William Randolph

William Randolph of Turkey Island (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' Randolph'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. His 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 his seventh birthday, when his last sibling was born and his grandfather William was 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 Randolph's uncle, Henry Randolph (baptized November 27, 1623, Little Houghton, Northamptonshire), emigrated to Virginia ca. 1642. It is known that Henry Randolph visited Ireland and England between 1669 and 1670, at which time he may have encouraged his nephew to join him in Virginia. Henry Randolph died in Henrico County, Virginia, in 1673.^[3]

William Randolph 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 – Randolph 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]

He died at his home, Turkey Island, on the James River, on April 21, 1711.^[7]

Although William Randolph 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.^[8]

- Taylor Stoermer, 1/4/09

Further Sources

• Evans, Emory G.  "A Topping People": The Rise and Decline of Virginia's Old Political Elite, 1680-1790. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2009.
• Randolph, Robert Isham. The Randolphs of Virginia, A Compilation of the Descendants of William Randolph of Turkey Island, and His Wife Mary Isham of Bermuda Hundred. Chicago: [1936].
• Randolph, Wassell. William Randolph I of Turkey Island, Henrico County, Virginia, and His Immediate Descendants. Memphis: Seebode Mimeo Service, Distributed by Cossitt Library, 1949.