University of Virginia Library

THOMAS MANN RANDOLPH.

Thomas Mann Randolph, the eldest son of Thomas Mann and Anne
(Cary) Randolph, was born at "Tuckahoe," the family seat, in Goochland
County, Virginia, in the year 1768. His father, a member of the
Virginia Convention and of the Committee of Safety of 1775, and
frequently afterwards of the State Assembly, was the son of Thomas
and Anne (daughter of Tarleton Fleming) Randolph, and the grandson
of the emigrant William Randolph, of "Turkey Island." His
mother was Anne, daughter of Colonel Archibald Cary, of "Ampthill,"
Chesterfield County, an ardent patriot of the Revolution, whose uncompromising
resistance to British rule gained him the sobriquet of
"Old Iron." The wife of Colonel Cary was Mary, daughter of Richard
Randolph, of "Carles," and his wife Jane, daughter of John Bolling,
of "Cobbs," who was fourth in descent from Pocahontas and John
Rolfe.

Thomas Mann Randolph, the subject of this sketch, after a preliminary
course at William and Mary College, completed his education
at the University of Edinburgh, and visited Paris in 1788, where
Thomas Jefferson was then residing as the Minister from the United
States, having with him his daughter Martha. The young people were
second cousins, and had been attached to each other from childhood.

Young Randolph in person and mind exhibited marked traces of both
lines of his descent. "He was tall, lean, with dark expressive features
and a flashing eye, commanding in carriage, elastic as steel, and had
that sudden sinewy strength which it would not be difficult to fancy he
inherited from the forest monarchs of Virginia." His education was a
finished one. His reading was extensive and varied. His fortune was
ample, and would have been immense but for the change effected in
the Virginia statutes of descent. Few young men had attracted more
attention abroad. He received marked attentions in the Scottish capital,
and made friends, too, among the grave and learned. Thomas
Mann Randolph and Martha Jefferson were married at "Monticello,"
February 23, 1790. The young couple for a time lived at "Varina,"
a few miles below Richmond, in Henrico County, noted as having been
the county seat, the residence of Rev. William Stith, the historian, and
as the point of exchange of Confederate and Federal prisoners during
the late war. Thomas Mann Randolph served as a member of the Virginia
Senate in 1793 and 1794. He removed soon after this period to
"Edge Hill," Albemarle County, where he continued to reside until
1808, when his family was domesticated with Mr. Jefferson, at "Monticello."
He was a representative from Virginia in the United States
Congress from 1803 to 1807. On the last day of the session of 1806,
misapprehending an expression in a speech made by his brilliant and
eccentric kinsman, John Randolph "of Roanoke," he rose and passionately
resented the supposed reflection in bitter denunciation. The
calmer counsels of friends, however, convinced him of his error, which
he with due manliness admitted in the House, regretting his expressions,
and disclaiming any "disposition to wound the feelings of any
gentleman who did not intend to wound his." A duel, however, for a
time seemed imminent, and Mr. Randolph repaired to Richmond with
the expectancy of a hostile meeting, but reason prevailed and the matter
was ended. The sentiments of two eminent men, elicited by this affair,
are worthy of transmission. They are extracted from the original
letters, before the writer. Mr. Jefferson writes from Washington,
June 23, 1806. "I had fondly hoped that the unfortunate matter between
yourself and John Randolph, the last evening of Congress, had
been stifled almost in the moment of its birth;" and, in reference to the
wife and children of Mr. Randolph "is it possible that your duties to
those dear objects can weigh more lightly than those to a gladiator?
Be assured this is not the opinion of the mass of mankind, of the
thinking part of society, of that discreet part whose esteem we value.
If malice and levity find sport in mischief, rational men are not therefore
to exhibit themselves for their amusement. But even the striplings
of fashion are sensible that the laws of dueling are made for them alone,
for lives of no consequence to others; not for the fathers of families or
for those charged with other great moral concerns. The valuable part
of society condemns in their hearts that knight-errantry which, following
the ignis fatuus of an imaginary honour, bursts asunder all the ligaments
of duty and affection." Mr. Jefferson, writing again, July 13th,
says: "I find but one sentiment prevailing (and I have that from very
many)—that the thing may stop where it is with entire honour to yourself,
and with no other diminution of it to the other party, than showing
that he has not that ravenous appetite for unnecessary risk which
some had ascribed to him; and which indeed is the falsest of honour, as
a mere compound of crime and folly. I hope, therefore, that the
matter is at an end, and that great care will be taken not to revive it.
I believe that will be the case on his side, for I think you have been
mistaken in supposing he meant to try any experiment on your sensibility.
Of this he is acquitted, I find, by all who had opportunities of
observing his selection of characters to be the subjects of his sarcasms."
The celebrated John Taylor, "of Caroline," writing from Fredericksburg,
June 26, 1806, to Wilson Cary Nicholas, says: "The two Randolphs
are preparing, I see, to cut each other's throats—the devil having
made such men mischievous in society as would imbibe vice, could
only rob it of those who would not be wicked by a stratagem. Therefore
he invented a delusion called `honour,' concealing the epithet of
`false,' which ought to belong to the inscription upon all his manufactures.
* * * Nothing can, in my view, be more ridiculous than the
controversy which may eventually rob the State of one or of two of her
most valuable citizens. * * * And pray, for be assured it will be a
good action, stop where it is, the progress of this `affair of his majesty's
honour.' "

Mr. Randolph now, in deference to the desire of his wife, withdrew
from public life, and devoted himself to agricultural pursuits at "Edge
Hill," riding thither daily from "Monticello." He possessed a restless
and vehement energy—but it was not sufficiently accompanied with that
degree of perseverance which is the basis of important and continued
success. He corresponded widely with leading agriculturists in the
United States and England—in the latter with Sir John Sinclair, who
was also a correspondent of Washington. The claims of his beloved
State, invaded by the enemy in the war with Great Britain in 1812,
met with instantaneous response in the ardent patriotism of Mr. Randolph.
He was among the first to raise a command and rush to her
defence. He gallantly participated in the engagements of the sea-board,
and was soon promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, and placed
in command of the 1st Light Corps. On the 20th of March, 1813, he
became the Colonel commandant of the 20th United States Infantry, and
performed efficient service on the Canada line. December 1, 1819, by
election of the Assembly, he succeeded James P. Preston as Governor
of Virginia, and thus served by annual re-election until December 1,

1822. Returning to his farm he resumed his private pursuits, but becoming
pecuniarily involved, he resigned his affairs to the charge of his
eldest son, Thomas Jefferson Randolph, and applied for a commission
from the Government to run the boundary line between Georgia and
Florida. But the precarious condition of his health necessitated the
relinquishment of the proposed employment and his return home. He
died at "Monticello," June 20, 1828, aged sixty years. His characteristics
are thus recited by Randall, in his Life of Jefferson (Vol. I, p.
558): "He was brilliant, versatile, eloquent in conversation, impetuous
and imperious in temper, chivalric in generosity, a knight errant in
courage, in calm moments a just, and at all times a high toned man."
His son, the late Thomas Jefferson Randolph, was wont to apply to him
the lines of Scott, in the Lay of the Last Minstrel, describing William
of Deloraine:

The range of scientific attainment of Governor Randolph has been
alluded to. His only surviving child, Mrs. Meikleham, of Washington,
D. C., has kindly communicated the following in relation thereto:
"The Abbe Corria, who was sent by the Portuguese government to
study the flora of America, who was called in Paris `the learned Portuguese,'
and who was ranked by De Candolle with, if not above Cuvier
and Humboldt, spent the summers and autumns during his visit, at
`Monticello.' He and my father spent hours every day wandering, in
company with each other, through the woods and fields, and he was
thus fully able to pronounce judgment upon the proficiency of one
branch at least of the scientific attainments of my father, whom he
affirmed to be the best botanist with whom he had met in America."

Of the issue of Governor Randolph his son, Thomas Jefferson Randolph,
who married Jane, the daughter of Governor Wilson Cary
Nicholas, served frequently in the Virginia Assembly, and edited the
papers of his grandfather, Thomas Jefferson, published in four volumes,
8vo, in 1828. Another son, George Wythe Randolph, a lawyer of distinction—a
conspicuous member of the Virginia Convention of 1860-1,
which passed the ordinance of secession—entered the Confederate service
as Major of the Howitzer Battalion, of Richmond, and for gallantry at
the battle of Bethel was made a brigadier-general. He was Secretary of
War of the Confederate States from March 17 to November 17, 1862.
Resuming the practice of law, he in December, 1863, went to France as
the agent of the Confederate Treasury Department, and returned home
in September, 1865, with shattered health. He died at Richmond,

Virginia, April 4, 1867, in the forty-ninth year of his age. Of the
daughters of Governor Randolph, Anne Cary, married Charles Bankhead;
Eleanora, married Joseph Coolidge, of Boston, Mass.; Virginia,
married Nicholas P. Trist; and Septimia, married David Meikleham.
Congress has recently granted Mrs. Meikleham a pension. A daughter
of Thomas Jefferson Randolph, Miss Sarah Nicholas Randolph, is favorably
known as the authoress of Home Reminiscences of Thomas Jefferson,
and other works of merit. She has been associated for some years with
her sisters in the conduction of an admirable female school at "Edge
Hill." Among his daughters, Margaret, married William Randolph,
Martha Jefferson, married J. C. R. Taylor; Cary Anne, married Colonel
Frank G. Ruffin, a vigorous writer, and favorably known in the agricultural
and political annals of Virginia; Maria Jefferson, married Charles
R. Mason; Jane H., married Major R. G. H. Kean, a prominent member
of the Lynchburg bar; Ellen W., married William B. Harrison.
Of his two sons, Dr. Wilson Cary Nicholas Randolph, a successful physician,
married Miss Holladay, and Lewis Meriwether Randolph, Major
Confederate States Army, married Miss Daniel. The last died a few
years since.