John Randolph of Roanoke

1. Keep Your Land

1 Keep Your Land oh, never bore his ancient state A truer son or braver! none trampling with a calmer scorn on foreign hate or favor. Nil admirari. “Wonder at nothing.” The motto of the Randolph family bespoke a perspective born of station and experience. John Randolph was born on June 2, 1773, into a family of privilege and power. his great-grandfather, William Randolph, emigrated from Warwickshire, England, to virginia in 1673, settled at Turkey island, and established the family fortune in planting and shipping.1 With bricks imported on his own ships, he built a mansion with a gleaming dome that served as both status symbol and life-saving landmark for pilots navigating the James River.2 William served as speaker of the house of Burgesses, attorney general, and trustee of the College of William & Mary.3 Most importantly for a burgeoning dynasty, William sired nine children, seven of whom were boys, galvanizing a progeny that seemed to “[sprout] like so many pine trees in an abandoned field.” The pervasive influence of the Randolphs in all aspects of virginia life was likened to “a tangle of fishhooks, so closely interlocked that it is impossible to pick up one without drawing three or four after it.”4 in a colony controlled by aristocratic families such as the Lees, Blands, Carters, and harrisons, the Randolphs were preeminent. They wondered at nothing. John Randolph’s heritage also encompassed the Commonwealth’s native royalty. his grandfather, Richard Randolph of Curls, married the greatgreat -granddaughter of Pocahontas, the indian princess and heroine of antiquity . Richard continued the family tradition of political activity with service in the house of Burgesses, as a justice of henrico County, and as treasurer of virginia.5 he expanded the family’s reach by acquiring some 8 keep YouR land 9 of the best lands along the James, Appomattox, staunton, and Roanoke rivers .6 From these holdings would emerge the estates central in the life of John Randolph: Matoax, where he would spend his youth; Bizarre, where he came of age; and Roanoke, the name he linked to his own. Little is known of John Randolph sr. he was a gentleman planter and happily married to Frances Bland, the daughter of another prestigious virginia family.7 The couple had two sons before the birth of John: Richard, born March 9, 1770, and Theodorick, born January 22, 1771.8 The family settled at Matoax and led the life their pedigree predestined. At the outbreak of the American Revolution, John Randolph sr. took a patriot stand. he sold forty slaves to buy powder to resupply the Williamsburg magazine pillaged by the British, and he scouted routes to a frontier outpost near Canada. his community standing would have cast him in a leadership role in the coming revolution, but Randolph was denied the opportunity to add luster to the family name. he died of unknown causes at the age of thirty-three on october 28, 1775.9 Two-year-old John, “too young to be sensible of my loss,” would know his father only through anecdote.10 John Randolph sr. did take one action that served as a harbinger to the life of his namesake son. he expanded the family motto to include the words Fari quae sentias. “speak what you think.”11 Frances Bland Randolph found herself a twenty-three-year-old widow with means. her husband’s will granted her a life interest in the Matoax estate , twenty-four slaves, house servants, and livestock.12 The 40,000 acres at Matoax, Bizarre, and Roanoke were divided between Richard, Theodorick, and John. Additionally, the will provided that the Randolph boys “be educated in the best manner without regard to expense . . . even to the last shilling .”13 Thus the family was as well situated as circumstances could expect. Frances was young, “the object of general admiration and pursuit,” and reasonably could expect not to remain long in “unhappy widowhood.”14 John Randolph’s “earliest and tenderest recollections” were associated with his birthplace, Cawsons. The home of his grandfather, Theodorick Bland, Cawsons was a “noble mansion” and “the seat of plenty and cheerfulness .”15 here young “Jack” found himself the family favorite—the “pin basket of the whole house”—and grew into a “talkative” boy with a “mercurial temperament.” Family lore recounts that the four-year-old Randolph “swooned away in a fit of passion” and was restored “with difficulty.”16 he also displayed the first of many life-long physical ailments: a thin...