Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 09.djvu/39

 RANDOLPH

RANDOLPH

liberating his slaves and providing for their colonization, vras 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 scliuol education ; was ad- mitted to the bar in 1825 ; practiced in Freehold, and 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 WiUiainsburg in the house of burgesses. He went to London in 1754, by direction of the burgesses, without the consent of Governor Dinwiddle, 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 I'emonstrances of the burgesses against the pro- posed stamp act in 1764 ; was appointed speaker of the hjDuse 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 body. 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 burges.ses 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 HoUins (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 Thomas Jefferson (1871); TJie Lord Will Provide (1872) : Life of Stonewall Jackson (1876) ; Martha Jefferson Randolph, in Wister's "Famous Women of the Revolution" (1876) ; The 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 Vicks- 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