John Randolph

Sir John Randolph (1693 – March 7, 1737) was an American politician. He was a Speaker of the House of Burgesses, an Attorney General for the Colony of Virginia, and the youngest son of William Randolph and Mary Isham. He was a grand-uncle of U.S. President Thomas Jefferson.

Randolph later reflected, "I should have been an atheist if it had not been for one recollection—and that was the memory of the time when my departed mother used to take my little hand in hers and cause me on my knees to say, 'Our Father who art in heaven.'"

He attended the College of William & Mary and completed his studies in 1711.

Personal life

Randolph married Susanna Beverley (the daughter of Peter Beverley, a Speaker of the House of Burgesses and Treasurer of Virginia, and Elizabeth Peyton, and sister of Elizabeth Beverley, the wife of his brother William Randolph II) around 1718. Together, the couple lived at Tazewell Hall, and had at least four children who reached adulthood:

Beverley Randolph (1719–1764), who married Agatha Wormeley (1721–1786) in 1742. Mary Randolph (1720–1768), who married Col. Philip Ludwell Grymes (1721–1761), a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses, in 1742. Peyton Randolph (1721–1775), the first and third president of the Continental Congress, who married Elizabeth Harrison. John Randolph (1727–1784), who married Ariana Jennings in 1750.

He died in 1737 and was interred at the chapel of the Wren Building at the College of William & Mary.