Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 5).djvu/201

Rh Turkey island, Va., in 1C93 ; d. in Williamsburg, Va., 9 March, 1737, was graduated at William and Mary college, and studied law al (iray's Inn. Lon- don. At an early age he was appointed king's at- torney for Virginia. He represented William and Mary college in the house of burgesses, and in 1730, while visiting England to obtain a renewal of the college charter, he was knighted. In 1736 he was chosen speaker of the Virginia house of burgesses, and in the same year was appointed recorder of the city of Norfolk. Sir John is said by his nephew, William Stith, to have intended to write a preface to the laws of Virginia, " and therein to give an historical account of our constitution and govern- ment, but was prevented from prosecuting it to effect by his many and weighty public employ- ments, and by the vast burden of private business from his clients." The materials he had collected were used by Stith in his history of Virginia. His library is believed to have been the finest in Vir- ginia. His mural tablet in William and Mary col- lege was destroyed by fire, but its Latin epitaph is preserved in President Ewell's history of the col- lege. See a notice of him in the " Virginia Law Journal " for April, 1877. Sir John's son, Peyton, patriot, b. in Tazewell Hall. Williamsburg, Va., in 1721 ; d. in Philadelphia, Pa., 22 Oct., 1775. after graduation at William and Mary, studied law at the Inner Temple, London, and was appointed king's attorney for Virginia in 1748, Sir William Gooch being governor. He was also chosen repre- sentative of Williamsburg in the house of burgesses in the same year. At the opening of his career as law officer he was brought in opposition to the apostle of Presbyterianism, the Rev. Samuel Davies (q. v.). The attorney having questioned whether the toleration act extended to Virginia, Davies replied that if not neither did the act of uni- formity, which posi- tion was suMiiini'd by the attorney- general in England. In 1751 the newly appointed govern- or. Dinwiddie, and his family, were guests of Peyton Randolph, but the latter presently re- sisted the royal de- mand of a pistole fee on every land- piitcnt. In 1754 the burgesses commissioned the king's attorney to repair to London to impress on the English ministry the unconstitu- tionally of the exaction. He there encountered the crown lawyers, Campbell and Murray (after- ward Lord Mansfield), with marked ability. The pistole fee was removed from all lands less in ex- tent than one hundred acres, and presently ceased altogether. Gov. Dinwiddie was naturally angry that the king's attorney should have left the colony without his consent, and on a mission hostile to his demand. A petition of the burgesses that the office of attorney should remain open until Peyton Ran- dolph's return pointed the governor to his revenge ; he suspended the absent attorney, and in his place appointed George Wythe. Wythe accepted the place, only to retain it until his friend's return. Randolph's promised compensation for the London mission, 2,500, caused a long struggle between the governor and the burgesses, who made the sum a rider to one of 20,000 voted for the In- dian war. The conflict led to a prorogation of the house. Meanwhile the lords of trade ordered re- iuction of the pistole fee, and requested the re- instatement of Randolph. " You must think y't some w't absurd." answered Dinwiddie (23 Oct., 1754), " from the bad Treatm't I have met with. However, if he answers properly w't I have to say to him, I am not inflexible ; and he must confess, be- fore this happened he had greater share of my Favs. and Counten'ce than any other in the Gov't." The attorney acknowledged the irregu- larities and was reinstated. There was a com- promise with the new house about the money. When tidings of Braddock's defeat reached Will- iamsburg, an association of lawyers was formed by the king's attorney, which was joined by other gentlemen, altogether one hundred, who marched under Randolph to the front and placed themselves under command of Col. William Byrd. They were led against the Indians, who retreated to Fort Du- quesne. During the next few years Peyton Ran- dolph was occupied with a revision of the laws, being chairman of a committee for that purpose. He also gave attention to the affairs of William and Mary college, of which he was appointed a visitor in 1758. In 1760 he and his brother John, being law-examiners, signed the license of Patrick Henry, Wythe and Pendleton having refused. -The two Randolphs," says Jefferson, "acknowl- edged he was very ignorant of law, but that they perceived that he was a man of genius, and did not doubt he would soon qualify himself." Pey- ton Randolph was one of the few intimate friends of Washington. Jefferson, in a letter to his grandson, declares that in early life, amid difficulties and temptations, he used to ask himself how Peyton Randolph would act in such situation, and what course would meet with his approbation. Randolph drew up the remonstrance of the burgesses against the threatened stamp-act in 1764, but when it was passed, and Patrick Henry, then a burgess, had carried, by the smallest majority, his " treasonable " resolutions, the attorney was alarmed; Jefferson heard him say in going out, " By God, I would have given five hundred guineas for a single vote ! " When he was appointed speaker in 1766, Randolph resigned his office as king's attorney and devoted his attention to the increasing troubles of the country. The burgesses recognized in his legal knowledge and judicial calmness ballast for the sometimes tempestuous patriotism of Patrick Henry, and he was placed at the head of all important committees. He was chairman of the committee of correspondence between the colonies in May, 1773, presided over the Virginia convention of 1 Aug.. 1774, and was first of the seven deputies appointed by it to the proposed congress at Philadelphia. On 10 Aug. he summoned the citizens of Williamsburg to assemble at their court-house, where the proceedings of the State convention were ratified, instructions to their delegates given, declaring the unconstitut ionality of binding American colonies by British statutes, and aid subscribed for the Boston sufferers. For his presidency at this meeting his name was placed on the roll of those to be attainted by parliament, but the bill was never passed. He was unanimously elected first president of congress, 5 Sept., 1774. He was but fifty-three years of age, but is described by a fellow-member as " a venerable man," to which is added " an honest man ; has knowledge, temper, experience, judgment, above all, integrity a true Roman spirit." His noble presence, gracious manners, and imperturbable self-possession won the confidence of all. He was constantly relied on for