moreton, Warwickshire, England. The first Randolph to come to America was Henry Randolph in 1643. 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."

Descendants of William Randolph and Mary Isham Randolph include President of the First Continental Congress Peyton Randolph, U.S. President Thomas Jefferson (son of Jane Randolph, first cousin of Peyton Randolph), First Lady Edith Bolling, U.S. Attorney General Edmund Randolph, Chief Justice of the United States John Marshall, [2] [3] Virginia Governor Thomas Mann Randolph, Jr. ( son-in-law of Thomas Jefferson), and Confederate States Secretary of War George W. Randolph (grandson of Thomas Jefferson), as were the Confederate General Robert E. Lee through his father Henry Lee III and his grandfather Henry Lee II.

Historic homes associated with the family include Tuckahoe Plantation in Goochland County, the Peyton Randolph House in Williamsburg, the Wilton House Museum and the John Marshall House in Richmond, and Monticello near Charlottesville. Members of the Randolph family also intermarried with other prominent Virginia families including the Blands, Byrds, Carters, Beverleys, Fitzhughs, and Harrisons. Native American Pocahontas was directly related to members of the Randolph family through marriages of Robert Bolling's two granddaughters, Lucille and Jane Bolling. Some evidence suggests that the famous American frontiersman, politician and hero Davy Crockett was in fact of Randolph descent. The Randolph family are also a distant relative of Powhatan tribe's princess Pocahontas.

Today, many Randolphs still hold political prestige in America. The Randolphs and descendants have made one of the greatest contributions in the history of American politics.

Thomas Jeffferson Foundation, Inc
https://www.monticello.org/site/jefferson/william-randolph

William Randolph (1650-1711), Thomas Jefferson's great-grandfather, was baptized November 7, 1650, in Moreton Morrell, Warwickshire, England, a small village situated midway between Warwick Castle and Edgehill. He was the fourth of seven children of Richard Randolph (1620 - ca. 1671) and Elizabeth Ryland (1625 - ca. 1669).

William's father (baptized February 24, 1621/2) was born in Little Houghton, Northamptonshire, where his grandfather, also William, was steward and servant to Edward, Lord Zouche, a councilor for the Virginia Company of London. William's mother was from Warwickshire, where the Randolphs moved sometime before 1647, when Richard and Elizabeth's first child was born at Moreton Morrell. The family remained in the heart of Parliamentarian Warwickshire through the end of the Civil Wars, the Commonwealth, and much of the Protectorate.1 At some point after William's seventh birthday, when his last sibling was born and his grandfather William buried (both in Moreton Morrell), the family moved to Dublin, Ireland. His mother died in Dublin ca. 1669, followed by his father ca. 1671.2

William's uncle, Henry Randolph (baptized November 27, 1623, Little Houghton, Northamptonshire), emigrated to Virginia ca. 1642. It is known that Henry visited Ireland and England between 1669 and 1670, at which time he may have encouraged his nephew to join him in Virginia. Henry died in Henrico County, Virginia, in 1673.3

William first appears in Virginia records as witness to a deed on February 12, 1672. In 1674, he qualified for his first land patent by claiming headrights for importing twelve people. Around 1676, he married Mary Isham, a widow of some means, daughter of Henry Isham from Northamptonshire. Mary bore William ten children, of whom nine survived to adulthood (Mary, William, Henry, Elizabeth, Isham, Thomas, Richard, John, and Edward), an astonishingly high number given seventeenth-century child survival rates.4 In addition to dozens of grandchildren and hundreds of great-grandchildren – among whom are Thomas Jefferson, John Marshall (1755-1834), Edmund Randolph (1753-1813), John Randolph of Roanoke, Sir John Randolph (ca. 1693-1737), Richard Bland (1710-1776), and Peyton Randolph (ca. 1721-1775) – he was responsible for importing 168 indentured servants and slaves into Virginia.5

Although primarily a tobacco planter and transatlantic merchant – several of his sons and grandsons would boost the family's commercial operation by becoming ship's captains – William served in the House of Burgesses, was elected Speaker of the House for one term, served as clerk of the House of Burgesses, and for four years was Attorney General of the colony (a post that members of his family would hold for most of the eighteenth century). He was recommended for appointment to the Virginia Council in 1705, but he never received the position.6

William died at his home, Turkey Island, on the James River, on April 21, 1711.7

Although William has been variously described as a carpenter who started off in Virginia by building barns, as one of the "high loyalists in the Civil Wars," and as a member of the wealthy English gentry, there is no evidence for any of those claims. In fact, the evidence that does exist makes the first unlikely and rules out the others.

William married Mary Isham in 1680 in , Henrico, Virginia, USA. Mary was born on 10 Oct 1660 in Bermuda Hundred, Chesterfield, Virginia, USA; died on 29 Dec 1735 in Turkey Island, Henrico, Virginia, USA; was buried in , Henrico, Virginia, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]