PEYTON RANDOLPH.
Upon the lamentable death of Governor George William Smith, in the
burning of the Richmond Theater, December 26, 1811, Peyton Randolph,
the senior member of the Council of State, was the acting executive of
Virginia until January 3d, following, when, by election of the Assembly,
then in session, James Barbour, of Orange County, was inaugurated as
Governor.
Peyton Randolph, the son of Governor Edmund Randolph, graduated
from William and Mary College in 1798. Inheriting the genius of his
progenitors in successive generations, he became early distinguished in
the practice of his chosen profession of law. In 1821 he became the
reporter of the Supreme Court of Virginia, but in the midst of his increasing
usefulness, with the most brilliant prospects before him, he fell
in the prime of manhood, a victim to pulmonary disease, dying at Richmond,
December 26, 1828, widely lamented by numerous friends to
whom his virtues and worth had endeared him. His successor as
reporter was the eminent Benjamin Watkins Leigh. The result of Mr.
Randolph's labors—"Report of Cases argued and determined in the
Court of Appeals of Virginia, 1821-1828," were published in 6 volumes,
8vo, Richmond, 1823-1832. A son of Mr. Randolph, Edmund Randolph,
died in California during our late war.
