Sir John Randolph
(1693-1737)
BIRTH
1693
PLACE
Williamsburg, Virginia
NAME
John Randolph
DEATH
Early March 1737
PLACE
Williamsburg, Virginia
FAMILY
WIFE
Susanna Beverley Randolph
(c. 1692–after 1754)
CHILDREN
William Randolph
(1650-1711)
CHILDREN
Mary Isham Randolph
(1660-1735)
CHILDREN
Peyton Randolph
(1721-1775)
CHILDREN
John Randolph
(1727-1784)
HOMES
RELIGIOUS VIEWS
CHRISTIAN
ANGLICAN
MEMBERSHIPS
AWARDS
KNIGHTHOOD RECIPIENT
Sir John Randolph (1693–1737) was a Williamsburg lawyer and speaker of Virginia’s House of Burgesses. Trained at William & Mary and Gray’s Inn, London, he became clerk of the House in 1718 and represented the college as a burgess from 1734. He married Susanna Beverley; their sons Peyton and John later followed him into law and politics. He was buried in the college chapel. His death is securely dated to March 1737, though sources disagree on the day.
EARLY LIFE
The exact date and place of John Randolph Sr’s birth have not been established in the source used for this entry. The surviving biographical summary provides only limited evidence about childhood, schooling, and the daily circumstances of the household, so those details are not reconstructed here without documentation. What can be stated securely is that this person belonged to the interconnected family world from which HistoryGPS traces participants, relatives, and later descendants of the Revolutionary generation.
Sir John Randolph built his public career around law and the Virginia House of Burgesses. After training at Gray's Inn and admission to the English bar, he became clerk of the House in 1718. He assisted the attorney general, acted in that office in 1726–1727 and briefly served as clerk of the governor's council. His legal work included examining candidates for admission to practice.
The assembly twice sent Randolph to London on colonial business. In 1728 he sought changes affecting the tobacco trade and helped complete the transfer of the College of William and Mary's charter powers to its president and masters. Returning in 1732, he promoted a proposal to replace tobacco import duties with an excise and bonded warehouse system. Robert Walpole supported the scheme, but opposition defeated it. Randolph received a knighthood in November 1732 and substantial payments from the Virginia assembly for his agency work.
He represented the College of William and Mary in the House of Burgesses in 1734 and was chosen Speaker, holding that position until his death in 1737. He also helped prepare the colony's laws for publication, overseeing William Parks's edition of the Acts and John Mercer's abridgment. His reports of General Court cases preserved part of Virginia's legal practice. Alongside these offices he served as a Williamsburg alderman and Bruton Parish vestryman, maintaining a substantial law library that later passed to his son Peyton.
CAREER
DEATH
After training at Gray's Inn and admission to the English bar, he became clerk of the House in 1718. He assisted the attorney general, acted in that office in 1726–1727 and briefly served as clerk of the governor's council. In 1728 he sought changes affecting the tobacco trade and helped complete the transfer of the College of William and Mary's charter powers to its president and masters. Returning in 1732, he promoted a proposal to replace tobacco import duties with an excise and bonded warehouse system. Randolph received a knighthood in November 1732 and substantial payments from the Virginia assembly for his agency work. He represented the College of William and Mary in the House of Burgesses in 1734 and was chosen Speaker, holding that position until his death in 1737. He also helped prepare the colony's laws for publication, overseeing William Parks's edition of the Acts and John Mercer's abridgment. His reports of General Court cases preserved part of Virginia's legal practice. John Randolph Sr. died in 1737 and was interred at the chapel of the Wren Building at the College of William & Mary. His will had been witnessed in 1735 by Charles Bridges.
William & Mary Wren Building
Wren Bldg, 111 Jamestown Rd, Williamsburg, VA 23185
GRAVE
POPULAR BIOGRAPHIES
This entry concerns Sir John Randolph (1693–1737), the Virginia lawyer and burgess, not his son the Loyalist or the later congressman. Five dedicated biographies were not identified. These editorial selections include biographies where available, with personal writings, biographical reference and related studies clearly labelled.
1. The Randolphs of Virginia — Robert Isham Randolph. [Family history and biography] Find on Amazon
2. Speakers and Clerks of the Virginia House of Burgesses, 1643–1776 — Jon Kukla. [Collective biography] Find on Amazon
3. Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography, Volume II — Lyon Gardiner Tyler (editor). [Biographical reference] Find on Amazon
4. Colonial Virginia, Volume II: Westward Expansion and Prelude to Revolution, 1710–1763 — Richard L. Morton. [Related political history] Find on Amazon
5. Prodigy Houses of Virginia: Architecture and the Native Elite — Barbara Burlison Mooney. [Related family and architectural history] Find on Amazon
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